Atlanta, GA – Thank you, Attorney General
Mukasey. We are pleased to support your vision of
reducing violent crime in America.
Also
with us on the podium today is Chief Deputy U.S.
Marshal William Fallon, who served as National
Commander of Operation FALCON this year.
I am
also pleased Chief of Police Mark Marshall from the
International Association of Chiefs of Police and
Sheriff John Cary Bittick of the National Sheriffs’
Association have joined us today. Please accept our
thanks and appreciation on behalf of the nearly
5,000 state and local police officers and deputy
sheriffs from the 1,617 agencies that partnered with
the Marshals Service to accomplish this enormous
task. This was truly a joint effort.
Throughout this room are other dedicated
representatives from some of the law enforcement
agencies that helped make this operation so
successful – I thank them for their incredible
cooperation.
FALCON
stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized
Nationally. This was indeed a unified national
effort with a local focus.
By using
our authority to swear-in local law enforcement
officers as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals, we were
able to navigate the jurisdictional barriers
criminals often hide behind. In short, we leveled
the playing field.
We could
say June was not only the beginning of summer but it
was the hottest month on record for those who have
chosen to run from the law, leaving victims in their
wake.
Over the
course of the FALCON operation conducted across
America during the month of June, we successfully
apprehended 19,380 fugitives, removing them from the
streets and bringing justice to the many victims of
violent crime that were affected by these
individuals. In the process, we cleared over 25,000
warrants.
I want
to emphasize here that the fugitives arrested were
among the most dangerous, and in many instances had
been identified by local police and sheriff’s
departments as their “Most Wanted.”
In fact,
the fugitives arrested in FALCON this year had a
collective total of nearly 94,000 prior arrests.
These individuals included 388 gang members; more
than 1,000 sex offenders; 161 individuals wanted for
homicide; and more than 6,000 who were wanted on
narcotics charges.
Local
communities are safer today because of the hard
working men and women of the U.S. Marshals Service
and our partner law enforcement agencies. When one
thinks of homeland security, we cannot ignore the
threat that comes from violent offenders who plague
our communities.
For
example, Brian Kendrick, one of our FALCON 15 most
significant apprehensions, is no longer a threat to
our society. He is accused of shooting a pregnant
bank teller in Indiana, senselessly killing the
twins she was carrying, and fleeing the scene.
FALCON officers arrested Kendrick, and their mother
will hopefully find some peace in knowing the man
accused of killing her twins will face justice.
Accused
sex offender Ronald Keith Woods II, another of our
FALCON 15, can no longer terrorize his young victim
in West Virginia. Perhaps now the victim can begin
to live life as a child should, knowing her accused
molester is facing charges of sexual abuse.
As the
Attorney General stated, this is the single-most
productive fugitive apprehension effort in U.S.
history. Today, there are 1,096 sex offenders,
including 448 unregistered sex offenders, behind
bars, no longer able to harm innocent victims,
especially our children.
With 161
murder suspects were taken off the streets – some of
them when arrest teams grabbed them during 5 a.m.
wake-up calls – Operation FALCON truly made a
difference. Gang members and drug dealers were taken
out of crime-ridden neighborhoods – allowing law
abiding citizens to come out of their homes without
the worry of being victimized.
But our
job is not complete and while this FALCON operation
may have ended, right now Deputy U.S. Marshals and
their local counterparts are making our cities and
communities safe by continuing the pursuit of
fugitives.
Finally,
I want to assure fugitives who are still on the run
– and I pledge to their victims – that the U.S.
Marshals Service and our law enforcement partners
will continue to hunt you down and bring you to
justice.
Thank
you. We will now answer any questions you may have.
For more information about Operation FALCON, visit
http://www.usmarshals.gov/falcon08/media.htm.
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