03:32 PM EST on Monday, January 23, 2006

Frank the moderator: Sgt. Michael Kinch is here now and is ready to answer some questions. Submit your question.

Frank the moderator: Today's guest is Cumberland police Sgt. Michael Kinch, a trained advocate for the elderly who has investigated numerous crimes against senior citizens, including fraud, scams and active and self-neglect cases. He recently received a Justice Award for senior protection from state Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch. He has a degree in criminal justice from the Community College of Rhode Island and has completed the police leadership program at Bryant.

tom: What are the most common scams of senior citizens in Rhode island? What are you investigating now?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: There are currently 2 that pop up all the time.
The first is the phoney European lottery. Victims are getting these two ways, over the Internet and through the mail. The countries they are originating from are Ireland, England and Spain. They are asking the potential victim to mail $6,000 in up-front costs and taxes before they mail them their "grand prize" which can range from half a million dollars to $10 million. They also ask you for your bank account number so they can deposit the money. But their real intent is to withdraw money.
The second scam is the home improvement scam. It can range from paving driveways, auto repair and roof repair. Basically, they renege on the price they originally agreed to do the work for and then at the last minute, they raise the price and because of a senior who is frail and feeble, they use threats and intimidation to get a higher price. If they balk at paying, they threaten them with lawsuits.
Right now, what I'm investigating in Cumberland is a friend scamming an elderly acquaintance out of funds. She has control of his checking account and paying her personal bills out of his account. Neighbors called the police for help and we investigated it and found this out. We're trying to cut this off but the victim doesn't want to go forward and prosecute. We hope with the police involved, the suspect will be stop using the elder person's funds for their own use.

tom: Local police officers have to respond to so many different types of calls. Do you think the cop on the street has enough training to know how to handle instances of elder neglect or abuse? What are the sources of training?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: The average cop doesn't have enough training to deal with self-neglect and abuse cases. In Cumberland, we have once a year in-service training and we teach our officers to think outside the box. When they go to a report at an elderly person's home, besides addressing their initial concern, which is usually minor -- a barking dog or their garbage cans have blown away -- we teach our officers to use their senses to look beyond the immediate problem and to look inside the house for the clutter, to ssee if they can smell urine or the sign of a lot of animals. If they get into the house, we like to check to make sure there is running water.
I had one woman using rain water to drink and bathe in because she felt she didn't have enough money to pay her water bill.
The once a year training is probably not enough but financially, that's all that most police departments can afford.
The training is all conducted on over-time so it costs the departments about $200 per officer for this training. At Cumberland, we try to do some of the training by email and at roll call.

tom: How can people help older people in their family, or in their neighborhoods, if they feel they are being victimized somehow?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: The first thing they have to do to help is to call the police. If it doesn't look right to them, something is probably wrong. If I get a call, I will go and investigate it. If I think I cannot cure it at the local level, I will send it to the Department of Elderly Affairs. But as you can see, this one phone call from a neighbor can actually result in getting a person some help.
Remember, there is a legal duty to report abuse under Rhode Island General Laws, Chapter 42. There is a Good Samaritan protection built into the law so if there is no abuse going on, the reporting party cannot be held liable or sued.

Tracy Breton: Why are so few elder abuse cases prosecuted in the courts?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: They most often refuse to press charges. When the victims do press charges, the court calendar is such that it can take years to get to trial. By that time, the victim may have impaired memory, suffered dementia and basically is not a good witness so the case is dropped. Or they die while the case is pending. Under due process, an accused gets the right to cross-examine their accuser so it's virtually impossible for a case to go forward with no victim to testify.

Tracy Breton: How big a problem is elder neglect and exploitation in your community?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: It's not a big problem based on the percentage of the calls we handle. On average, I get about 5 a year. But the catch is, one exploitation case can have a financial windfall of every larceny report we take throughout the year. I had one recently where the victim lost $250,000. That was a larger amount than all the other larcenies we handled in that 1 year. In that case, the elderly man died but the case is still under investigation. The alleged perpetrator was a friend.

Tracy Breton: How do you think the new elder justice unit in the Rhode Island attorney general's office will help address the problems of elderly abuse, exploitation and self-neglect?
Sgt. Michael Kinch : I think it's going to be a great help. First, it's going to be one central location where police departments can call to get an opinion on an abuse or self-neglect case. They have a prosecutor, a paralegal and currently one investigator. Small departments which don't have the manpower to handle these cases now can get an expert opinion with one phone call. I also hope that that office will expand with a community outreach program and do seminars to train the police and the public about current frauds and scams being perpetrated on the elderly. Education is the key to stopping this.

Tracy Breton: How can Rhode island law be amended to better protect the elderly?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: Currently, there is a Rhode Island law --12-29-1 -- the elder protection act. This statute lists several crimes that law enforcement can arrest for without the victim's permission. Kidnapping, sexual assault, felony assault, vandalism and others. This statute mirrors the domestic violence statute where there is mandatory arrest. I would like to see it amended to add financial exploitation. This way, we can arrest the suspect which will cut off the exploitation and use Probate Court to get a guardian assigned for financial matters only. With the suspect arrested, we can issue a no-contact order to keep the suspect away from the victim until we thoroughly investigate whether there is financial exploitation going on. If there is none, everything, including the guardianship, is dropped. The police would be immune from civil suits for wrongful arrests as they currently are in domestic violence cases. I would also like to see extradition made mandatory for any victim of a crime who is over 60 years old. This will send a strong message that scam artists and home improvement scam perpetrators will be brought to justice no matter where they flee to. These changes in the law could make Rhode Island the toughest state in the country against elderly abuse.

talk: Sgt. what can a family member do to help when a relative falls victim to one of the scams. Also how often are the scammed moneys recovered? And are other law-enforcements agencies (in other countries) helpful?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: The relative has to report the scam to the police even though the chances of recovery may be minimal. Your chances of recovery are better when the police are notified because it may be a week, a day or five years from now, but we may be able to find the scam artist. Sometimes they slip up and then admit to crimes they did in years past.
I don't deal much with other countries but I can tell you, at the local level, local departments do work together, especially with home improvement scams where these perpetrators are known to go from community to community. I also have gotten help from neighboring states which have followed up investigations for me.

Tracy Breton: How is the lack of staffing at the Department of Elderly Affairs impacting the job of police officers?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: During working hours, they are exceptional. Many people may not know this, but the department contracts self-neglect cases out to other protective agencies. I work closely with Tri-Town Elder Service and they are fantastic. The problem with the shortage is at night and on weekends. This can start a rolling snowball of costs. Police departments aren't in the position to house an Alzheimer's patient or someone experiencing any type of elder issue so we have to send them to the hospital. Because we can't handle it at the local level, it increases the costs at the hospital. It's expensive to wrap up a nurse and doctor in a problem that often can be handled in a much less expensive way. Sometimes, by the time I finish a report for a person I take to the hospital, they are back at their home because doctors release them as long as they can pass a medical and mental evaluation. This problem is only going to grow, not shrink. As long as health care keeps improving, people are going to live longer which is a good thing.

Tracy Breton: As the child of an elderly person, at what point should you recommend to your father or mother that he or she needs to appoint a power of attorney?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: I would recommend doing it as early as possible while your parents or other family members are in sound mind. It is well worth the money to sit down with a lawyer or estate planner to map out their future and who's going to be in charge of their well-being. This will prevent "new friends" from getting involved with your parents and taking advantage of them.

Tracy Breton: What new trends do you see developing in the area of elderly scams?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: Because of the success of the "no call" list and the technology enhancements for Caller ID, I see more mail and Internet fraud. Scam artists are very adaptable. Just because you cut them off one way, they don't stop. This is their job. I have recently seen a trend of scam artists asking elders for thousands of dollars for phoney lotteries. I have recently notice mail scams and Internet scams asking for as little as $20, $40 and $60. The reason for this is the scam artist is anticipating that you won't check with anybody else before you send the money. When you're dealing with thousands of dollars you may check with a family member or friend before you mail it. They're hoping that you will not check when you send a small amount. So you see that the scam artist is changing with the times, going for quantity more than quantity.

talk: What are some of the success stories that you've had in the past? And what kind of punishments do the scam artists see?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: At the local level, the majority of our success stories are stopping the scam and separating the victim from the suspect permanently. The majority of the time, when a scam artist is caught, the victim is happy with restitution and at that point, the victim drops the charge criminally because they just don't want to go through the hassle of the courts.
The scam artists usually don't get caught because they do it from outside our jurisdiction and sometimes from foreign countries. Currently, I have an arrest warrant for a home improvement scam artist that is currently in New York. The charge I've got pending on him is a $3,000 felony larceny charge. Depending on his past record and the judge, he can get over a year in prison to serve.

Tracy Breton: Can't an accused be prosecuted even if the elderly victim is not competent to testify?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: You probably could go through with the prosecution if they were deemed medically incompetent but the police department investigative reports and details of the financial records of the victim have to be almost impeccable because you are doing this without a victim. And under due process, the accused gets to cross-examine the accuser. That's why we need to change the law and make it a crime against society where the police are the reporting party and the witness. Even if this happened, a lot of these cases wouldn't go to trial, but would be pled out. But at least there would be a conviction. And a no-contact order, which is something we always want.

Tracy Breton: Why is there state money for a 24-hour-a-day abuse hotline for kids but not for the elderly?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: Under Chapter 42, there is a state law that requires a 24-hour hotline and they do have a phone number. The problem is, it's not manned. There's an answering machine. So if an elderly emergency issue pops up on a long weekend, sometimes it can be 3 or 4 days before a social worker can get out and visit the person.

Tracy Breton: So if a person is being abused and needs help --or suspects that a neighbor, friend or family member is being abused, what is the first agency a report should be filed with?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: The local police. First, if it's physical abuse, meaning an intentional infliction of bodily injury, and it is done by a family member or a co-habitant of the home, we will arrest immediately under 12-29-5, the domestic violence statute. If it is a neighbor who physically abused an elder victim over the age of 60, this is automatically a felony and they will be arrested immediately and held until they can be arraigned in front of a judge. The family member who is the perpetrator automatically has a no-contact order put in place so no more abuse can occur. When dealing with a neighbor, we will request a no-contact order be issued by a justice of the peace or the District Court.

Tracy Breton: How big a problem is self-neglect in your community?
Sgt. Michael Kinch: I wouldn't say it's of epic proportions but it's a concern for the police because the problem is growing. On the beat, I've seen a lot of clutter in elderly people's home. I've seen human waste in homes because they've shut their water off to either save money or because they haven't paid their bills, the water has been shut off by agencies. Homes in this condition that we feel are no longer habitable, we call the building inspector to have them condemned as unlivable. I've done this once this year already and probably a handful of times in years past. Besides clutter, I've seen homes with magazines stacked as high as the ceiling. A lot of these magazines were sold to them with the elderly person hoping that the more they buy, the better their chances are of winning a sweepstakes award. I've had seniors tell me that they've entered these sweepstakes not for their own greed, but so they can leave something for their relatives when they pass away.

Frank the moderator: Thanks for your questions. And thank you to Tracy Breton and Sgt. Kinch.

Tracy Breton: Thanks to Sgt. Kinch.