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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