Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Criminal Investigation

Instructions

For this discussion, assume you are a special agent on this multiagency task force. You are in the initial stages of the criminal investigation and you are mapping out for yourself just how you want to go about the investigation.

Refer to the media piece Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Timeline (link given in the resources) and your unit readings. Keep in mind the number of defendants included in the criminal investigation, the number of agencies involved, and the technology that was being utilized to drill one of the deepest wells in the world by a company that supplied more than 50 percent of our oil. Also keep in mind the technology utilized by criminal and regulatory personnel in the civil and criminal phase of the investigation to seize evidence and/or document the crime scene.

As a special agent in the initial stages of an investigation, you must apply your critical thinking skills as you assess evidence, depositions, and interviews.

Address the following in your essay:

  • Analyze two of the various types of evidence gathering techniques employed by criminal and regulatory agencies with respect to the explosion and blowout of the well.
  • Describe two specific challenges associated with the role technology played; specifically, with the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in unprecedented depths for gathering evidence, new analytical and field methods, the huge volume of information generated from depositions and interviews from both civil and criminal and expert testimony in the investigation and prosecution of the BP case.
  • Assess two benefits of working in the type of task force set up by the then Assistant Attorney General Breuer, known as the Deepwater Horizon Task Force, in an attempt to synchronize efforts of federal, state, and local authorities in the collection of evidence and reports of interviews, and in the development of witness testimony.

Create a 1 page essay using 2 sources in APA Format. Be sure to include in-text citations.