Section Fourshare a strong desire to solve murders.^16 This is consistent with
research on teams, noted earlier, which shows that in order for
teams to be effective, they must have a compelling purpose.
Many of the murders occur in an inner-city area in which
there is a trend toward the killing of strangers. When a murder
case is assigned to the squad, a team of approximately 8 to 10
detectives works 28 consecutive days on the case, going home
only to sleep. While normal working hours are 8:00 A.M. to
4:00 P.M., teams are called back to work any time a murder
occurs, and they may work for 24 consecutive hours. The
teams are racially mixed and consist mostly of men, although
there are some female members. Like most teams, there are
members who make unique contributions. For example, a team
may have a member who is a master interrogator. Because the
teams stay on the job, there is continuity of effort and a
continuous flow of information within the team. As a result,
leads do not fall through the cracks as easily as they do when
detectives work independently. Finally, as with many teams,
the work of the teams is stressful, and the detectives often use
humor and play practical jokes on one another to break the
tension.^17