This article identifies the components of the Fugitive Task Force (FTF) organized by the FBI and the Utah State Department of Corrections to apprehend fugitives and suggests how these components might improve the operation of other types of task forces.
Administrative oversight of the FTF remained the responsibility of one FBI supervisory special agent (SSA), who dealt directly with the heads of the participating agencies. The SSA coordinated with a second agent responsible for the division of labor and daily administrative management of the group. Functionally, unit members worked on their own department's pool of arrest warrants, prioritized cases, and opened investigations within the task force. Below this level of supervision, FTF members maintained individual responsibility for specific duties, including gathering intelligence information, tactical planning, operating computer systems, conducting surveillances, and making interstate contacts, as well as maintaining investigative caseloads, spread equally within the unit. All members were investigators who held no other formal rank in their departments. Although the FBI had administrative oversight, no supervisory positions existed within the task force. Attempts to limit a hierarchy of command and control provided an atmosphere of equal commitment and cooperation and required that each participating agency carefully select only those officers who could work in such a group situation. Built on a participative management premise, the FTF approach limited the competitive influences of individual departments from inside and outside the unit by allowing the group to function without the typical oversight of department administrators or immediate control of line supervisors. This organizational strategy proved effective in maximizing the efficiency and productivity of the task force, as evidenced by the arrest of fugitives in Utah, throughout the United States, and across international borders--more than 700 total--within a year after the FTF's inception. Implications are drawn for the development of other kinds of task forces. 2 notes