law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...

, a manhunt is an extensive and thorough search for a wanted and dangerous fugitive involving the use of police units, technology, and 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. If possible, the officers will 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 *The death of the suspect within the area of the manhunt. *Escape from the area by the suspect, followed by 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 uses

deadly force Deadly force, also known as lethal force, is the use of force that is likely to cause serious bodily injury or death to another person. In most jurisdictions, the use of deadly force is justified only under conditions of extreme necessity a ...

to resist law enforcement officers, they are typically authorized to respond in kind.

Fugitive manhunt agencies and organizations

* AFOSI * Bounty hunter * British Security Service (MI5) ** Greater London Metropolitan Police *

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

** FBI Hostage Rescue Team *

INTERPOL The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

* Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Teams * Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety * US Marshals Service * Central Reserve Police Force **

CoBRA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

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 Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

, 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 Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

. 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

* 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters *

2001 anthrax attacks The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "United States, America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after th ...

* 2023 Austin shootings (Shane James Jr) * 2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators * Dan D. B. Cooper * 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt * 2015 death of Joe Gliniewicz * 2019 Northern British Columbia murders * Robert Card * Adam Yahiye Gadahn * Adolf Eichmann * Albert Johnson * Aribert Heim * Beltway sniper attacks and search for John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo * Bojinka plot ( Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah) * Bonnie and Clyde * Charleston Church shooting ( Dylann Roof) * Christopher Jordan Dorner * 2023 Cleveland, Texas shooting (Francisco Oropeza) * Crocus City Hall attack *

Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945), better known as the BTK Strangler or simply BTK, is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least ten people in Wichita, Kansas, Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although ...

*Elias Huizar * Eric Matthew Frein * Henry Every * Joseph A. Couch * 2022 University of Idaho killings (Bryan Kohberger) * Jack Unterweger * Mohammed Emwazi (Jihadi John) * John Dillinger *

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the p ...

* 2024 Joliet shootings (Romeo Nance) *

Josef Mengele Josef Mengele (; 16 March 19117 February 1979) was a Nazi German (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (). He performed Nazi hum ...

* Joseph Palczynski * 2023 Los Angeles spree shootings (Jerrid Joseph Powell) * Killing of Brian Thompson * Jürgen Conings * Malcolm Naden * Maurice Clemmons, see also Lakewood shootings * 2023 Monterey Park shooting (Huu Can Tran) * Nashville Waffle House shooting (Travis Reinking) * 2022 New York City Subway attack (Frank James) * Robert Vesco * The Green River Killer (Gary Ridgway) * The Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe) * Abdelhamid Abaaoud * Abdeslam Salah * Veerappan * Zodiac Killer

Bombing suspects

* 1993 World Trade Center bombing ( Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Rahman Yasin) * Ahmad Khan Rahimi * Abu Ali al-Harithi * Boston Marathon bombing ( Dzhokhar and

Tamerlan Tsarnaev Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev (; October 21, 1986 – April 19, 2013) ; ; ; was a Russian-born terrorist of Chechens, Chechen and Avars (Caucasus), Avar descent who, with his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs at ...

) * Centennial Olympic Park bombing ( Eric Rudolph) * Khalid Sheikh Mohammed *

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

( Terry Nichols) *

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

* Pan Am Flight 73 (Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini) *

Pan Am Flight 103 Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...

* Pan Am Flight 103 bombing investigation * Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber) * TWA Flight 847

Prison escapees

* 2010 Arizona prison escape * 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape ( Richard Matt and David Sweat) * Aafia Siddiqui * Ante Gotovina * Charles Victor Thompson * Clark Rockefeller * Clovis, New Mexico jail break * Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin, escapees of Alcatraz during 1962. Their fates remain unknown. * El Chapo * Goran Hadžić * Mas Selamat bin Kastari * Mecklenburg Correctional Center escapees from Death Row * Operation Crevice * Operation Kratos * Project Coronado - a four-year manhunt which targeted members of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. *

Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb politician who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal ...

* Ratko Mladić * Texas Seven * Danelo Cavalcante *Michael Burham *Gino Hagenkotter * Daniel Khalife, escaped HM Prison Wandsworth in 2022. {{div col end

Fugitive manhunt agencies and organizations

Public involvement

Notable manhunts

Bombing suspects

Prison escapees

See also