Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110505
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
U.S. Attorney E. Montgomery Tucker announced creation of a federal, state and local task force Wednesday that will focus on prosecuting and imprisoning people who commit crimes at gunpoint.
The task force is an offshoot of Project Triggerlock, a nationwide program initiated by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to ensure that all crimes committed with firearms are given high priority.
The task force - one of 93 created across the country - will target drug traffickers, gang members and habitual criminals who illegally possess and use firearms.
"We will target and identify individuals at an earlier stage, rather than waiting for a shooting to occur," Tucker said at a news conference Wednesday, flanked by law enforcement officials.
"This is one more weapon in the arsenal to get offenders off the streets."
The initiative is not an attempt by the federal government to intrude on state and local law enforcement efforts, but rather a supplement, Tucker said. If an offender falls through the cracks and can't be kept behind bars, "we can act as a back-up," he said.
"I know the frustration [state and local authorities] must feel when they've done a good investigation and prosecution and they send someone to prison and within months they're back on the streets," Tucker said.
"That's how the federal government can step in and back up with stiffer sentences."
In a statement issued Wednesday, Thornburgh said there will be no plea bargaining in these cases. The goal will be to protect the public by putting the most dangerous offenders in prison "for as long as the law allows," Thornburgh said.
Unlike the state correctional system, the federal system has no shortage of bed space - thanks primarily to the offenders themselves, Tucker said.
Forfeited property has brought the government an estimated $500 million in the last several years, he said. Much of that has been used to renovate and build federal prisons, Tucker said.
"The federal defendants helped pay for it," he said.
Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell - one of five local, state and federal law enforcement officials who attended the news conference - said he views the task force as a "tightening of the screw."
"The more weapons we have in our arsenal to get people off the streets, the better off we are," he said. "This is one more way to target people who need to be removed and incarcerated."
Task forces are expected to submit their first planning reports to Thornburgh on May 1.
"Identification of the initial offenders to be prosecuted by Triggerlock will proceed promptly," Tucker said. "One major early effort is joint development of a screening mechanism to turn up all potential state and local cases involving firearms in which federal prosecution would be appropriate."
by CNB