Occult Crime Unit?

[RookieWannabe]

I was watching The 1st 48 the other night (on A&E, in case you want to
know). The show pretty much follows around detectives for the first 48 hours
of a homicide. Anyways, on this one particular episode (that happened in
Miami), they found a guy murdered in his house. Apparently there was some
pretty obvious occult rituals being carried out there, which is when they brought in a few guys to help them with their investigation (yes, these guys were cops that worked within the department). If I recall, they said they were in the occult crime unit / riualistic crime unit (one of those). I have heard that the F.B.I. does some of this stuff in their behaviorial science unit, but never heard of an actual unit deticated to this at police level. It all sounded a little to good to be true / X-File-ish to me, but now that I know that this kind of thing exists it sounds like an awesome unit to work in. I guess my question is how prominate is this unit? Has anyone even heard of it? If there's anyone out there that does this or knows someone who does, then what's it like to work within that? / What kind of degree or other areas of study would you need to get into this kind of feild? Is there any good websites out there that relate to this kind of thing? Thanks! :D

[MOCOP]

There are courses that deal with certain types of Occult/Ritual Crimes or Connected Crimes. Satanism, West Indian Religions etc. Miami I believe and maybe some other major departments have investigators dedicated to these types of crime.

Having a unit dedicated will largely depend on the demographics and frequency of those types of crime. Miami runs into alot of Santa Ria and Palo Mayambo,Voodoo and others that leave overtones at crime scenes.

[Star]

Has anyone even heard of it? If there's anyone out there that does this or knows someone who does, then what's it like to work within that? / What kind of degree or other areas of study would you need to get into this kind of feild? Is there any good websites out there that relate to this kind of thing? Thanks! :D

Yes, I have and I loved it, although it can be pretty scary stuff at times! I worked in Dade County (Miami) as well as, a two year temporary position with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on it. It's mostly big in places that have a lot of that sort of activity and believe it or not, there are quite a few places that do. In Miami, it's Santeria, Voodoo and Black Magick and they are damn serious about it. There is a Haitian community in Miami that has an arch of skulls at the entrance. I'm quite sure they aren't real but they look pretty convincing. When I worked there, the police only went in with several back ups and it wasn't a regular patrol area. Rastafarians don't particulary care for the white man and especially not a cop since Ganja (marijuana) is their "wisdom weed". Then we ran off "Prince Vandercar" who thought he was a Warlock even though anyone involved in witchcraft knows there is no such thing. He had the faces of all of his followers engraved in stone around the base of his house and a cat's brain on display in his front yard in a glass dome. I went to one of his covent meetings dressed in black and he pointed at me in the back of the room and said I was an "unbeliever". Needless to say, I promptly left and yes, it scared the hell out of me. LOL!

Anyway, I learned a lot about occult crimes. I've taught quite a few classes to highschool students who have no idea what they are getting into when they get into that stuff. It's very bad news. Even something as innocent as Pagans or Wicca can be drawn to the darkworld and it does exist. I really didn't think that stuff was anything until I worked around it. It's bad!

[Menace]

Well, all I can talk about for my department. We don't have one. Nor are there any plans to have one in the near future. But we aren't a giant Metropolitan department like Miami and don't have the influx of cultures that have ritualistic issues.

And rookie, would you do me a personal favor? Would you please attempt to spell check your posts? If you want to be a cop, you are going to need to learn that poor spelling reflects poorly on your reports, evaluations, etc...just an FYI

[RookieWannabe]

Sounds like some pretty serious stuff. Yeah, I've seen and heard a lot about these kind of things and it dosen't really sound like anything to mess around with. I know a lot of people who take the occult and satanism as a joke. Not me. But personally I belive that being an investigator in this feild sounds, at the very least, interesting.