It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
Law enforcement agencies came together Thursday afternoon to announce the results of Operation FALCON, an annual, joint effort between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to track down fugitives wanted for violent crimes. KSMU’s Jennifer Moore reports.
This is the fifth year for the nationwide operation to take place.
During the month of June, the various agencies jointly arrested 175 fugitives—including eight sex offenders—and cleared 407 warrants in the southwest Missouri area.
Kelly Palmer, Supervisory Deputy at the US Marshals Service in Springfield, says members of the local police and highway patrol were temporarily given greater authority for Operation FALCON.
“Each participating local officer was sworn in as a special deputy United States Marshal immediately prior to the start of this operation. This special authority empowered them to cross traditional lines of jurisdiction to track down and arrest targeted fugitives throughout southwest Missouri," Palmer said.
Approximately 85 officers from various law enforcement agencies collaborated in the effort. The endeavor allowed local agencies to have access to federal databases and resources they don’t normally have.
Greene County Sherrif Jim Arnott said the county is grateful for any help it can get in trying to track down the county’s estimated 18,000 outstanding warrants.
“Anytime we can get assistance to go through those arrest warrants, and get some assistance from the Marshals Service, along with the other agencies that participated—because we all worked together on everybody’s warrants, not just Greene County worked on Greene County’s, we all worked on Christian, Webster, wherever the warrants took us—it’s a great, positive thing,” Arnott said.
Altogether in Greene County, 159 outstanding warrants were tracked down and dealt with.
That’s still less than one percent of the outstanding warrants the county is faced with carrying out.For KSMU News, I’m Jennifer Moore.
