Jurisdiction question

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  • Jurisdiction question

    This may be difficult to answer but here goes...

    Someone commits a hit and run in one police jurisdiction and then continues into another jurisdiction and, an hour later, commits another crime there and then continues to a third jurisdiction and does the same. In other words an ongoing and moving crime spree that doesn't cross state lines.

    Who would be the lead investigator on such a case? Would it be a detective from the PD of the initial crime? If so, can PD investigators continue to track criminals into other jurisdictions? Or would a higher body be called in once the second crime was committed?

  • #2
    Re: Jurisdiction question

    There are often lots more variables here, and it can depend of the state where this is happened. For example, you can have country prosecutors, while within that county you have different cities/townships/towns and each may have its own PD. So if your situation is happening within one county, at some point no matter which PDs are involved, they will all have to take their evidence to a single DA's office.

    I believe in many states that local police officers are sworn as state law enforcement officers, so they have jurisdiction even outside their PS's area. Also, PDs have inter-departmental agreements to handle these sorts of things.

    Now, all that said (and even more could be said), at the outset each PD investigates any crime w/in its jurisdiction. And then they work it out if they decide to investigate cooperatively.

    Part of this depends on the nature of the crime in each jurisdiction. If each crime is a murder, then they might well do it task-force style. OTOH, if the first crime is hit & run, the second one is armed robbery, and the third is murder, the PD district where the murder happened might just take the lead - though still per some standing agreement.

    If this is really important to your story, and it takes place in a particular set of cities/towns, you might call one of the PDs there and ask.

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    • #3
      Re: Jurisdiction question

      I would guess state police would coordinate with locals.

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      • #4
        Re: Jurisdiction question

        I worked Federal, so there is a bit of a variable here, but I always took one key element away from our FEMA training. Whatever department has the biggest purse strings is in charge of a scene. (That's not snide takeaway, that's a specific key to the training). It's a lesson I took across all elements of bureaucracy. Unless there was a specific pissing war on jurisdiction, ie border security, the biggest wallet always took charge. Even in investigations.

        While there are always outliers, that is always a good, believable rule of thumb.

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        • #5
          Re: Jurisdiction question

          Thanks for the responses, all.

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