The FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has seen an explosion in case submissions since fiscal year 2018, leaving the agency with a backlog of nearly 19,000 cases still needing review, according to a new report by the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general.
ViCAP is the FBI component responsible for coordinating with law enforcement agencies throughout the country to identify and track serial violent and sexual offenders. Other federal agencies report cases to the ViCAP database, as do state, local, and tribal authorities.
The inspector general’s report, released on July 17, found that between fiscal years 2018 and 2023, the number of case submissions to ViCAP grew by nearly 3,000 percent. The report attributed the growth to new reporting requirements adopted by various state legislatures and an increase in DOJ grants with ViCAP reporting requirements, all while the ViCAP office maintained the same technological processes, funding, and staffing levels. According to the report, this trend leaves the FBI with a growing case backlog, leading them to delay and deny requests.
Analysts Can’t Keep Pace With Quality Control
The report states that, without improved technology, the ViCAP team also struggles with quality control. ViCAP’s analysts have to manually review database entries to determine if they are accurate, complete, and meet other eligibility standards. The ViCAP team communicates a seven-day timeframe for conducting its quality control reviews but acknowledged to the inspector general’s team that it simply can’t keep up with the pace, according to the report.In March 2023, ViCAP reported a case backlog of more than 12,000 cases. By July 2023, that backlog had grown to nearly 16,000. In October 2023, that backlog surpassed 18,600 cases.
Some cases may be reported to the ViCAP database with a “non-shareable” designation if they contain sensitive details, the report states. Part of the quality control review is meant to determine whether this designation has been selected erroneously. The report states that if the ViCAP team cannot effectively sort through these potential errors, many case submissions may be improperly marked as “non-shareable,” making them inaccessible to other law enforcement partner agencies, undermining the utility of the ViCAP reporting system.
The ViCAP team does provide some training courses to teach partner agencies how to use their systems, but the report notes that the team faces budget and staffing constraints. This, in turn, appears to perpetuate the quality control problems in its database.
IG Outlines Potential Improvements
The inspector general report recommended a three-step process to address the problems it identified with the ViCAP program.As a first step, the report calls for the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) to reevaluate the staffing and funding needs for the ViCAP program and report its findings to FBI executive leadership. As the next step, the report recommends that the FBI’s executive leadership create a new plan for the ViCAP team to handle its existing resources and new plans for how it will address changes in demand for its resources going forward. Finally, the report recommends that the FBI implement more specific metrics for tracking the performance of its ViCAP systems, such as user feedback and participation rates.
The report states that the FBI has concurred with all three recommendations. The bureau said its CIRG—which oversees the ViCAP program—will begin working through each of the recommended steps to improve the program. The inspector general’s office said it will continue to highlight these three recommendations until it receives evidence that the FBI is following through with the proposed changes.
The FBI declined a request from The Epoch Times for an additional comment on its efforts to implement the changes.
