Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP)

The New Jersey State Police Violent Criminal Apprehension Program’s (NJSP ViCAP) mission is to facilitate cooperation, communication, and coordination between law enforcement agencies and to support efforts by law enforcement to investigate, identify, track, apprehend, and prosecute serial offenders. New Jersey State Police (NJSP) ViCAP serves as the statewide hub for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s nationwide ViCAP database (FBI ViCAP). This database is the nation’s most comprehensive and extensive collection of information related to solved and unsolved violent crimes. Law enforcement members nationwide can obtain access to this database to enter and analyze their respective cases. The database is available on the Internet a Law Enforcement Online (www.leo.gov).

In November 2008, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram issued Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive No. 2008-3, Submission of Information into the ViCAP Database. This directive mandates that law enforcement agencies throughout the state enter case information on the following crimes into the FBI ViCAP database:

• Solved or unsolved homicides or homicide attempts
  
• Missing persons, where the circumstances indicate possible foul play
  
• Unidentified dead bodies, where the manner of death is known or suspected to be homicide
  
• High risk missing person or a missing child as defined in N.J.S.A 52:17B-212
  
• Aggravated sexual assaults, sexual assaults, aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, or attempts to commit any of these offenses, when committed under specific circumstances
  
• Endangering the welfare of a child, involving any manner of sexual conduct, when committed under specific circumstances
  
• Harassment, when committed under specific circumstances
  
• Lewdness
  
• Luring or attempts
  
• Peering
  
• Stalking, not involving domestic violence
  
• Non-parental child abductions or attempts
  

NJSP ViCAP’s role, as the statewide hub, is to review cases that are submitted by NJ law enforcement agencies to determine if prior seemingly unrelated crimes have potential linkages. NJSP ViCAP investigators also assist NJ law enforcement agencies in case analysis. Upon request, NJSP ViCAP investigators will also construct time lines on offenders and/or a series of seemingly related crimes for comparison to other solved or unsolved cases.

FBI ViCAP web is a significant resource for the identification of violent predators and NJSP ViCAP is committed to furthering their mission of facilitating communication and investigative coordination among law enforcement agencies for the apprehension of violent, serial offenders.