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Indianapolis – Governor Mike Pence issued the following statement regarding the coordinated, multi-agency effort led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Safe Streets Task Force to crackdown on violent crime and drug dealers in the Indianapolis area.
“I want to commend the hundreds of law enforcement officers involved in what has been described as one of the largest crime sweeps in Indianapolis history. More than one hundred troopers from the Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, as well as dozens of other police officers from more than twenty other police agencies, teamed with federal agents as part of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, a coordinated effort to detain those involved in gang activity, drug and violent crimes.
“This multi-agency effort targeted some of the most dangerous criminals and is a testament to the courage and bravery of our officers. Hoosiers may rest assured that our neighborhoods will be safer places now that dozens of suspected criminals are off the streets.”
Indiana State Police Supt. Doug Carter said, “To successfully conclude an investigation of this magnitude takes an incredible amount of manpower and coordination to ensure the safety of the community at large as well as the police officers executing the warrants.”
As noted on the FBI Website, since 1992, the FBI’s Safe Streets Violent Crime Initiative has successfully aligned FBI Agents, local law enforcement investigators, and federal and state prosecutors onto SSTFs to reduce violent crime. This combination brings not only resources together in a “force multiplier concept,” but it also utilizes the expertise of each agency such as the FBI’s enterprise theory of investigation and the local departments’ uniform enforcement actions to effect gang suppression. This approach also yields information sharing among the agencies involved. SSTFs are an effective, efficient, and economical initiative by which the FBI achieves its goals of successfully investigating violent crimes while committing limited resources.
