Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - On Thursday in Billings, Montana and other federal law enforcement officials gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Montana Violent Offender Task Force.

I spoke with the U.S. Attorney for the State of Montana, Jesse Laslovich about the special event.

Officials Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Violent Offender Task Force

“We celebrated this month, 20 years of the Montana Violent Offender Task Force, which is led by the United States Marshals Service, a key partner of ours, to discuss a happy thing, right?” asked Laslovich. “You and I talk about a lot of these ugly cases where bad things have happened. And so it was nice to be able to pause and celebrate the Marshal Service, all of our partners who are part of this task force, federal, state, local.”

Laslovich said the late Montana Senator Conrad Burns was instrumental in establishing the task force, which was suggested by then U.S. Marshall Dwight McKay.

The Late Senator Conrad Burns Helped Establish the Task Force

“Senator Burns asked him what he needed to fight crime, and Marshall McKay told him what he needed,” began Laslovich. “The Montana task force was the fifth in the country to be set up pursuant to Senator Burns's leadership. Marshall McKay said all the other task forces, by the way, were in big cities. So the other marshals were looking to Montana and Billings specifically where it was based, asking ‘Why are you guys so important? You're in a small state'.”

Laslovich emphasized the level of success attained by the Task Force.

“Over the last 20 years, which is quite remarkable, we started under former U.S. Marshal Dwight McKay, who was here today, along with Darrell Bell, another former US Marshal, and so many others, just to tell the public that this task force has arrested over 22,000 people during that time frame, which is pretty jarring,” he said. “As I said during the press conference, that’s three arrests per day; that’s what that amounts to.”

U.S. Attorney Laslovich Looks Forward to the Next 20 Years of the Task Force

Laslovich looked forward to the future of the Montana Violent Offender Task Force.

"We're celebrating the last 20 years," he said. "It will continue for the next 20 years and the next 20 years after that. There are so many different partners, such as state, local, federal, l and tribal partners scattered throughout the state. I think right now, we currently have 168 people as part of the task force. Of course, they're not all in Billings, but we can rely on the task force. They have the training to do the job that we need to be done, to get dangerous people off the streets so that work will continue."

Past and present members of the task force will be awarded commemorative patches authorized by the U.S. Marshall’s Service.

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Gallery Credit: Elisa Fernández-Arias

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