A multi-jurisdictional task force aims to stop gun violence in RI. Here is how it works.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha is touting a new initiative to prosecute gun crimes and get violent people off the streets before they can hurt or kill anyone.
The cooperative effort led to the recent arrest of a Woonsocket man who, Neronha says, investigators spotted wielding an illegally purchased handgun in photographs posted to social media.
On Nov. 12, police officers executed a search warrant at Willie Love's Park Avenue home and seized a Taurus pistol along with a loaded 15-round magazine lying beside his bed, Neronha said in a news release.
A previous felony conviction bars Love, 30, from legally buying a firearm, according to Neronha. Prosecutors allege that Love bought the gun through an illegal gun-selling scheme targeted by investigators last year.
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Love is among at least seven people charged with illegal firearms possession or trafficking after investigations by a new violent crime task force composed of state, local and federal members, according to Neronha's office.
The task force includes members from the attorney general's office and the Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls police, along with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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“This multi-jurisdictional task force, formed some months ago and comprised of both investigators and prosecutors, is already having success identifying and apprehending violent offenders before they can harm others," Neronha said. "I anticipate further success going forward and am grateful to all of the agencies involved for their partnership in this effort.”
Recognizing that crimes often cross municipal lines, task force members work together to share and analyze information to "proactively identify and target those who engage in such activity," Neronha says.
To help the Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls police officers follow their investigations into other jurisdictions, Neronha has deputized them. That enables them to apply for search warrants in other cities or towns and move faster, Neronha said in a telephone interview. Guns often change hands quickly, Neronha says, and investigators have to move fast to keep up.
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Where is the task force's money coming from?
The attorney general has also used a $340,000 Justice Department grant to fund a data analyst and platform to work with the task force.
"Using this platform, the team can quickly draw connections between different crime scenes and weave together police reports and other records to help identify suspects and witnesses," the attorney general's office says.
Neronha plans to use $141,765 from property forfeited in criminal cases to buy and train technicians on a machine that will help investigators compare ammunition casings from crime scenes against a database of thousands of casings from jurisdictions throughout the region and even the country.
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The state has one such machine at the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, but another, located at the attorney general's office in Providence, would help investigators find out faster if a firearm was used in crimes elsewhere, Neronha says. The attorney general expects to have the machine by early 2022.
Seeds of the task force were planted when Neronha's staff met with the Providence police last year to see how the attorney general's office could help address gun crimes, Neronha said. Central Falls and Pawtucket were added because the crimes often cross municipal lines, according to Neronha.
"It's really a team effort," Neronha said.
Trying to combat gun violence in RI
The task force focuses on what Neronha says is the "state's urban core." Since the mid-1990s, some 73% of the gun crimes prosecuted by the state came out of the three cities, according to court statistics. Providence has had 22 homicides this year, up from 20 in 2020, 13 in 2019 and 10 in 2018.
“There is no mystery regarding where violent crime is most likely to occur in Rhode Island, especially violent crime involving the use of illegal firearms, nor is there much mystery regarding what is driving it," Neronha said. "Our ground zero is our urban core, where illegal guns, often equipped with high-capacity magazines, are being used by criminals to settle scores or protect other criminal activity."
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Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré said illegal firearm distribution schemes threaten the community and put "the lives of innocent victims at risk."
That task force's work will improve "our agencies’ ability to utilize data, technology, and intelligence to more efficiently analyze, investigate and connect the players involved," he said.
In Love's case, he was initially identified in a 2020 investigation into a so-called straw-purchasing scheme, where guns are bought legally and then sold to people who cannot legally buy them. Four people were previously charged in the scheme.
Investigators believe Love purchased a 9mm semiautomatic pistol from one of the defendants in the scheme. They say he showed it in pictures posted to social media shortly before task force members and members of the Woonsocket Police Department's SWAT team arrested him.
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Gun violence prevention: RI creates task force to prosecute gun crimes
