The Auburn City Council voted to execute a memorandum of understanding with the United States Marshals Service during their meeting Tuesday, March 17.
“What we’ve agreed to do is have one of our investigators work in an as needed part-time role with this task force,” said Police Chief Paul Register. “What it will do is give us the ability to have more knowledge about fugitives that may be in this area, in our region, even if they’re not fugitives related to our cases.”
The Mission of the task force is to investigate and arrest people who have active state and federal warrants for their arrest, according to city documents.
Register said the Auburn Police Division already works with the Marshals any time there is a fugitive in close proximity to Auburn, but this arrangement will be a more formal partnership. It will give the APD more insight as to who is in the area, and additional resources.
Register said this partnership is not the result of any sort of present fugitive problems occurring in Auburn.
“It’s best to form those relationships when you don’t have anything big going on,” said Bill James, public safety director. “If you do have something big going one, then you contact somebody that you’re already familiar with, that you’ve had contact with, and it’s not basically a cold call when you need their assistance.”
James said the Marshals have the lasts technology and capabilities for finding fugitives, which will help make the Auburn community safer.
Dustin Hold, detective with the Auburn Police Division, will be allowed to act as a part-time member of the U.S. Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.
The work that needs to be done in Auburn will come first, and Holt will assist the Marshals on an as-needed basis, James said.
“We will be addressing fugitives that will be more involved in violent crimes, working with them to deal with fugitives that commit crimes of violence involving weapons and drugs and gang affiliation,” Register said. “That will just give us the ability to further guard our community against those types of situations.”
Register said Holt is the first person they have assigned to the Regional Fugitive Task Force, but they have had other agents on other types of task forces in the past.
“He already has a relationship with the Marshals service, so it’s a good fit,” said Charles Duggan, city manager, in regards to Holt being chosen for the task force. “We are partnering with them so that if they’re working in the Southeast and they need multiple personnel, we have one identified to work with.”
Holt began working for the City of Auburn as a patrol officer in 2009 and was promoted to detective in 2012.
Register said Holt’s position with the task force is open-ended, but said he feels it will be a long-term arrangement.
“I think it’s a good partnership for us,” Register said. “We’ll get a lot of benefit with being affiliated with that group.”
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