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Trenton,
NJ -- Attorney General Anne Milgram today
issued a law enforcement directive expanding
the types of crimes that police departments
must report to an FBI violent crime database
to include predatory and sexual offenses.
Milgram
issued the order to beef up a law enforcement
tool that allows police departments to search
through a federal database to find common
threads in reported offenses that can help
link suspects to unsolved crimes. The decision
to expand the database came after consultation
with the State Police and county prosecutors.
“This
is another step that heightens the importance
new technology plays in fighting crime,’’
Milgram said. “Having the ability
to spot specific crime patterns, particularly
involving sexual offenses, increases the
likelihood that we can prevent more serious
crimes before they occur. By identifying,
apprehending and prosecuting predatory offenses
we believe we can reduce crimes such as
rape or murder.”
The
Attorney General’s directive builds
on a state law which already requires the
State Police and county prosecutors to enter
information into the FBI’s Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program, or ViCAP
database. That information includes cases
involving homicides, attempted murders,
and unidentified dead bodies and missing
persons cases where foul play is suspected.
The
directive adds endangering the welfare of
a child, harassment, lewdness, luring, peering,
stalking, abductions, aggravated sexual
assaults and criminal sexual contact, and
includes instances when the victims were
first contacted through the Internet.
“ViCAP’s
mission is to facilitate cooperation and
communication between law enforcement agencies
to investigate and prosecute serial offenders,’’
said Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan,
an early advocate of expanding the kinds
of crimes that should be reported to ViCAP.
“We believe expanding our technical
ability to analyze data related to sexual
assaults or lewdness or stalking can help
us spot harbingers of more serious crimes
to come.’’
“Connecting
the dots of early predatory behavior and
putting those leads into the ViCAP database
strengthens our ability to get dangerous
people off the street,” said Colonel
Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the State
Police. “Attorney General Milgram
has moved us forward with this directive,
giving New Jersey law enforcement a more
robust crime-fighting tool.”
The
State Police serves as the statewide hub
for the FBI database and assists in analyzing
crime data. By searching the ViCAP database,
law enforcement officers can look for commonalities
among particular types of crimes while different
jurisdictions can share information.
For
example, the ViCAP system can allow detectives
to look for cases in different jurisdictions
where the circumstances of crimes appear
to be similar. The ViCAP database allows
police to learn of cases in neighboring
jurisdictions that may have been committed
by the same person and may provide investigative
leads to make arrests and successfully prosecute
serial offenders.
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