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Attorney general visits Kansas City Wednesday to discuss Operation LeGend

U.S. Attorney General Barr, Deputy FBI Director Bowdich and federal and local law enforcement gather in Kansas City to provide an update on Operation LeGend, stating that the operation has proven effective and will not be ending soon.

Several high-ranking law enforcement officials gathered in Kansas City Wednesday to discuss Operation LeGend and to provide an update on the operation’s progress and effectiveness.

Those in attendance included U.S. Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Deputy FBI Director David Bowdich, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Tim Garrison, several other U.S. attorneys from different states and other federal and local law enforcement.

The consensus of law enforcement on all levels emphasized the progress made, stating the operation will not be ending anytime soon.

Barr called Operation LeGend, “One of the most significant law enforcement operations in the Department of Justice,” going on to say that the department has allocated $78.5 million to state and local partners to provide support for additional positions and crime-solving technology.

“The federal government has dispatched to the nine cities… more than 1,000 federal agents, working shoulder to shoulder with our state and local partners,” Barr said. “Here in Kansas City for example, there are 185 additional agents.”

At today’s meeting, Garrison said that the operation has resulted in the arrest of 18 homicide suspects and the seizure of nearly 80 firearms.

Kansas City had more than five killings every three days in June, reports Garrison, saying that as of today, those numbers have reversed to three killings every five days.

“Operation LeGend is working,” Garrison said. “To use the parlance of our day, we are flattening the curve.”

Barr expressed strong support for the operation which has spread to other parts of the country since its conception in early July.

“For us, LeGend is a symbol of the many hundreds of innocent lives that have been taken in the recent upsurge of crime in many of our urban areas,” Barr said. “His name should be remembered, and his senseless death, like those of all the others in this recent surge, should be unacceptable to Americans.”

Kansas City Police Department Chief Rick Smith credited the help of federal law enforcement in the large strides that have been made.

“We wouldn’t have solved the cases as timely as we had, and we wouldn’t have suspects in custody without our federal partnerships,” Smith said. “This is absolutely making a difference.”