More than 110 violent fugitives have been arrested in Wisconsin in the last month as part of federal initiative

More than 110 violent fugitives were arrested in a 30-day span as part of a multi-department initiative between Milwaukee County, Racine County and federal and state law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Marshals office announced Wednesday.

The arrests of 114 fugitives were made starting in January, and took place in Milwaukee and Racine counties as part of a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force initiative called Operation North Star II.

This was the second initiative that involved Milwaukee, one of 10 cities nationally to take part in the operation, which targeted violent offenders. The previous effort, called Operation Triple Beam Honey Badger, occurred last summer and ended with 268 violent offenders arrested between May and July.

Those targeted and arrested in the operation included suspects in homicide, armed robberies and assault with a firearm, said Anna Ruzinski, the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Operation targeted some of the 'worst repeat offenders'

In all, 213 warrants - including 11 for homicide - were cleared, and 45 firearms and nearly 20 pounds of illegal narcotics were recovered as part of the operation. This was in addition to the arrests of 1,086 violent offender arrests including 153 for homicides, 3,487 cleared warrants and 266 recovered firearms by the task force in 2022.

Ruzinski credited the operation's success on cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies.

"The fugitive task force devotes everyday to locating and apprehending violent fugitives trying to evade the justice system," Ruzinski said. "We are not naive enough to think this is the answer to ending violent crime, but when we can remove some of the worst repeat offenders from the community, we start to have an impact."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Milwaukee Police Department, Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, Racine Police Department and Racine County Sheriff's Office were among the departments involved in the operation. 

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson lauded the efforts and collaboration of all the agencies and said while operations like this are a step in the right direction, there's still work to do to bring crime rates down.

"When people cause death, cause harm, cause destruction in Milwaukee, they’ve got to be held accountable," Johnson said. "Every accused individual deserves a fair and judicial process, and the state’s got to prove that in court. The first step in that process is having accused criminals be brought to the courtroom, and that’s what’s happening with Operation North Star II."

Ruzinski mentioned future efforts will be made to combat crime in southeastern Wisconsin. One of those efforts, which she said will be implemented later this year, is Operation Safe Surrender. It will give those who are out on warrants an opportunity to turn themselves in in a safe environment for the community, themselves and law enforcement, Ruzinski said.

"We know that enforcement is not the answer," she added. "We know we need the community working together. We need programs and we need to get our young people engaged before they get to a point where law enforcement is seeking them."

Crime Trends in Milwaukee

Officials have reported that general crime in Milwaukee dropped 7% last year, despite the city breaking its homicide record for a third year in a row.

So far in 2023, those trends have mostly continued. As of Tuesday, reports of aggravated assault, burglary, theft and car theft were down between 8% and 29% from the year before.

The city’s homicide count has dropped 48% so far this year. That drop could be expected, given that violent crime tends to recede in colder months and because January and February 2022 was an unusually violent period in the city, with 36 homicides reported, according to the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission.

The city’s homicide rate so far this year still tracks closely with that of 2021, which at the time was another record-breaking year for homicides in Milwaukee, according to police data. Nonfatal shootings in 2023 have also continued at the same elevated pace as last year.