KANSAS CITY (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Kansas City said any federal agents involved in an operation to reduce violent crime in the area will be clearly identifiable when making arrests, unlike what has been seen in Portland, Oregon.
Timothy Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a written statement Monday that a new federal effort called Operation LeGend in Kansas City is in response to record violent crime numbers, not local protests, the Kansas City Star reported.
“These agents won’t be patrolling the streets,” he said. “They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers.”
His statement comes amid nationwide protests against excessive police force following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In Portland, the actions of federal officers outside the U.S. courthouse — hailed by President Donald Trump, but done without local consent — have resulted in clashes between protesters and camouflaged, unidentified agents.
Operation LeGend — named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment late last month — was announced on July 8 at the White House. Attorney General William Barr said he would send within the following weeks federal law enforcement officers into Kansas City to quell a “surge of violent crime."
“When they are making arrests or executing warrants, these federal agents will be clearly identified by their agency’s visible badges or insignia,” Garrison said. “The only people federal agents will be removing from the street are those they arrest in the course of their investigations of violent crimes.”
Garrison has said that the additional 225 federal agents from the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will join 400 agents already working and living in the Kansas City area.