Task force formed to stop Missouri residents from committing crimes in Madison County
Local, state and federal law-enforcement officials met Friday for the first time as part of a new task force created to keep Missouri residents from driving to Madison County and committing crimes.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine, a Republican elected in November, formed the Cross-River Crime Task Force.
“The chorus of citizen complaints in Madison County regarding crimes occurring in their communities (because of) individuals coming across the river from Missouri is being heard,” he said at a news conference after the meeting at the Madison County Administration Building in Edwardsville.
About 30 officials attended the meeting. They formed two “working groups.”
One will set up an organizational structure to get the task force operational by this summer. The other will collect data to determine the extent of the problem and look at action taken in other regions.
“This is not the first time that a high-crime jurisdiction has been divided by a river from a low-crime jurisdiction,” Haine said.
He listed auto thefts, shootings, home invasions, vehicular burglaries in neighborhoods and “strong-arm” robberies in parking lots as crimes typically committed by Missouri residents in Madison County.
Haine gave the example of Moneer Damra, a 27-year-old nursing student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, who was shot in January on an exit ramp off Interstate 270 near campus. Damra later died. Two Missouri teenagers were charged with first-degree murder.
“I have visited every police chief in Madison County (since taking office in December),” Haine said. “And every single one said this is a major problem, but they didn’t know exactly how major.”
Task-force members include Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, Madison County Sheriff John Lakin, U.S. Marshal Brad Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft, regional agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Agency and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and police chiefs from municipalities in the county.
Haine declined to speculate on the percentage of crimes in Madison County committed by Missouri residents, saying he wanted to wait until the task force has collected solid data.
Part of his strategy is to spread the word in Missouri that residents who cross the river to commit crimes in Madison County will be caught and aggressively prosecuted.
“It’s a very exciting time for law enforcement in Madison County, and it’s a privilege to work in this new effort,” Haine said.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
