Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI will deploy new software to update a crime analysis tool designed to help its local and state law enforcement partners solve the nation’s most violent crimes.

I’m Mollie Halpern, and this is FBI, This Week. The FBI’s ViCAP Web is the national repository for violent crime cases available to law enforcement, especially those working homicides and sexual assault cases. The tool allows investigators to submit and compare cases from across the country to identify connections and generate leads. Unit Chief Jon Holloway says the next version of ViCAP Web will enable law enforcement to delve deeper.

Jon Holloway: As we get a more sophisticated digital clientele in law enforcement—as they get more and more computer savvy—they’re going to do more and more of their analysis inside ViCAP.

Halpern: More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies have submitted the 85,000 cases currently in the ViCAP database.

Holloway: We’ve assisted and provided leads that have helped solve hundreds of cases—but we’re never going to take credit for solving them, because there is so much police work that's involved. We’re another tool in the investigative toolbox for the investigator.

Halpern: In addition to maintaining the database, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program provides local investigators with in-depth crime investigative analysis, including subject timelines.