The Major Crimes Squad of the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office is comprised of nine detectives with an average of nineteen years of investigative experience. The unit is responsible for investigating all homicides, suicides, and suspicious deaths within the county of Somerset. In addition the unit is responsible for reviewing all unattended deaths which occur throughout the county. The Major Crimes Unit also assists the twenty-one municipalities within the county in investigating aggravated assaults, armed robberies, burglaries and thefts on a case by case basis. The Major Crimes Unit is also assigned the responsibility of investigating all arsons and suspicious fires in Somerset County. We offer the local municipalities the expertise of our trained detectives in addition to accessibility to a most proficient forensic team.

The Major Crimes Squad` also works closely with other law enforcement agencies throughout the state including the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

Also of the Major Crimes Squad is the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Team. With the approval of a federal grant offered through the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety we employ fully trained and qualified experts in the field of accident investigation and reconstruction. In addition, advanced training in the field of accident investigation is provided to members of the Major Crimes Unit and local police. The purpose of this task force is to investigate motor vehicle accidents involving death or serious bodily injury, which may reasonably, result in death. This task force will also investigate accidents involving serious bodily injury when a driver is believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol while operating a motor vehicle.

In 2003 the Major Crimes Squad began utilizing two new computer based programs to assist in investigations. One is composite sketch program which enables detectives to create a computer generated sketch of potential suspects. The second program is a vehicle identification program. This computer based program allows a detective to access thousands of vehicles in a data base and customize the vehicle to match a witness description. Description flyers then can be printed out for law enforcement dissemination with either or both of the programs.