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<!-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. HOWLED, 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 com­puter system. Brooks, who had lived at the FBI Academy for approximately 9 months while serving as the first pro­gram 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