Local agencies participate in national police sting

In the largest fugitive apprehension operation in U.S. history, more than 10,000 fugitives wanted for violent crimes were captured across the nation in a seven-day sting, including more than 100 in southern Illinois and 15 in Jackson County.

During a press conference Friday at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Benton, officials announced the results of Operation FALCON, a nationwide collaboration in which 959 federal, state and local agencies participated to capture fugitives wanted on felony warrants.

Operation Falcon, which stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally, was the most extensive operation of its kind to ever be conducted and focused on violent crimes such as homicides, crimes against children and the elderly and gang-related crimes.

Over a one-week period, from April 4 to 10, officials from 20 agencies in southern Illinois, including the Carbondale Police Department and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department in Murphysboro worked to identify, locate and arrest violent crime offenders.

Jackson County Sheriff Bob Burns, whose department devoted six officers and 96 manpower hours to the project, said the operation not only helped the sheriff's department clear some of the hundreds of arrest warrants it maintains for Jackson County but may also prevent future crimes from being committed by the same offenders.

"It's a great initiative that the marshal service put together," Burns said. "I think it's an appropriate action, especially for violent offenders. And, in an initiative such as this, there's no way to guess the number of crimes you may have prevented by making that arrest."

Todd Sigler, director of SIU Police, said while the department was contacted to participate in the program, it did not because there were no warrants for SIU students at the time. However, Sigler commended the operation for its efforts and results.

"In looking at what was recovered -the weapons and those types of potential items that can go on and may be used in the commission of another crime - to pull that kind of stuff off the streets is good," Sigler said. Carbondale Police Chief Steve Odum was unavailable for comment.

Nationally, the seven-day operation resulted in the arrest of 10,340 individuals wanted on felony warrants and cleared more than 13,000 additional warrants. A total of 243 weapons were seized during the operation, including four in southern Illinois and one in Jackson county.

Don Slazinik, U.S. marshall for the Southern District of Illinois, called the $900,000 operation unprecedented and encouraging.

"It was an enormous challenge putting this operation together," Slazinik said. "The way all the agencies stepped up to the plate was very encouraging, actually exciting. Without their support and the use of their manpower, this couldn't have been done."