Indiana crime gun task force seizes 369 guns, makes 397 arrests in a year

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana Crime Gun Task Force says it’s pulled 369 illegal guns off the streets and made 397 arrests in a year.

Chris Bailey, assistant chief of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said Tuesday, that the task force does “the dangerous work every single day and put themselves between us and evil and say to the community, not today.”

Several members of the task force joined Bailey in a news conference. They included Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, and Doug Carter, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police.

In the last year, the task force says Indianapolis has seen a 20% decrease in murders, an 18% decline in overall homicides, and a 10% decline in nonfatal shootings.

“If you take that one gun off (the street), just one gun, was $5 million dollars (or) $10 million worth it? The answer, of course, is ‘yes,’” Carter said.

Bailey says part of what makes the task force work is the ongoing team effort across city lines. Bailey said that the task force members worked “together on a joint operation by using various techniques, (and) investigators were able to obtain information on a wanted person traveling back to Central Indiana from Chicago after being there less than 24 hours.”