Manhunt (law enforcement)

In law enforcement, a manhunt is a search for a dangerous fugitive involving the use of all available police units and technology and sometimes help from the public.

A manhunt is conducted when the suspect believed to be responsible for a serious crime is at large, and is believed to be within a certain area. Any police units within reach of the area will then participate in the search, each covering parts of the area. The officers will, if possible, form a perimeter around the area, guarding any and all possible escape routes from the containment.

A manhunt may have one of the following outcomes:
 * The successful capture of the suspect within the area of the manhunt
 * Elusion from the area by the suspect, followed up with plans by other law enforcement agencies to search for the suspect elsewhere
 * The search being called off, if police determine the chances of catching the suspect are minimal

Also, if the fugitive resists and start a gunfight with the law enforcement officers, he or she may be killed by the officers.

Fugitive manhunt agencies and organizations

 * INTERPOL and fugitives
 * US Marshals Service
 * Federal Bureau of Investigation
 * AFOSI
 * FBI Hostage Rescue Team
 * Royal Canadian Mounted Police
 * Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Teams
 * Texas Rangers (Department of Public Safety)
 * The Academy Group
 * America's Most Wanted
 * Bounty hunter
 * British Security Service (MI5)
 * Greater London Metropolitan Police

Public Involvement
Sometimes, police departments conducting manhunts will solicit help from the public in locating the suspect. They will do this by broadcasting a description and other information on television, radio, and other public media, by going door to door and asking individuals if they have seen the suspect, and by placing wanted posters in public places.

When this happens, citizens are advised not to personally confront the suspect, but rather to call police and report their sightings.

One type of manhunt for which public participation is normally sought is an AMBER Alert. In an Amber Alert, the main purpose of the mission is to rescue the victim, ahead of the capture of the suspect. The public is usually given notice of an Amber Alert through additional forms of media, including highway overhead signs and text messaging.

If anyone is found aiding the suspect in any way, such as helping the suspect in hiding, or providing false information to the police about the suspect, may face legal consequences themselves, even being charged for the same crime as the suspect.

Notable manhunts

 * Beltway sniper attacks and search for John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo
 * Bojinka plot, (Abdul Hakim Murad (militant), Wali Khan Amin Shah)
 * John Wilkes Booth
 * John Herbert Dillinger
 * Adolf Eichmann
 * The Green River Killer
 * Adam Yahiye Gadahn
 * Aribert Heim
 * Albert Johnson
 * Josef Mengele
 * Joseph Palczynski
 * Texas 7
 * Jack Unterweger
 * Robert Vesco
 * Zodiac Killer
 * 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders
 * 1993 CIA shootings
 * 2001 anthrax attacks
 * Maurice Clemmons, see also Lakewood shootings
 * Barry Prudom
 * Raoul Moat
 * Malcolm Naden

Bombing suspects

 * Abu Ali al-Harithi
 * Centennial Olympic Park bombing, (Eric Robert Rudolph)
 * Theodore Kaczynski (Unabomber)
 * Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
 * Location of Osama bin Laden
 * Oklahoma City bombing, (Terry Nichols)
 * Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
 * Pan Am Flight 73, (Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini)
 * Pan Am Flight 103
 * TWA Flight 847
 * 1993 World Trade Center bombing, (Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Rahman Yasin)

Prison escapees

 * Mecklenburg Correctional Center escapees from Death Row
 * Charles Victor Thompson
 * Mas Selamat bin Kastari
 * Radovan Karadzic see Arrest of Radovan Karadžić
 * Ratko Mladic
 * Goran Hadzic
 * Ante Gotovina
 * Aafia Siddiqui
 * Clark Rockefeller
 * 2010 jail break in Mohave County, Arizona
 * Operation Crevice
 * Operation Kratos
 * Project Coronado targeted members of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. On October 22, 2009, U.S. federal authorities announced the results of a four-year investigation into the operations of La Familia Michoacana in the United States dubbed Project Coronado. It was the largest U.S. raid ever against Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S. In more than 19 different states, 303 individuals were taken into custody in a coordinated effort by local, state, and federal law enforcement over a two-day period.

Famous fictional manhunts

 * The Federal manhunt for George Foyet in the FBI Crime Drama Criminal Minds
 * The national manhunt for John Thomas Macarill in the novela Paint it Black by Vincent McConnell
 * The manhunt for an assassin known as The Jackal in Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal.
 * The cross-country manhunt for the Fox River 8 in the second season of Prison Break.
 * The state-wide manhunt for Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive.
 * The manhunt for Robert "Butch" Haynes (Kevin Costner) in Clint Eastwood's "A Perfect World" (1993).
 * The cross-country manhunt for Mark Schereden in U.S. Marshals.
 * The manhunt throughout California for Adrian Monk in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Is On The Run."
 * The city-wide manhunt for Henry Darius in the CSI: NY episode "Manhattan Manhunt."
 * The nationwide manhunt for Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002).
 * The international manhunt for Dr. Hannibal Lector in both The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.
 * The manhunt for escaped prisoner/wizard Sirius Black in the Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
 * The cross-country manhunts for Benjamin Gates in the films National Treasure, after he stole the Declaration of Independence, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets, after he kidnapped the President of the United States.