U.S. Attorney: Federal Agents Have Been In Detroit 'For Decades'

DETROIT, MI — Federal officers are coming to Detroit. In fact, they've been in the city for years, working alongside local police in a mutual battle against gun violence, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said during a news conference Wednesday.

Schneider said the federal government is adding dozens of agents soon from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration as part of "Operation Legend." It is a new law enforcement operation initiated by the Trump administration and named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in June in Kansas City, Missouri.

"This effort is not new," Schneider told reporters. "Federal agents have been working side by side with Detroit police officers for decades."

Rumors over federal officers being deployed in Detroit picked up recently when President Donald Trump included Detroit in a list of cities being overrun by violence. Some violence coincided with protests over police brutality stemming from the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody with an officer's knee on his neck.

Trump said it was a movement against police.

"In recent weeks, there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle, and dissolve our police departments," Trump said during a news conference July 22. "Extreme politicians have joined this anti-police crusade and relentlessly vilified our law enforcement heroes. To look at it from any standpoint, the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders, and heinous crimes of violence.

"This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end."

Related: Trump: Federal Law Enforcement Coming To Detroit, Other Cities

Trump has described Chicago, a city that had large numbers of protests, as "worse than Afghanistan." He previously said federal law enforcement — which had used tear gas to disperse groups of demonstrators near a federal court house in Portland, according to The Detroit News — was doing a "fantastic job" of restoring order.

"The fact is (city police are) restricted from doing anything. They can't do anything. Well, I'm going to do something, that I can tell you," Trump said Monday. "Because we're not going to let New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore ... we're not going to let this happen in our country.

"We're going to have more federal law enforcement, that I can tell you," Trump added. "In Portland, they've done a fantastic job."

The mention of Detroit among cities that might see an influx in federal agents prompted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to say Trump "doesn't know the first thing about Detroit."

"There is no reason for the president to send federal troops into a city where people are demanding change peacefully and respectfully," she rebutted.

Related: Whitmer: Trump 'Doesn't Know The First Thing About Detroit'

Operation Legend has been implemented across the country, including cities such as Chicago, Albuquerque and Milwaukee. Schneider said Wednesday 42 additional federal agents across the FBI, DEA, and ATF will be added to Detroit. An additional 10 Detroit ATF agents have been reassigned to work on violent gun crimes. The additions include 11 new and permanent ATF special agents and five new and permanent FBI special agents who will focus on violent crime in Detroit.

Schneider also said about $1 million in additional federal grants are going to local law enforcement for gun and gang violence prevention. The Bureau of Justice Assistance will make available $1.4 million to support Operation Legend’s violent crime reduction efforts in Detroit, and the COPS Office has also made $2.4 million available to the Detroit Police Department to fund the hiring of 15 officers.

Schneider said the added federal presence in Detroit is to deal with violent gun-related crime and not protests, as has been mentioned previously by authorities.

"Let me be perfectly clear about what Operation Legend is not," Schneider said. "There are no federal troops coming to Detroit, or any other area in Michigan, to interfere with protesters."

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the department and Schneider have had a long relationship working together, adding that the city has handled protests without federal assistance and wants to keep it that way.

"So long as those staff are used in the continuing effort to enforce federal laws on illegal gun trafficking and gang violence, DPD will continue its strong partnership with those agencies," Craig said in a joint statement with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

"We believe there is no lawful basis for Homeland Security intervention in the Detroit protests today, or for any increased presence of Homeland Security agents in our community," the duo added. "Today’s announcement appears to respect that position."

The expansion of Operation Legend to Detroit is essential, Schneider said, as he said the city has seen an increase in homicides, shootings and other violent crimes.

"These numbers keep going up," he said. "This flood of violence threatens the safety of our communities, and innocent bystanders are suffering."