The murderer in question only goes after crooks like human traffickers, gangsters, loan sharks and drug dealers. He never harms innocent civilians or the local police. Would the police be grateful that someone is helping them clean up crime? Or would they pursue and apprehend him like they would any other criminal? Why?
Answers (2)
A general piece of advice: People actually don't like having their jobs done for them without asking. They may accept it when it's done their way and can take the credit.
Imagine if the media got wind of this, they'd have a field day. "Heinous individuals executed by masked vigilante. Police have no lead. What's happening to our taxes?". The public would believe anything on the news, except the families of the deceased; Gratefulness won't necessarily be the reaction of the latter - many of these people may have fallen on hard times, had a bad upbringing, sustain an addiction, to reach such a state of amorality. Command would be vexed, and they'd convey the pressure to their subordinates. To them, these malefactors were innocent until proven guilty, and that lawful impartiality would be scrutinised under a microscope in this case.
Moreover, you've mentioned human traffickers and drug dealers for example - those aren't one man operations, but a network. The police don't sit around twiddling their thumbs, they send undercover agents and flip petty links to reach higher up the chain. And now there's some dude who's just annihilating their leads.
The vigilante I mentioned is not stupid.
As I mentioned in the details, he's smart enough to avoid antagonizing the authorities by not killing innocent civilians and police officers. He knows that doing so would kick off a proverbial hornet's nest; the local government would sic EVERY law enforcement officer/SWAT team, even the military after him if he so much as snuffs out a cop.
Therefore, the vigilante is also smart enough to know not to take felons like human traffickers and drug dealers lightly; he's knows that these crooks are often part of a international crime syndicate.
So, the vigilante would've collected the necessary intelligence and make sure he has multiple contingency plans should unforseen obstructions present themselves.
He will show violent criminals 100% no mercy at all.
I don't think we're on the same page here.
I'm saying that the only type of 'innocence' which ultimately matters is the subjective kind (and as a collective society). If you're going for any measure of realism, your dude isn't omniscient and thereby incapable of perfectly predicting the reaction to each of his murders. If it's anyone who has committed one of these 'major' crimes (even limited to "violent and wanted"), it's comparable to a totalitarian dystopia and that's no good for establishing credibility. If it's just the top of the pyramid or those without any redeeming qualities, I'm not too sure it'll be effective in toppling any crime empires. That's why there's a judicial system in place to determine an effective course of action on a case by case basis (flawed yet hopefully adequate).
Acumen doesn't explain *how* he's actually going to gather intel. As stated, law enforcement allocates national scale funding to this enterprise. He's trying to rival that alone (secrecy would be imperative given the nature of his operation), under budget (even if in control of a large corporation, keeping things off the books is far from trivial), and an interrogation tactic which pretty much amounts to "confess and I'll grant you a quick death". Okay, so mayhap he doesn't have to adhere to due process and burden of proof (again, this is problematic), but that's not enough.
It's a matter of norm as well. There were times when capital punishment was prevalent. Think of it in terms of your dude just employed as a sheriff in a generic western - is it so out of place in that scenario?
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Prolly a different context of meaning, but a fitting quote to include, methinks.
I didn't know the police would investigate the death of a wanted criminal. The same ones they're supposed to apprehend in the first place anyway. I'd thought they'd be happy someone's getting rid of a pest for them.