Tampa's Cold Cases

The Tampa Police Department (Tampa PD) currently has more than 2,300 unsolved part 1 violent crimes in the City of Tampa (pop. 399,700). Specifically, the Tampa Police Department has numerous part 1 violent crimes unsolved for at least 3 years, approximately as follows: homicides (444), sexual batteries (918), home invasion robberies (962), unidentified homicide victims (4), and long-term missing persons (32). The cumulating effect of increased caseloads creates additional strain on department resources as new cases continue to come in and cold cases pile up. As noted by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), even though time passes and crimes are not resolved, the caseloads continue to increase. Cold cases need to be addressed and resolved in order to maintain criminal justice for victims, improve public safety, and reinforce public trust in law enforcement capabilities.

TPD established the Cold Case and Unsolved Crimes Squad based on the guidance of National Institute of Justice Best Practices for Implementing and Sustaining a Cold Case Investigative Unit. The primary duties of personnel assigned to the squad consist of investigating and solving unsolved violent crimes with emphasis on homicides, missing persons, and sexual batteries.

Cases assigned to latent investigators are prioritized based on high degree of solvability with heavy emphasis on cases with CODIS matches, unidentified foreign DNA profiles, new fingerprint identifications, un-processed physical items, and other related forensic evidence.
Funding from this solicitation will support TPD to increase the number of violent crime cold case prosecutions and decrease the number of unresolved violent crime cold cases awaiting prosecution.

The following objectives will be achieved through grant resources for overtime for investigations, payments for private lab and genealogy testing, computer upgrades, and travel- related costs for prosecution:

Primary Objective. Increase the number of prosecutions of violent crime cold cases with suspect DNA
Secondary Objective. Increase capacity for the State Attorney’s Office to address/close violent crime cold cases