Law enforcement arrest 100 violent criminals in Valleywide operation
Aug 30, 2017, 4:15 AM
PHOENIX — Valley police departments made more than 100 arrests of violent crimes and cleared 355 felony warrants in the months of July and August as part of Operation Purge.
“The fastest way to make communities safe is to arrest known violent criminals,” Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said. “This is a priority for MCSO and for all local law enforcement.
“Our multi-agency operation got felons out of neighborhoods all over the Valley.”
Local law enforcement partnered with the FBI to arrest felons who were wanted for homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery and burglary.
Out of 3,700 felony warrants that were reviewed and researched, 877 were believed to be located in Maricopa County and 130 were apprehended. Another 155 were dead and an additional 180 were already behind bars.
Police departments in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Peoria, Gilbert, Buckeye, Paradise Valley and Chandler were involved in the operation.
“This is what law enforcement should look like,” Penzone said, “This will be a long term commitment to work together, but I call on the community to be our partner with us in this effort.
“Thirty thousand warrants is an astronomical number that is unacceptable and we’ll never be able to chip away at that number in totality unless we see support from the entire community.”
The remaining warrants are still under investigation.
Tom Perumean contributed to this report.
