The News Room [News Archive]

Sheriff Evans, Chief Oliver Announce Joint Fugitive Task Force to Hunt Down Felons --- 60-Day Collaborative Effort Will Focus on City's Most Violent Criminals

Today, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans and Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver announced the formation of a joint fugitive apprehension task force that will spend the next 60 days tracking down violent criminals who are roaming the streets.

To staff this unprecedented cooperative effort, the Detroit Police Department will commit the full-time services of 17 fugitive officers, while Wayne County will assign 16 of its own. Together, team will work exclusively to identify, track down and apprehend fugitives within the City of Detroit.

Chief Oliver expressed, "During the past several weeks, there were a series of articles purporting that local law enforcement is not actively working to apprehend these fugitives. I am pleased that our partnerships are not only continuing, but growing in number and in force. With our unrelenting work and cooperative efforts, we will reduce crime, particularly violent crime, by an even larger percentage than 2002’s decrease of over 4 percent."

According to Evans, the timing of the new initiative is due, in large part, to the successful efforts made to eliminate emergency prisoner releases at the county jail and reduce its population.

"Thanks to the leadership of Chief Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth Kelly, Prosecutor Mike Duggan and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, today there are 200 available beds at the county jail," Evans said. "It is our expectation that in 60 days we will go a long way to filling those beds with the kind of hardcore fugitives who commit the majority of violent crimes in our city," said Evans.

Typical crimes committed by the targeted fugitives include:

• Murder
• Violent Assaults
• Armed Robbery
• Rape
• Child Molestation
• Home Invasion

The criminals being sought are ones who have:

• Not yet been arrested
• Failed to appear in court
• Have violated probation or parole
• Escaped from prison

During the course of the next 60 days, the Task Force will fan out across the city and make as many arrests as possible. "If it is as big a success as we expect it to be, there is a very good possibility that the task force will remain in place and become a permanent fixture," said Evans. After this initial effort, Evans and Oliver said they would assess the success of the program and make a determination regarding the future of the Task Force.

Oliver expressed his appreciation of Evans' commitment to this effort and his expectation that the two-month blitz will have a sizeable return. "The momentum of this collaboration should yield hundreds of fugitives being brought into custody," stated Oliver.

» Go To Top