William L. Tafoya, Ph.D.

The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) is a nationwide computer database and information center that collects, collates, and analyzes specific violent crimes. Located at the FBI Academy, Quantico, VA, VICAP is a component of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). Since its inception 17 years ago the program's primary mission has been to facilitate cooperation, communication, and coordination between law enforcement agencies and to provide support in their efforts to investigate, identify, track, apprehend, and prosecute violent serial offenders.

Originally only solved cases were contained in the database. Today both unsolved as well as solved violent crimes constitute the core of the VICAP database. The rationale for including unsolved cases is that the more there is to compare with the greater is the likelihood of identifying common characteristics. As new cases are entered each data element (time of day, day of the week, type location of the crime scene, etc.) is compared for similarities (unusual postmortem positioning of the body, post-mortem trauma markings, patterned knife wounds, etc.), with the core of the database. The kernel of the program is the matching algorithm, a mathematical formula designed to achieve a specific outcomes evaluates (compares) the inputs and catalogs the specific like-data element(s) in each case. The system then flags the matching elements in the respective cases. For example, Agency A (West Coast police department) enters a particularly violent unsolved murder case. As the data is entered, the VICAP system examines each data element and compares them with all of the same kind of data elements of every case in the database. Assume that forensic evidence from the newly entered case indicates that the victim sustained six multiple surgically-precise vertical, 4" incisions to both sides of the throat none of which were deep enough to be fatal and a swatch of hair 4" in length was cut from the middle of the back of the head. Assume there are also three like patterns in three previously entered cases. The second case reported by Agency B (Southwest sheriff's department), Agency C (Southeast state police agency), and Agency D (Eastern seaboard police department). Each of these cases is flagged and the lead investigator from each of these four law enforcement agencies is notified of the similarities in the other cases. This illustration is abstracted an actual series of cases in which the serial killer was an interstate trucker. He picked up prostitutes, murdered them, and then dumped the bodies along his trucking route. None of these cases would likely have ever been solved but for the VICAP system.

VICAP was the brainchild of former LAPD Detective and later Chief of Police of the Lakewood, Colorado Police Department, Pierce Brooks. His two-decade long dream became a reality May 29, 1985.

For VICAP to work effectively, cooperation and coordination are essential. If local law enforcement do not submit data to be included in the database, the possibilities for identifying common characteristics which, few as may be noted, could be sufficient to solve like cases in different jurisdictions. At the very least, new leads could result from the sharing of crucial information. Local law enforcement's geo-political boundaries continue to restrict and inhibit their ability to share information. The ability of law enforcement to apprehend violent offenders who ranges from one corner of the nation to the other are thus dependent upon interagency cooperation of the kind most is unfamiliar and comfortable with. The tools are in place; inertia and intransigence needs to be overcome.

November 1, 2002

FBI Critical Incident Response Group, Violent Criminal Apprehension Program
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/isd/cirg/ncavc.htm

Glasser, Jeff (2003) “Lessons Learned,” U. S. News & World Report, 133: 17 (November 4): 31.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/021104/usnews/4lessons.htm

Howlett, James B., Kenneth A. Hanfland, and Robert K. Ressler (1986) "The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 55: 12 (December): 4 - 22.

Osterburg, James W. and Richard H. Ward (1997) Criminal Investigation, 2nd ed.
Cincinnati, OH: Anderson. See esp. "The Violent Criminal Apprehension
Program (VICAP)" pp. 454 - 456, 496, 789 - 800.