Suppose that there was a series of murders, all in the same city, and the police began to suspect that they had a serial killer on their hands. Would they be obliged to turn the case over the most local FBI office - in this case it’d be Boston if crimes occured in NH - when they realized that the murders might be connected, or could they continue to investigate on their own?
standard disclaimer: I’m not planning to kill any (flesh and blood) people
I don’t know if there is a general practice regarding the involvement of police in investigation of serial killers (versus FBI), but I remember seeing a TV crime show about the involvement of the police in catching the BTK killer. Wikipedia seems to corroborate the involvement of the police in solving the BTK case (NB: Wikipedia is not authoritative; it’s only a starting point for further research).
In general, the FBI gets involved if there has been a federal crime or if the crimes cross state lines. In some cases, local police might ask the FBI for help in certain areas of expertise, like psychological profiling or advanced forensic techniques. But I’d wager most serial killers have been arrested without the FBI’s involvement. Arthur Shawcross is one that comes to mind. David Berkowitz is another.
Why would they be obligated? Murder is a local (state) crime, not a Federal crime. No obligation at all. Often, local police departments will ask the FBI for help, especially as the FBI has resources a local police department doesn’t. But they don’t have to. Indeed, I don’t know if the FBI can even participate at all until they are asked.
The DC area serial killer case was run by a local chief of police with FBI help.
It’s not that simple. There is a federal murder statute, of course, so murder is not just a state crime.
Federal jurisdiction for murder is not difficult to get, either. If you use any instrumentality of interstate commerce as part of the crime, the feds can get jurisdiction. If the killed used the internet to locate a victim, if he made a a phone call, if he drove on the interstate (theoretical), etc., the criminal can be prosecuted by the DOJ.
Furthermore, the person can be tried in both federal and state court for the same murder. Usually, with a suspected serial killer (or kidnapping, etc), the FBI will get involved simply to increase the number of people working on the case and to better gather evidence. The FBI doesn’t need jurisdiction to investigate, for the most part.
However, unlike TV, the feds can’t come in and take over a case. That’s pretty much Hollywood bullshit. The state would obviously retain its own jurisdiction. Neither does local enforcement turn cases over unless it is something specific, like an espionage case. Murder isn’t one of those types of things.
Cite, please. I don’t mean this as a smart-ass remark; I simply wish to know to what you refer.
Until there’s some reason for federal jurisdiction, all the FBI can do is assist the local police: They can’t do the actual work of finding the perp themselves. There’s certainly no requirement that they get involved.
There may be other relevant sections, but here is what I found by google
18 U.S.C. § 1111
Tim McVeigh was convicted under the Federal murder statute because he killed federal employees.
I would hope they would investigate it. Usually with a suspected serial killer they will call in the profilers and release what they know to the public. Also the police will sometimes call in the feds for help. The importance of catching the killer within the first few days seems to be the goal. It really takes good forensics and cooperation to catch these types so they need fresh crime scenes and DNA.
They recently caught a NH man that was going down to Massachusetts to kill prostitutes on a regular basis. If it wasn’t for good police work this man would never have been caught. He was a quiet IT professional and had a live in gf.
Serial murder is investigated by the authority in the jurisdiction in which the crime is committed. If a series of related murders all fall within a single jurisdiction, the police department and/or the sheriff’s office will handle the investigation. If the crimes span county lines, then the state authority, like Georgia Bureau of Investigation or Florida Department of Law Enforcement is invoked and what agency will coordinate the efforts of investigators in all the impacted cities or counties. If the crimes span across state boundaries (or occur on federal land), then the FBI gains jurisdiction. The FBI can and often is asked in to consult on more localized crimes because of resources and experience.
Do any of you enjoy watching The First 48? It’s my favorite reality investigation show.
In one episode, Kansas City MO homicide investigators find two dead prostitutes, and begin to conduct a normal investigation. Soon thereafter, more bodies are found, the lead investigator decides that his team of seven won’t be able to handle the case all by themselves, and he calls in for outside help, including support from the FBI. However, he remains the lead investigator throughout the case.
To watch the entire episode from the beginning:
Or, to skip to the part where the investigation expands in scope, go to the 8:50 mark in Part 2, and then the beginning of Part 3:
Local law can ask for help from the FBI and vice versa. But in reality both the local law and FBI are so busy they don’t jump to give help to their fellow officers or agents without good reason.
The best case example would be the DC Sniper murders which fell across Virgina, Maryland and DC for a lot of local and federal involvement
Note that this, the general federal murder statute, applies only to the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction, which is defined at 18 U.S.C. § 7. I don’t know of any authority for the other bases of jurisdiction claimed by ivn1188, although I haven’t researched the matter.
So in summary this thread more or less confirmed that the FBI swooping in to steal cases is a fictional convention (see also: this week’s episode of Castle) not reality.
Being this is the case, police in real life need only worry about FBI taking over if:
a. crimes are committed in multiple states.
b. the muders are subject to the federal murder statute, which seems to be limited to killing federal employees
c. ? Is there any other reason?