VIDEO: Manhunt Resources
CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The search for Deaton now goes nationwide.
Investigators can issue a manhunt at local, state, and national levels.
They all share one thing in common; time, money, and law enforcement teamwork.
It all begins like pieces of a puzzle.
“We start out close here, in our county, and then we work through phone records, electric bills, family members, informants, and you know, if somebody leaves our jurisdiction, then we have to start kind of following them up and try to get as close to them as we can, until we can make an arrest,” says Chickasaw County Sheriff, James Meyers.
Searching for a suspect is an around the clock job and investigators don’t stop until the wanted person is found.
“Our jobs don’t stop at 5 o’clock, and you know, a lot of times our cases are worked through the night, you know, we have officers that are up sometimes two or three days at a time. When you’re hot on a lead, especially on a manhunt, you have to stay on that phone, and you know, we’re talking back and forth by a radio, or by the computer.”
Meyers says social media, along with news reports, make a big difference when it comes to manhunts.
Law enforcement also has more technology and resources.
A BOLO – which stand for ‘be on the lookout’, now can be sent out faster and reach more people.
“Anything that comes across the machine, our dispatchers put out BOLO’s, sometimes several times a day. If somebody sends in a BOLO from a surrounding county, or something from another county where we’re looking for a certain vehicle, or a certain individual, we put it out to all of our deputies, and that’s updated daily.”
Meyers says manhunts happen a lot.
Investigators take each search seriously.
“A manhunt, like that’s going on now out of Rankin County, that’s like top of the line. I mean, you’re looking for a murder suspect, but it can be as small as somebody not showing up for court and a judge issues a bench warrant, or somebody failed to pay their child support.”
The Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department has worked small and large scale manhunts, including one from several years ago, when a murder suspect fled to California.
“A lot of hours, a lot of man hours, and we ended up locating him in Los Angeles, and they went and made an arrest for us, and then we had to extradite him back all of the way from the west coast, so it shows you, we can reach out and a lot agencies would help you. When you need them, they’ll be there.”
Meyers says when there is an active manhunt, citizens can help by paying attention to the description of the suspect and what that person was last seen driving.
He says never to approach a suspect and instead to call law enforcement.
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