March 26, 2003
March 26, 2003
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| Governor Jennifer Granholm (far right) and Michigan State Police Director Colonel Tardarial Sturdivant listen to Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans discuss the latest statewide sweep for parole and probation violators. This week's sweep netted 107 of the state's most violent parole and probation violators. |
DETROIT -- Governor Jennifer M. Granholm announced that state and local law enforcement agencies this week apprehended 107 of the most violent parolees across Michigan as part of a revitalized statewide partnership between the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Corrections. The partnership, called Project S.A.F.E. Street (Statewide Apprehension of Fugitives Effort), was announced today at a press conference in Detroit.
"We're sending a message that if you are a violent felon and you violate your parole, we'll find you," Granholm said.
Granholm lauded Project S.A.F.E. Street's partnership as an effort to improve public safety in Michigan by ensuring that the state's law enforcement entities - beginning with the Michigan State Police and the Department of Corrections and reaching out to local agencies - are working in close concert to get, and keep, violent criminals off Michigan's streets.
"Law enforcement in Michigan is one community with one goal: to keep our families safe at home," Granholm said. "While we work as a nation overseas to keep our country safe, we must work together as a state to keep our communities safe as well. The cooperation and partnership of these law enforcement agencies is a prime example of how we work better when we work together."
To kick off the partnership, six Michigan State Police fugitive teams and three Michigan Department of Corrections Absconder Recovery Unit (ARU) teams were joined by several county and local agencies in a two-day, statewide fugitive apprehension effort to locate and arrest those fugitives who pose the highest public safety risk.
"The Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Corrections are working collaboratively to share information and resources in the apprehension of parole absconders and fugitives in our state," stated Michigan State Police Director Colonel Tadarial J. Sturdivant. "Information sharing that produces an organized response has been, and will continue to be, the key to successfully removing fugitives from our communities. This week's sweep is just the first of an on-going effort to make our streets safer for our families. We will continue working side by side to ensure that these violent offenders are picked up and taken off the street."
A total of 124 fugitives were arrested in the two-day sweep. Charges included murder, criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, assault, and drugs and weapons-related crimes. Guns, ammunition, vehicles, and drugs were among items confiscated I the sweep.
"The Governor's and the Michigan Department of Corrections' first goal is to protect public safety, and we will match criminal behavior with a toughness that is unrelenting," said Department of Corrections Director William Overton. "Our partnership with the law enforcement community is one of the most vital to our continued success as we re-double our efforts to track down, apprehend and incarcerate violent parolees."
Attempts to apprehend additional fugitives will continue from this point forward.
"Protecting Michigan families is the paramount job of the Governor," Granholm said. "This initiative will take hundreds of violent felons off the streets and end their continued career of crime. The message here is clear: violent probationers and parolees who fail to live up to their end of the bargain will be identified, sought, and apprehended."
