The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office partners with law enforcement agencies in many ways, but did you know we have our own sworn staff of law enforcement officers? Under recent organizational changes, the Investigations Division now falls under the Investigations Department, which also consists of the Public Safety and Executive Protection Details.
The MCAO Investigations Division collaborates with local, state, county, and national law enforcement agencies and supports the work of our prosecutors. Both sworn officers and civilian employees perform specific law enforcement-related or investigative support functions.
“By employing sworn law enforcement officers at the County Attorney’s Office, we can be a resource for our prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies, providing additional manpower and other assets to bring a case to justice and provide closure for victims and families,” said Investigations Division Chief, Bill Long.
Among their many responsibilities, MCAO Detectives conduct security and threat assessments for the agency and coordinate technical investigations and surveillance with other law enforcement agencies. In order to ensure a case can go forward, detectives find victims and witnesses and serve subpoenas. And, every employee at MCAO undergoes an extensive background check which is conducted in-house before they can come to work.
Detectives conduct many types of investigations and some have highly specialized skills. They include a Certified Fraud Examiner, experts in asset forfeiture, and those who work on MCAO’s Check Enforcement Program and the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative project, helping to identify offenders from rape kit test results. Some detectives also help our Capital Bureau investigate aggravating and mitigating factors in a First Degree Murder case.
Unique to a prosecutor’s office is our Cold Case Bureau and we have three assigned detectives who work in partnership with our three cold case prosecutors to assist local agencies in resolving outstanding cases. These investigations may even take the detectives nationwide or require international cooperation.
MCAO’s Investigations Division is also involved in several high-level task forces. Our detectives serve the community through their strategic and collaborative participation in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI Desert Hawk Violent Fugitive Task Force, the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
We thank our Investigations Division employees for their hard work and dedication in protecting victims’ rights, holding defendants accountable and keeping our communities safe.