CHICAGO, IL - Good
morning and thank you Attorney General Madigan. I
appreciate your support of this operation, to law
enforcement in general, and the effort you have
taken in Illinois to protect our communities from
sex offenders and on-line predators.
I am here today to announce the results of our sixth
Operation FALCON, a national violent crime reduction
program that aims to make our nation and our
communities a safer place. Conducted during the
month of June, it has set the record for the largest
number of violent criminals to be captured in a
30-day period. In fact I believe it can be called
the largest law enforcement operation ever conducted
in our history.
Joining me at the podium today in addition to
Attorney General Madigan is Chief Deputy U.S.
Marshal Tommy Thompson who served as the national
Commander of this latest FALCON operation.
I am also pleased to have Chief Russell B. Laine who
serves as the President of the International
Association of Chiefs of Police here today. Chief
Laine is representing the hundreds of police
departments around the country that took part in
this operation.
Also joining us is Sheriff John Zaruba who serves as
the President of the National Sheriff’s Association.
Sheriff Zaruba is representing the hundreds of
Office of Sheriff organizations from around the
country that took part in this operation.
An operation of this magnitude cannot be conducted
without the support of community, so joining me to
represent the citizens who supplied the many tips
that led to the capture of these dangerous felons is
Mr. Thomas Kern, the Chairman of CrimeStoppers USA.
And, since Operation FALCON represents the voice of
the victims of violent crime, I am honored to have
Rich and Maureen Kanka with me today. Megan’s Law,
named for their late daughter, mandates community
notification of registered sex offenders and ensures
parents have access to information on predators in
their communities. Mrs. Kanka will speak in a few
moments.
FALCON stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized
Nationally and it is indeed a cooperative, joint
effort between federal, state and local law
enforcement. It is only because of these
partnerships that I can stand here and announce such
remarkable results. Let me share a few of the
highlights:
- 433 Murder suspects were arrested
- 2,356 Sex Offenders, to include 868 offenders who
were unregistered as required by the Adam Walsh Act,
are now off the street and behind bars making our
nation safer for our children
- 900 gang members are no longer plaguing our
communities
- We seized 582 firearms, making our cities safer
from gun violence
In all, a grand total of 35,190 of America’s most
wanted, most dangerous and, often, most violent
fugitives have been found and arrested by a most
unique team of law enforcement officers. The United
States Marshals Service used our authority to swear
in over 5,000 police officers and sheriff’s deputies
as “Special Deputy U.S. Marshals” so they could
cross jurisdictional lines and work jointly to
arrest as many violent criminals as possible. A
total of 2,224 local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies participated building a new
level of interagency cooperation and communication.
This operation gave new meaning to the phrase “long
arm of the law” as we reached out not only coast to
coast to find wanted felons, but nine fugitives were
also found and arrested in other countries. The
targets for Operation FALCON were career, violent
criminals who, when not sleeping, are preying on our
citizens and disrupting their quality of life. In
fact, those arrested in this operation had a
combined criminal history of more than 138,000 prior
arrests. Put another way, they averaged nearly four
prior arrests each.
For example, here in the Chicago area, FALCON
investigators took on the case of Willie Conway, a
convicted sexual predator and member of the Vice
Lords street gang. Conway was wanted in Kankakee
County, Illinois for criminal sexual fondling of a
9-year-old girl.
Early one morning, a FALCON arrest team comprised of
Deputy U.S. Marshals and Cook County Sheriff’s
Deputies established surveillance at a residence
where they believed Conway was residing. After
identifying Conway at the residence, they moved in,
made the arrest and Conway may also face the
additional charge of failing to register as a sex
offender under the conditions of his original parole
agreement. This is one example of taking a dangerous
offender off the street who was allegedly preying on
vulnerable children.
And with attention being placed on southwest border
violence, I want to point out that arrest teams in
that part of the country locked up almost 5800
violent criminals from Texas to California.
In many jurisdictions, Operation FALCON was a
24-by-7 operation, giving career criminals with
outstanding warrants no place to hide or rest. Each
day, hundreds of teams of deputy marshals, police
officers, sheriff’s deputies and other federal,
state and local officers fanned out with warrants in
hand to find and arrest their local most wanted.
Some were found hiding under beds, some cowered in
closets and still others tried to make a run for it
out the back door, only to be caught anyway and
allowed to catch their breath during the drive to
the local jail.
This latest FALCON Operation was designed, like the
others, to make a difference in reducing violent
crime and make communities, large and small, across
America safer for everyone.
The Law enforcement officers who arrested these
dangerous fugitives are the true heroes of our time
and deserve our thanks and praise. The U.S.
Department of Justice and the United States Marshals
Service will make sure operations of this nature
continue as we must constantly pursue, find and
arrest those responsible for violent crime in
America.
As I mentioned earlier, the motivation for doing
these operations comes in large part from the
victims of violent crime. When someone’s loved one
is hurt or killed by some violent thug, our system
of justice demands that someone is held accountable
for that action. Operation FALCON helped bring peace
and assurance to victims that those responsible for
violent crime committed against their loved ones
will indeed be found, arrested and brought to
justice. I would now like to invite Maureen Kanka to
come to the podium to make some comments on this
latest operation.
[Mrs. Kanka
speaks]
Thank you Maureen. I am now happy to address any
questions you may have.
For more information about Operation FALCON, visit
http://www.usmarshals.gov/falcon09/
America’s Oldest Federal Law Enforcement Agency |
