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55 FBI L. Enforcement Bull. 14 (1986)
The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program: VICAP: A Progress Report

handle is hein.journals/fbileb55 and id is 378 raw text is: 
































Right: Pierce R. Brooks (left), originator and first
     Program Manager of VICAP, and David J
     icove enter crime report data into the
     VICAP computer system.
Far center: Mr. Brooks (left) and Special Agent
        Ressler (right)
Far right: Mr. Howlett (left) and Mr. Hanfland
       (right)


 The Violent Criminal


Apprehension Program


VICAP: A Progress Report


By
JAMES B. HOWLETT, M.A.
Senior Crime Analyst VICAP
KENNETH A. HANFLAND
Crime Analyst VICAP
and
ROBERT K. RESSLER, M.S.
Special Agent/Program Manager
VICAP
Behavioral Science
Investigative Support Unit
National Center for the
Analysis of Violent Crime
FBI Academy Quantico, VA


Origin of the VICAP Concept
    On the afternoon of May 29, 1985,
Pierce R. Brooks sat down in front of a
computer terminal at the FBI Academy
and saw his idea, which was some 27
years in the making, become a reality.
On that afternoon, he watched as data
from the first VICAP crime report were
entered into the brand new VICAP com-
puter system. Brooks, who had lived at
the FBI Academy for approximately 9
months while serving as the first pro-
gram manager of the FBI's new Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program, was
just 2 days from returning to his wife and
home  in Vida, OR.


    In 1958, Pierce Brooks, already a
10-year veteran with the Los Angeles
Police Department, had been assigned
two different homicides among his
many  cases. He believed that both
killers had killed before and decided to
attempt to find out if similar murders had
occurred elsewhere in the country. His
available resources were sparse. There
was  no national information center
which collected information on the modi
operandi (MOs)  of transient killers.
There  was a  teletype system, but
teletypes were easily lost and many
were not even read. Brooks employed
a new  tact in the investigations; he


14 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin


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