Homicide Unit
The Homicide Unit is a division of the Major Crimes Bureau. The Unit is staffed by assistant prosecutors, one of whom serves as the Director of Major Crimes Bureau, detectives and supervisory personnel. The detectives in this Unit participate in complex investigations and are often engaged in locating and interviewing witnesses, taking formal written statements, preparing affidavits in support of search warrants, preparing and conducting photographic lineups and all aspects of preparing a case for trial. Frequently, detectives from this Unit work cooperatively with law enforcement officers from municipal, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
All members of the Homicide Unit, including the assistant prosecutors, are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to homicides and other matters.
The Homicide Unit works very closely with the Monmouth County Medical Examiner's Office. Postmortem examinations of a decedent's body are conducted in most death investigations. This is designed to help law enforcement personnel ascertain with precision the cause and manner of an individual's death.
The Homicide Unit also works closely with the County's Serious Collision Analysis Response Team (SCART). This is a team of highly trained collision reconstruction specialists drawn from police departments throughout Monmouth County. It is supervised by several police chiefs. This regionalized investigative team analyzes traffic collisions utilizing state-of-the-art sophisticated equipment.
Property Crimes Unit
The Property Crimes Unit is a division of the Major Crimes Bureau. It is supervised by an assistant prosecutor who serves as Director of Major Crimes Bureau. Assistant Prosecutors are available at all times to provide legal advice regarding any matter being investigated by the Property Crimes Unit. Additionally, detectives and assistant prosecutors are on-call 24 hours a day to respond to scenes when necessary.
The Property Crimes Unit has three distinct sections: 1) Arson Unit; 2) Environmental Crimes Unit; and 3) Robbery/Burglary Unit. A description of each follows.
Arson Unit
The Arson Unit of the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the Monmouth County Fire Marshal's Office comprise the Monmouth County Arson Task Force. The Task Force has ultimate responsibility for and authority over arson investigations conducted within Monmouth County. The task force works very closely with local police departments and local paid and volunteer fire companies.
Environmental Crimes Unit
The Environmental Crimes Unit of the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office maintains a solid commitment to the identification, investigation and prosecution of all violations of criminal statutes designed to protect the environment. The Unit focuses on violations of the following nature:
- The release and abandonment of any hazardous substance into the air, ground or water;
- Violations relating to the illegal storage, transportation, and disposal of solid and hazardous waste; and
- Offenses which are committed in areas which constitute freshwater wetlands.
In its effort to vigilantly monitor potential violations, the Environmental Crimes Unit works closely with the Monmouth County Health Department, all municipal health departments, the State Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey State Police Marine Police Bureau, and all local police departments.
Robbery/Burglary Unit
The Robbery/Burglary Unit exists primarily to assist local, state and federal agencies in the investigation of complex robberies and/or burglaries. The Robbery/Burglary Unit also assists municipal, state and federal law enforcement agencies with the investigation of bank robberies which occur in Monmouth County.
