A recent press release describing the FBI’s efforts to keep track of the victims of serial killers contains a statement that does nothing to help the already beleaguered image of the trucking industry.
The first line of the May 6, 2015 press release “Violent Criminal Apprehension Program Part 2: The Highway Serial Killings Initiative” states: “If there is such a thing as an ideal profession for a serial killer, it may well be as a long-haul truck driver.”
The press release goes on to say that “A long-haul driver can pick up a prostitute at a truck stop in Georgia, rape and murder her, and dump her body on the side of the road in Florida later that day.”
FBI Predicts Possibility Of Increase Of Trucker/Serial Killers
The FBI’s statement even goes so far as to predict that there will be more over the road serial killers in the future: “According to the Department of Transportation, the number of truck drivers on the road in the next 20 years is going to grow exponentially. So if we’ve already identified a population from which we are getting a significant number of offenders, and if we are going to be seeing more and more trucks on the road, the potential for additional highway serial killings is definitely there.”
The agency does point out that “the overwhelming majority of drivers are not murderers—but it does happen, and the pattern is unmistakable.” Said one FBI crime analyst: “This is not to say that every truck driver is a serial killer, obviously, but when we see them come up, when we know that we’ve identified one as a subject, they’re extremely difficult to track down, and the mobility of their occupation allow them access to so many different areas of victim selection and then victim release locations.”
The Truth: A Ridiculously Tiny Percentage Of Truck Drivers Are Serial Killers
Given that the FBI estimates that there are only between 25 and 50 active serial killers in the U.S. and that there are about 3.5 million American truck drivers, one has to wonder if the agency should have chosen language that was less damaging to an honorable profession full of hard working men and women trying to do their jobs and feed their families.
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Sources:
FBI.gov
Scientific American