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David Woo/Staff Photographer
Dallas Police Chief David Brown (left) joined FBI Special Agent in Charge Diego Rodriguez, U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana and Garland Assistant Chief Greg Conley in announcing the new task force Thursday.
By TANYA EISERER
Staff Writer
Published: 14 November 2013 10:56 PM
Updated: 14 November 2013 10:56 PM
A new FBI task force will use federal laws to target and prosecute violent repeat offenders.
“These offenders are a threat to the safety of our community at large,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Diego Rodriguez. “They instill fear. They may act alone or team up. They threaten violence and oftentimes they commit serial offenses and/or are repeat offenders.”
The FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force began operations Oct. 1 and includes detectives from the Dallas and Garland police departments, officials said Thursday during a news conference at the local FBI office.
Rodriguez was joined by Dallas Police Chief David Brown, Garland Assistant Chief Greg Conley and U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldaña.
Similar task forces across the nation have successfully used the federal Hobbs Act to prosecute armed robbers who hold up businesses. The act “criminalizes obstruction, delay or impact on interstate commerce by robbery or extortion with the use of actual or threatened violence,” Rodriguez said.
The task force also comes as part of a growing recognition that criminals “know no jurisdictional boundaries,” so law enforcement has to do a better job working together, Conley said.
Brown repeatedly noted that crime was at historic lows in Dallas. But the new approach also comes at a time when the city has been struggling with a rise in business robberies.
Through the end of October, business robberies were up more than 20 percent.
Michael Cleveland, who was arrested last month, is the type of offender local authorities are looking to target under the Hobbs Act, authorities have said. Cleveland is accused of robbing 13 businesses in Dallas and two in Irving. Most of the businesses were insurance providers in Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove.
He is being held in the Dallas County Jail but is scheduled to appear soon before a federal grand jury.
“Convicted criminals will face significant sentences and will serve the time,” Rodriguez said. “There is no parole in the federal system. Those that receive a federal sentence will serve that full term, and the penalties at the federal level are generally harsher than those at the state.”
Bank robberies have declined in recent years, and Rodriguez said the FBI’s former bank robbery task force is effectively being folded into this unit.
Dallas had four detectives assigned to the bank robbery task force, although three of those positions were vacant for a time. There are four Dallas police detectives currently assigned to the new task force.
“It’s the safest Dallas has been in 50 years, since the 1950s and ’60s” Brown said. “We’ve been quite successful, but we’re still not satisfied that Dallas is as safe as it needs to be. We’re just really committed to making Dallas safer through this task force.”
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