Cracking down on gun crimes
Federal task force has arrested nearly 300 in past year, most linked to violent incidents
A gun-violence-prevention task force has arrested 293 people over the past year, most of whom were linked to violent robberies or similar crimes, federal authorities announced Thursday.
“Our priorities really are criminals using firearms to commit violent crime,” said Fred Milanowski, special agent-incharge of the Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities created the task force, dubbed the “Crime Gun Strike Force,” and staffed it with ATF agents, police officers and prosecutors.
Milanowski touted the group’s work.
“Almost every medium-tolarge police department across the country has a narcotics unit just focused on narcotics,” he said. “But very few have units just focusing on criminals that are using firearms.”
The unit focuses on robbers who use guns while committing crimes and people involved in multiple shootings, as well as firearms traffickers.
“Investigating those is our best way of reducing violent crime,” he said, explaining that 200 of the 293 arrests that strike force members made in the last year fit those categories.
Milanowski touted the strike force’s work in the arrest of a four-man robbery crew that swiped $15,000 worth of cellphones from an AT&T store in Champion Forest in April.
After the arrests, investigators connected the crew to three other robberies, netting federal indictments against eight people, including two men facing murder charges in Harris Coun-
ty who were out on bond.
At the news conference, Police Chief Art Acevedo said he would add 10 HPD officers to the 17 already working on the unit.
“We’re getting some great results,” he said.
He blamed the rising violence on the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed complaints against local magistrates and judges he accused of allowing serial criminals to walk free.
“Robbery is not a joke… aggravated assault is not a joke, murder is not a joke.”
The chief thanked ATF for bringing federal cases against local criminals, saying they did not fear local police, but were more wary of the feds.
“What they fear is federal prosecution, because they know they won’t go in one door and out the other,” he said.
The agents’ work comes amid continued efforts to rein in gun violence in Houston, which has weathered a 40 percent increase in homicides this year and seen a double-digit increase in violent crime.
Milanowski also touted the ATF’s efforts to try to speed up gun crime investigations and the bureau’s renewed push to get local law enforcement agencies to use gun forensics to track down shooters more quickly — particularly through using the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, or NIBIN.
NIBIN has a forensics firearms database of shell casings fired in gun crimes, but for a long time police agencies waited for weeks or months to test firearms evidence.
Over the past four years, however, ATF has attempted to reboot the program, working with local agencies to get them to use more ballistics imaging/ matching machines.
As shootings have increased around the region, the bureau also brought its NIBIN command vehicle to Houston.
The vehicle — which can image and match ballistics casings and also has a testfire room — will remain in the Houston area for 45 days, Milanowski said.
Agents have visited nine smaller police departments in and around Houston with the vehicle, processing 200 cartridges collected at crime scenes and producing about a dozen leads.
In 2018, ATF sent a mobile testing van to Houston, but the mobile command center can test more evidence quicker, officials said.
In the Houston Field Division, ATF has worked to get law enforcement agencies in Houston, Harris County, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties to acquire Brasstrax machines and get connected to the NIBIN network.
Milanowski said the bureau has tried to get more law enforcement agencies across southeast Texas to use the devices more frequently and quickly — and then turn potential leads back over to investigators for potential followup.
“Everyone understands the concept, but it’s sometimes challenging to get the logistics going systematically,” he said.