Thread: State DOC Fugitive Specialists

Just out of curiousity mostly, but what State Corrections Departments have fugitive investigators? I know Minnesota does (DOC OSI), California (DOC SSU), New Jersey, and maybe Georgia.

Anyone else?

Any of these gigs hire non-DOC folks, or is it all from inside the joints?

Thanks!

Illinois Department of Corrections has a fugative apprehension unit. It is hard to get into and most, if not all of the Agents started out as Correctional Officers or Parole Agents.

Oregon DOC has fugitive investigators (Inspectors) in their Office of Inspector General. There are 3 levels of Inspectors within their IG, and I believe the fugitive investigators are level 2 (with admin investigations being level 1 and criminal/internal investigations being level 3). Seemed like a good outfit when I interviewed with them (about 4 years ago), and they do hire from outside DOC although vacancies are few and far between.

I believe the OIG for Corrections in FL also has jurisdiction to investigate escapes, but I don't know if any of their inspectors are dedicated to fugitive operations. Their IG also hires outside the department.

Arizona DOC has a unit for this, made up of POST-certified Special Investigators. They work in conjunction with the Parole division and do fugitive investigation and warrant service.

Ditto NYSDOC. Full time fugitive unit made up mostly of COs with some Parole Officers in the mix.

Originally Posted by JimSpoor

Ditto NYSDOC. Full time fugitive unit made up mostly of COs with some Parole Officers in the mix.

Does NYS still have Warrant Officers? That was a great position from everything I heard, basically nothing but fugitives on a fulltime basis, although the pay capped out relatively low and many left to become Troopers as a result. I think they fell under NYSP at one time, and then were shifted over to Division of Parole, but it's been awhile since I talked to one of those guys.

I have worked with SSU in the past, grea bunch of guys, but there is only about 50 for the state of CA. You have to start out working as a parole agent and then get selected for SSU. Very hard job to get.

CA State Parole also has teams of parole agents, the PAL teams, around the state who's full time job is to hunt down violators. SSU does more than just hunt down PALs. SSU agents do high level prison gang investigations involving crimes outside prison walls and shot calling between the institutions.

Every CA detective should get to know their local SSU agent(s). They are an excellent resource. Also not all CDC special agents come from parole. They hire from other state investigative agencies and from correctional officers in the prisons. My SSU buddy was a C.O.

I was lucky enough to work with the Region III PAL Team back in the day...one day did 22 entries, looking for PAL's...most of the other agents I was working with at the time didn't do 22 entries in five years, let alone a day, so for me, it was a great two and a half years. Stopped counting arrests, but my boss loved the stats I was bringing in...twice a week we'd go do our thing, and mostly did 5-10 entries per day. Great work.

Loved, and now miss, those pre-9/11 task forces.