Arizona State Police, U.S. Marshals Merge

The state police and federal marshals are merging their special units that track Arizona fugitives in a move to save money while dealing with the growing number of arrest warrants waiting to be served.

[efoods]“Basically, it’s getting everyone in one room in one building working together instead of occasionally discussing cases of mutual interest. It’s a great force multiplier,” U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said.

The aggregation of acronyms brings together the state Department of Public Safety’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, called VCAT, and the Arizona Wanted task force of the U.S. Marshals Service. The merger formalizes a relationship among agencies to share information and manpower to track the 60,000 wanted fugitives in the state.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and a long list of other police agencies are also involved. The Sheriff’s Office is the repository of all of the warrants in the county, but individual agencies execute them.

Read entire article

This article was posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 at 8:52 am

---

---

---

---