(placed here because I’m really asking about real life, not the movies)
Question for any of our law enforcement Dopers:
It crops up in so many movies that it’s become a total cliche: the local police are running an investigation, or maybe managing a standoff with robbers or hostage takers, and suddenly a couple of unmarked sedans pull up, disgorging three or four guys in practically-matching gray or brown suits. The ensuing exchange goes something like this:
LOCAL COP: Hey, you guys can’t be back here! This is a restricted area! Who are you guys? FBI SPOOK: I’m Agent Brown, and this is Special Agent Smith, from the FBI. I’m going to need… LC: Need, nothin’! I’m in charge here! FS: Not anymore. This is our jurisdiction now. You want to help? Get me a cup of coffee.
It’s so predictable, even the snarky demand for a cup of coffee is a timeworn cliche. My question is this: does it ever happen this way in the real world? I mean, I understand that there are situations where the Feds can take over for local law enforcement, but are they really such dicks about it? I can’t see how it would benefit me to piss off the local cops, who know the neighborhood and the situation so much better than I do, and whose cooperation I’m likely to need, since they have men and materials on the scene already. Hell, if I was the FBI agent (maybe this is why I’m not one!), I would see it as a delicate situation full of fragile egos, and would be doing my best not to step on any toes, while still getting the job done.
I fully realize there’s a slim chance that anyone on the SDMB has been in a scenario like this, but I’d love to hear any experiences you, or someone you know, has had in this situation.
I have a close relative who has been an FBI field agent in CT for 2 decades. I ask him all sorts of questions and have since I was a kid. He mainly deals with drug trade and international waters incidents off the coast. To my knowledge he has never treated a member of local police like a piece of shit. I believe the chain of command in situations like you mentioned is well established and anyone arriving on scene would know who is who and where the responsibility lay. Just my WAG.
I saw a lot of federal criminal cases when I was in federal district court and see a lot of state ones now, and from my outsider’s viewpoint there’s a lot more cooperation than I would have expected, especially in larger cities. In the federal courts I saw several cases where state and federal forces made busts as part of the same task force, at least one of which involved an house entry team that had FBI, city police, and county sheriff personnel all in the same stack. Cool stuff.
There is some of that. Recently there was a string of bank robberies in the area that started in my town. Our detectives ran down a bunch of leads and basically wrapped up the case. The Feds grabbed up all the information, said “Your government thanks you for your cooperation” and left, never to be heard from again. Then they botched the arrest.
Also they will often run operations in a town and never coordinate with local law enforcement. I understand operational security but worst case scenerio, if something goes wrong we show up where there is a bunch of people in civilian clothes shooting at each other. Would be nice to know what is going on ahead of time.
My experience as a prosecutor working with state, local and the feds is nothing like what is portrayed on tv or the movies. Generally (except for a few individual personality clashes), the different agencies work extremely well together, and are happy to defer and assist. One reason is that different parties bring different assets to the table - the feds generally have the resources and the locals have the knowledge of the players and the community. Also, the rules about who is in charge are fairly cut and dried, and agencies are happy to help, resources being the only limitation.
I have seen turf fights between local agencies whose leadership do not get along, and I’m sure it can happen with the locals and the feds, but I haven’t seen it.
The one consistant complaint I have, and some of the officers I work with have, is that the feds won’t step in and take a case we want them to. The feds have stronger gun laws than the locals here do, and sometimes we want them to step in and they don’t or react very slowly. For example, say an officer picks up a repeat bad actor like a person with multiple domestic violence cases and who has a gun in violation of the federal law, but not the state law. Our criminal statutes would only allow a fairly light jail sentence, where the feds could send them away for many years. We would like the feds to step in, but they are too busy or want the state process to work first. This can be very frustrating because every sentencing negotiation and every court hearing has the proverbial elephant in the room of not knowing what the feds are going to do.
Actually, on the prosecution side and plea negotiations, the feds can be extremely helpful. The feds generally have a much smaller caseload and have sentences that are many times longer than ours, particularly in drug cases. Our local feds have, in cooperation with us, have gone to defendants during plea negotiations and have said “this is the local offer, if you don’t take it, the state will dismiss and we will prosecute you federally where you will face X years.” Or, similarly “we are considering charging you federally, but we are going to give local guy the authority to make a deal, and if you cooperate (including maybe doing some controlled buys and ratting out your friends), we will not indict”.