The Peoria Police Department and Peoria County Sheriff's Department are now two members of a law enforcement agency task force created to combat gun violence in the Peoria area.
The Peoria Area Federal Firearms Task Force is composed of officers and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the FBI; Peoria Police Department; Peoria County Sheriff's Department; Illinois State Police; and the parole unit of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The task force will also be assigned a federal prosecutor.
“Last year the Peoria Police Department was able to reduce gun violence by 28%, but that is not enough,” said Peoria police Chief Eric Echevarria in a news release. “The Peoria Area Federal Firearms Task Force is another example of how our department is using every resource and partnership available to reduce gun violence. With the creation of this taskforce, we now have a team operating out of the Peoria Police Department streamlining the process of identifying, investigating, charging, and prosecuting violent offenders federally."
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Gun crimes had been on the rise in Peoria, hitting a peak in 2021 when Peoria set a record for homicides, many of those stemming from firearms. This federal task force will specifically target fully-automatic and machine guns being utilized in the Peoria area, according to the release.
The task force says its investigations...
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