The Major Crimes Squad of the Somerset County
Prosecutor's Office is comprised of nine detectives with an average of
nineteen years of investigative experience. The unit is
responsible for investigating all homicides, suicides, and suspicious
deaths within the county of Somerset. In addition the unit is
responsible for reviewing all unattended deaths which occur throughout
the county. The Major Crimes Unit also assists the twenty-one
municipalities within the county in investigating aggravated assaults,
armed robberies, burglaries and thefts on a case by case basis.
The Major Crimes Unit is also assigned the responsibility of investigating all arsons
and suspicious fires in Somerset County. We offer the local
municipalities the expertise of our trained detectives in addition to
accessibility to a most proficient forensic team.
The Major Crimes Squad` also works closely with other
law enforcement agencies throughout the state including the New Jersey State Police
and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice as well as the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Also of the Major Crimes Squad is the Collision
Analysis and Reconstruction Team. With the approval of a federal
grant offered through the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety we
employ fully trained and qualified experts in the field of accident
investigation and reconstruction. In addition, advanced training
in the field of accident investigation is provided to members of the
Major Crimes Unit and local police. The purpose of this task force
is to investigate motor vehicle accidents involving death or serious
bodily injury, which may reasonably, result in death. This task
force will also investigate accidents involving serious bodily injury
when a driver is believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol
while operating a motor vehicle.
In 2003 the Major Crimes Squad began
utilizing two new computer based programs to assist in investigations.
One is composite sketch program which enables detectives to create a
computer generated sketch of potential suspects. The second program is a
vehicle identification program. This computer based program allows a
detective to access thousands of vehicles in a data base and customize
the vehicle to match a witness description. Description flyers then can
be printed out for law enforcement dissemination with either or both of
the programs.
