It’s interesting to me that sometimes the local sheriff’s department seem to take the primary roles in national investigations. I have always assumed that, in the US, the FBI would play the role of investigating some federal allegations.
I wonder what examples other posters know of when a seemingly mandated law enforcement agency has seemingly not been tasked with pursuing their appropriate functions,
Since I’m just a layperson, this question is probably not worded well. I’m thinking in particular of the disappearance case involving Savannah Guthrie’s mother from this last weekend. I always assumed the FBI would investigate such a case but apparently I’ve drawn an erroneous assumption. I think there was a law passed in the 1930s to bring in the FBI for kidnapping cases but I may be recalling it incorrectly from US history class.
I’d find other examples of apparent transfers of investigation very helpful in understanding such criminal investigations. I’m purposefully trying to make this an even handed thread but can’t quite get the wording right.
Federal jurisdiction over kidnapping extends to the following situations: (1) kidnapping in which the victim is willfully transported in interstate or foreign commerce; (2) kidnapping within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States; (3) kidnapping within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States; (4) kidnapping in which the victim is a foreign official, an internationally protected person, or an official guest as those terms are defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1116(b); (5) kidnapping in which the victim is a Federal officer or employee designated in 18 U.S.C. § 1114; and (6) international parental kidnapping in which the victim is a child under the age of 16 years.
I believe I heard they’ve called the FBI on the Guthrie’s case. As it’s been determined she left against her will.
Communities have a pecking order and of course there’s jurisdictional rules. I don’t think it’s clear what happens in a particular place until we’re told by those who know what that is.
Not sure if this is what the OP’s looking for, but state Game and Fish organizations routinely enforce and investigate violations of Federal game laws. I don’t completely understand it, but apparently they (state G&F) do most of the legwork on these.
Example here. Texas has recently decided to enforce federal reg CFR Title 50 which (as they interpret) bans using aircraft to “take” fish. They are interpreting this to include drones. To make matters more confusing, TPW* stated in another release they haven’t developed any plans for enforcing it, nor have they decided on what punishment to levy, but it’s considered illegal. Never mind that every reference to using aircraft in Title 50 is about “marine mammals”, and every reference I can find regarding specific activities refers to the humans while on board said aircraft. At first they decided it didn’t apply to lures, only bait. And they might have changed their minds, but now no one knows. The latest missive (in my link) only refers to “bait”.
As a dedicated drone-fisherman, this really chaps my ass. Due to limiting back problems, I use it to “cast” my bait. I still fish with a rod normally except the drone carries it out for me. I wonder if the desk-bound “drones” in the TPW offices think we’re using these machines to actually hover with bait and yank the fish out of the water or something.
Sorry for the rant.
TPW = Tx Parks and Wildlife – our name for Game and Fish.
Beyond @Smapti’s good cite, whichever agency has original jurisdiction, be that county, state or Federal, has the right, but not the obligation, to ask for assistance from other level(s) in the chain. For local law enforcement this is commonly used when the case is too “big” for the original agency or where the geographic scope is expanding beyond their jurisdiction.
Which higher level agencies may or may not follow up on. Legit reasons to not follow up are lack of resources or genuine questions of the applicability of state or federal law to the issue the locals are investigating. Illegit reasons can be political interference, petty rivalries, etc.
Actually if I had to guess, it’s clowns in the Lege or near there doing this. The TPW rank and file folks are usually pretty dedicated, competent and reasonable, and the politicians are the ones mandating stupid stuff.
The famous kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son led to the passage of the Federal Kidnapping Act, in 1932 (“Lindbergh Law”), which let federal authorities step in when a person had crossed state lines.
Then, in 1956, a baby was taken from the front porch of a home in New York. There was outrage that the FBI had to wait a week before getting involved, so President Ike signed a law letting the FBI get involved after just 24 hours.
That 24 hour time was later reduced again by a sexual predator law in 1998.
In general, in the US, state laws are usually much more relevant than federal laws. A lot of things aren’t in federal law at all, and when federal laws are in effect, it’s because of something that crosses state lines in some way. If, say, one person in a state murders another person in the same state, the Feds have no jurisdiction at all.
The Feds do have more resources at their disposal than most local police forces, and so the locals do sometimes ask the Feds for help in investigation (for instance, a small locality might not have much in the way of a forensics lab, so they’d have to outsource that if needed). On the other hand, the local police probably also know their community and the people in it better than the feds do, which (especially in a small community) might be a bigger advantage than the Feds’ resources, so they might still be doing the bulk of the investigation.
And once the investigation is over and cops are going out to arrest people, that’s going to be all local, because the Feds just don’t have the authority to do that for local crimes.
Thanks so much Smapti, Beckdawrek, LSLGuy, Moriarty, Pullin, Bump and Chronos! I appreciate your valuable insights in these facets of legal departments.
These kinds of explanations reassure me of law enforcement’s effectiveness and also how investigations go down. I really admire the integration of the sometimes very little initial evidence there is at the beginning.
For example, I’ve been questioned by officers who apparently knew only that a male mugger had on a red shirt, a backpack and could be walking on the sidewalk. It turned out I wasn’t the guy but it was still worthwhile for the cops to discuss it with me. I’ve met a few cops that way.
Well I was inspired to ask because of the Nancy Guthrie investigation where the Pima County Sheriff’s department this week took the lead in the investigation. I assumed the FBI or other federal departments would take the lead but I can see the error of my ways.
I liked Pullin’s illustration about the Texas Dept of Fish and Game doing investigations too. That was really a nice account there!
Ok, I think the important thing to emphasize in this specific case is that (1) national attention does not a federal crime make and (2) even if it is a federal crime, or even if there is some basis for federal law enforcement to be involved, that doesn’t mean it’s not also or exclusively a state crime.
I am not up on the nuances of when the FBI is allowed to get involved in a case (others seemed to have commented on that in part), but absent some kind of interstate element to this crime, or some other “jurisdictional hook” (as we might say in law school), such as kidnapping or murder to deprive someone of their civil rights under federal law, it’s most likely a state crime only, not a federal crime.
A lot has been answered, but I’ll add some basic framework. America is a dual-sovereign country. That pretty much means there is the “nation” of Arizona, and the nation of the “USA”. They sit right on top of each other. You’re in one, in you’re in the other. Each has their own criminal laws. A person can violate either/both at the same time and be investigated for both and be charged for both and go to two different trials for the same actions they did one time.
With that, if someone is suspected of being kidnapped it would be a crime in Arizona and very likely the USA. Arizona investigates with sheriffs and the USA with federal agents. You pick up the phone and call 911 for a suspected crime of kidnapping and the Sheriff’s will respond/investigate the State crime. You could in theory not call 911, and just call the FBI and report it only to them. That’s appropriate. Regardless, because the FBI investigates kidnapping very well and has more resources the Sheriff’s will notify them early, even if it’s not entirely clear if the federal version of the crime has been committed (crossing state lines, interstate commerce, etc. component of federal crimes - things that don’t need to be proven in the State version). I would guess in the Guthrie case there is no confirmed evidence implicating the federal component yet, so the FBI might just assist with their resources until that time - but this is just my opinion (but I’m also not following that case much).
Note: If you call 911 about a federal crime they will of course alert the FBI for you. Just making a point above about the different sovereigns in play. It’s because they communicate with each other that it’s hard to appreciate the difference.