The Baltimore Division's Headquarters City Violent Crimes and Major Offenders (VCMO) Squad is responsible for investigating a wide range of criminal activity. Among the violations investigated by this squad are kidnapping, extortion, major thefts from interstate shipments and interstate transportation of stolen property, including motor vehicles. Additional violations investigated by this squad are carjackings and most notable, bank and armored vehicle robberies.
The state of Maryland, whose population is approximately 24th in the nation, consistently ranks among the top six states in the number of bank robberies committed. Of the total number of bank robberies occurring in Maryland, over 50% are committed in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, and are subsequently investigated by the headquarters City VCMO Squad. This VCMO Squad consistently maintains a bank robbery solution rate of approximately 80%, which is significantly higher than the national average.
During February of 1992, the Attorney General and Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation announced a new program to be known as "Safe Streets." The program was created to provide assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies and their battle against violent crime.
As a result of the program, the Baltimore Division formed a Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force in Baltimore. The task force currently consists of members from the FBI, Baltimore City Police Department, Baltimore County Police Department, Maryland State Police, and Baltimore City Housing Authority Police. The task force works diligently to identify the most violent gang/organizations in Baltimore City. Once they are identified, the gangs are investigated and eliminated by prosecution.
Thus far, this squad has successfully investigated many gangs and, through the judicial process, successfully earned convictions for the members for violations of federal statutes. To date, nearly 100 subjects have gone to jail, receiving sentences up to double life terms. The efforts of this task force continue in cooperation with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
A similar "Safe Streets" component in the Baltimore Division's Maryland Metropolitan Office at Calverton (MMOC), has been created to address the most violent criminal gangs or organizations operating in that territory. The MMOC Safe Streets component consists of officers from the Prince George's County Police Department, the Maryland State Police, as well as FBI.
The Maryland Joint Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force (MJVCFTF) has as its mission the identification of those fugitive felons in the greater Baltimore, Maryland, area who have been charged with the most serious violent criminal offenses and to conduct investigations to apprehend those individuals. Examples of the criminal offenses committed by task force target fugitives include murder, armed robbery, assault, rape and other sex offenses, child abuse, home invasion robberies, and car jacking.
Since the inception of the task force in September 1992, over 2,000 arrests have been made by the task force members in and around Baltimore City. During the first quarter of 1998, 148 fugitives were arrested or located by the task force members.
The task force is comprised of five FBI Special Agents, two Baltimore City Detectives, one Baltimore County Detective, two Maryland State Troopers, one Detective from the Baltimore City Housing Authority, and one Baltimore City Sheriff's Deputy.
The MMOC also has a Fugitive Task Force consisting of three Special Agents, two Maryland State Troopers, one Prince George's County Police Officer and two Prince George's County Sheriff's Deputies.
This is a large-scale investigation, initiated by the Baltimore Division, of child pornography and pedophile activity on the Internet. The primary objective of Innocent Images is to identify and develop prosecutable cases on those individuals who use commercial and private Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) to recruit minors into illicit sexual relationships or electronically distribute pornographic images of minors, in violation of federal law. The technological, operational, and legal advances made by the FBI in this investigation will benefit the law enforcement community for many years.
If you have information about child pornography or other matters on the Internet which you may believe to be illegal, contact the FBI's Baltimore Office at baltimore@fbi.gov.