'Operation Hemingway' Seeks To Get Detroit's Wanted Criminals Off Streets
DETROIT (WWJ) - With a number of violent crimes on the rise, police in Detroit are teaming up with other law enforcement agencies to take some of the worst offenders off the streets.
The Detroit Police Department officially kicked off the "Operation Hemingway IV" task force on Friday -- a multi-agency task force aimed at catching people wanted for murder, assault with intent to murder, robbery and weapons-related crimes.
Detroit may be the primary focus, but members of the task force say they'll go where ever they have to in order to apprehend nearly 300 of the city's violent offenders who have outstanding warrants.
"That's where our relationship with the U.S. Marshals, and Marshal Robert Grubbs, they have United States jurisdiction. So, from that standpoint, it's a tremendous resource for our officers," said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.
The task force includes the FBI; U.S. Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement; and Michigan State Police. Law enforcement agencies in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties also are involved, as well as the Michigan Department of Corrections.
"We're going to employ our entire police department in support of this operation," said Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, who pointed out that crime is regional and knows no boundaries.
"The public needs to know that on a regular basis, law enforcement is really united. Federal, state, county, local, we all work together every day. We've got intelligence networks that we share on a daily basis," Haddad continued.
This is the fourth time Detroit has put Operation Hemingway into motion. It comes on the heels of Macomb County's "Operation Safeguard," that took close to 60 violent offenders off the streets. Read more, here.
"I want these individuals to see ghosts. I want them to wake up thinking that we're coming. We're not going to rest until we get these folks into custody," said Godbee.
