Life On a Homicide Squad

Oct. 24 -- Why would anyone want to be a big-city homicide detective? They work terrible hours for little pay, on a diet of coffee, fast food and leftovers. They have to deal with lying witnesses and an often-suspicious public. And their work gives them day-to-day contact with the worst side of human nature.

Detectives at the Philadelphia Police Department's homicide division have plenty to complain about, but they say they wouldn't trade their job for anything. They see it as a ticket to the greatest show on Earth.

"What you report, we see firsthand," Detective Richard Bova told Primetime's Diane Sawyer, who followed the division's work over a two-year period.

Bova's colleagues agree. "We're right there," said Tim Bass, who has been a homicide detective for six years. "We're in the rooms with these people," echoed Chuck Boyle, a 25-year veteran with seven years on homicide.

Bova broke it down: "Let's face it. You know, to do this job ... you want to be where the action is."

The Office

The Philadelphia Police Department investigates more than 225 homicides every year — a workload that means each of the homicide division's detectives handles about 20 cases at any given time. Despite uncooperative witnesses, false leads, heavy workloads and long waits for forensic results, they say they solve more than 80 percent of their cases.

The detectives work from a cramped, rundown office with outdated equipment and a lack of basic supplies like phone books. Equipment like flashlights, walkie-talkies and even squad cars must be checked out on an as-needed basis. "It's embarrassing," said Boyle. "What are we now, the fourth or fifth largest city in the country?"

The detectives don't even have their own desks, and have to work wherever they find an empty space. "You go to some of these other police departments, the smaller ones, and detectives have their own desks and pictures of their family," said Boyle. "If you brought a picture of your family and put it on a desk — the untold horrors that would happen to that photo!"