The Indianapolis Police has a Crime Gun Task Force that has been busy throughout the entire year seizing guns and making arrests.
Assistant Chief Chris Bailey of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says the Crime Gun Task Force has seized 366 firearms and arrested 264 people in 2023.
Of the 366 seized firearms, all but 31 had been used in a firearm-related crime.
During a press conference Tuesday Bailey said, “Why are these arrest important? Because no one becomes a target of this task force unless they or the weapon they possess have been used at least twice in firearms incidents against our neighbors. These are violent individuals, and they make themselves known to us by their behavior.”
The Crime Gun Task Force recently received information that led to an extremely positive outcome.
The information from the task force recently led to the arrest of 42 people in Indiana and Arizona. In that effort, police say, they seized more than 100 firearms, 16 machine gun conversion devices, 72 pounds of fentanyl, 117 pounds of methamphetamine, and 453 pounds of marijuana that was headed for the streets of central Indiana and beyond.
Bailey said, “We know we had over 850 drug overdose deaths in 2022. A vast majority of those deaths are the result of fentanyl. It is ravaging communities and destroying families, and that is why it is a top priority of this task force.”
The task force was originally launched in 2019. In the summer of 2021, they decided to expand the task force to the surrounding counties. With the expansion, the focus of the task force was narrowed, and the results became better.
It is almost as if when police are allowed to do their jobs, they make arrests.
Zach Myers, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said, “And this intelligence allows us to target the right individuals in the right location to improve community safety. Gun violence in particular doesn’t just rob us of the victims, it robs the families and the communities, it robs the entire community of the feeling of safety and the ability to just go freely about their lives in the community that we all deserve.”
To hear Tony’s thoughts on the success task force, click the link below.
