by KYW's Michelle Durham
It's the first day at Squad 10, the Violent Crimes Task Force in Philadelphia. It's a group of professionals made up of Philadelphia police officers and FBI Special Agents.
The assignment today: track down a "Bonnie and Clyde" couple that officals want in connection with some local bank robberies.
John Kitzinger (photo above) is the Supervisory Special Agent in Charge of the squad. He explains what the Squad does:
"We investigate fugitives, subjects who are wanted for violent felonies by the police department. We will determine whether they have fled Philadelphia and then pursue them where ever they may be -- in some cases in other countries."
"Bank robberies are another violation that we investigate," Kitzinger says.
And that's the portion of the squad to which I'm assigned. And as I head to Northeast Philadelphia to investigate a series of bank robberies there, Special Agent Bastion Freund explains how important sources on the street and tip calls really are:
"Oh yeah, tip calls are the key. That just helps us narrow it down, who we're looking at."
"A lot of times the robbers are from the general area where they commit their first bank robbery. So if we get those pictures out, somebody will end up giving us a call and hopefully do the right thing."
We spend the day going to area banks, showing the pictures of the suspects to employees who not only recognize the couple but say the male was in their bank within the past day or so.
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