CONROE, Texas – A weeklong law enforcement operation targeting wanted criminals in Montgomery County landed 71 people behind bars, Conroe police announced on Tuesday.
The operation, led by the U.S. Marshals Service and Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, lasted for a week in early August.
Law enforcement tried to execute 149 warrants, Chief Jon Buckholtz said, but ended up executing 91, or about 60 percent, of them.
“When I came here, it was quite obvious that we had a lot of outstanding warrants. Our clearance rate was not where we would like it to be for our citizens,” Buckholtz said.
He has been on the job for about six months as chief and recently created a crime reduction unit, which aims to serve warrants as soon as they are signed by a judge.
“Every victim is important,” he said. “It’s the most important thing in your life until it’s solved, until you get justice.”
Some of those arrested during the operation include suspects wanted for assault, sexual assault of a child, stalking, and more.
KPRC 2 rode along with the U.S. Marshals Service for two days of the operation, which involved K9 Rocky and other K9 units, SWAT officers, as well as air support.
Multiple law enforcement agencies participated as teams fanned out across the county and searched for targets at known or associated addresses.
“Any number of outstanding warrants that pose a threat to the county concerns me,” newly elected Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said.
When he took office in January, he said there were about 2,700 outstanding felony warrants.
KPRC 2 has requested the current number of active felony warrants. KPRC 2 also requested the number of suspects booked during the operation who ended up with an ICE hold.
Operations like this one, partnering with other agencies, and more pressure to serve warrants under the new sheriff’s leadership are all reasons he said justice is coming.
“Those that know they have warrants take measures to keep from being caught,“ Doolittle said. ”It’s something that I’m sure they think about on a consistent basis, are they gonna get caught today? Is today the day that they’ll be arrested? And they constantly look over their shoulder for those officers that might be executing those warrants. And I would tell them to be worried about it, that we are seeking you out."
Conroe PD did not release names of suspects arrested during the operation, but shared this data of the warrants cleared:
- 14 Blue Warrants (parole violations)
- 10 Possession of Child Pornography
- 8 for Assault Family Violence
- 7 for Dangerous Drugs
- 6 for Possession of a Controlled Substance
- 5 warrants each for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, Aggravated Assault, and Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon
- 3 each for Fraud, Supervised Release Violation (Federal), Indecency with a Child, Stalking, and Larceny