As its name indicates, Operation FALCON is a part of the recent steps taken by Washington to increase the centralization and information-sharing of its police and intelligence agencies.
“This operation, which produced the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single initiative, would not have been possible without the cooperation of our law enforcement partners on the federal, state, and local levels,” USMS director Benigno Reyna told an April 14 press conference. At the press conference U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said the exercise showed the government’s dedication to deal with “traditional violent crime” as well as “terrorist” threats on U.S. soil.“As a result of this effort, we’ve developed new relationships, established new lines of communication,” Gonzalez added.
This deployment involved more than 3,000 cops daily from 959 separate police, intelligence, and government agencies. Reyna said that this “force multiplier” task force “erases the jurisdictional barriers” that have been obstacles to making arrests. “We can now go anywhere in this country and arrest these fugitives,” he said.
In total 10,340 people were arrested and 13,800 cleared on felony warrants, the Justice Department announced. In most states, such as in Louisiana where nearly 349 people were rounded up, local police were deputized to act as marshals to cross jurisdictions. Government agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 37 districts and the Social Security Administration in 17 districts were also involved. An April 15 article in the Connecticut Post reported that U.S. deputy marshals and detectives in Bridgeport and Stratford, Connecticut, “combed utility, motor vehicle and labor department records and used electronic surveillance, informants and stakeouts to get their men.”
In the Chicago area, the cops tracked down a man who had escaped from a federal detention center in Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1997. They knocked on neighbors’ doors and questioned his girlfriend. “Everybody knew him, he was very personable,” Deputy U.S. Marshal John Jaehnig said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Someone finally told us what train he was going to be on coming home. We caught up to him walking down the street.”
The immigration police also played a role in Operation FALCON. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security reported that during the month of March immigration police conducted their own dragnet aimed at facilities they deemed to be “risk-sensitive.” They rounded up 57 undocumented workers, the Associated Press reported, in targeted workplaces that included an airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Sears tower in Chicago, and an oil refinery in New Orleans.
The April 14 Justice Department briefing also mentioned the case of a Connecticut man who was arrested at his mother’s residence in Kingston, Jamaica. Customs Enforcement got word that he was living in that country and the USMS foreign field office in Kingston working with the Jamaica Constabulary Force has detained him pending extradition.
Gonzalez mentioned some of the new tools that the cops have at their disposal, including the “sneak-and-peek” provision in the Patriot Act that allows the cops to sneak in and search a home or property secretly and present a search warrant after the fact. This was justified under the rubric of fighting the “war on terrorism.” “It has been very useful in a variety of—dealing with all kinds of crime,” Gonzalez said. “It is a tool that the Congress says that law enforcement can use in dealing with different kinds of criminals.”
This police dragnet took place as the number of people on probation, parole, or serving time in U.S. prisons and jails continues to mount. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number reached a record high of nearly 6.9 million in 2003, the last year for which such figures are available. This represents 3.2 percent of the adult population in the United States.
Related articles:
U.S. gov’t expands ‘watch list’
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