US Marshals are keeping criminals off the streets and protecting children

Dontae Green was an armed security guard who shot at police, fled and became a wanted man. 

The attack, plus a host of other charges, made him a high-risk fugitive. Green was clearly dangerous — the Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force (FTF) was sent to find him and during his arrest he shot a deputy marshal.

Yet, as a recent article points out, the FTF are painted in the light of rogue cowboys who shoot people with no accountability.  

While it is true that within federal law enforcement no other agency sees the use of force statistics that the Marshals’s Service does, what is also true is no federal agency loses as many personnel. 

In 1789, the Marshals Service was created by Congress to support the courts and carry about any orders issued by a federal judge. At the time, the nation was still expanding and often the only “law” in the territories of the nation was the federal governments — enforced by the U.S. Marshal.  

As the nation and Marshals Service grew, so did their authority and role — until the 20th century when their jurisdiction and functions were narrowed. In 1979, the apprehension of federal fugitives became a prime function of the Marshals Service, which included escapees from federal prison facilities like Alcatraz Island. In 1981, the predecessor to the FTF, the Fugitive Investigation Strike Team (FIST operations), was set up in order to apprehend fugitives from federal, state or local jurisdictions.

In 2000, regional FTF were formalized  under the Presidential Threat Protection Act of 2000. The FTF’s mission was to coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement agencies into one cohesive task force focused on apprehending the most dangerous and violent fugitives and supporting high profile investigations.

These task forces are not only staffed by deputy marshals but by local or state “Task Force Officers” (TFO) who participate in the task force under a staffing and funding agreement with the Marshals Service. Over the last decade alone, this arrangement has led the FTF’s to have apprehended or cleared more than 375,000 federal fugitives with 177 shootings and 124 who potentially died from their injuries.  

In 2019 alone, 36,165 federal and 71,161 state and local were apprehended. The crimes committed included homicide, robbery, assault, kidnapping, sex offenses, weapons offenses and narcotics offenses.  

While some reports maintain that the Marshals Service operates under “looser” use of force rules compared to other law enforcement agencies, the reality is the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division is the federal entity that investigates any federal law enforcement officer involved in a use of force incident. DOJ isn’t alone though; a federal use of force incident is also investigated by the involved federal agency, the local jurisdiction including the local prosecutor’s office and a federal Office of Investigator General (OIG). Effectively four coordinated and concurrency investigations occur, which must all arrive at the same conclusion — that the use of force was lawful in accordance with the Graham v. Connor Supreme Court case guidance. Once that occurs, then a federal officer is considered “scoped” and has acted lawfully.

In 2019, the FBI started the data collection for the National Use of Force Data Collection website, which is a voluntary reporting mechanism for law enforcement agencies. The Marshals Service was the first to submit to the website in order to help provide openness and understanding with law enforcement use of force incidents.

These days, due to their expertise, the FTFs have also gotten more involved in another dangerous mission — finding missing children and arresting child predators. In 2020 alone, the Marshals Service captured 11,000 sex offenders, and recovered 1,500 children since 2005.

Since its founding, the Marshals Service was tasked to find and bring to justice the most dangerous and violent criminals. That work continues today as they keep America safe.   

Donald J. Mihalek is a retired senior Secret Service Regional Training, tactics and firearms instructor. He also serves as the executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association