Kansas City, MO – U.S. Marshal Mark James of the Western
District of Missouri announced his impending retirement for December 31,
2021.
James was nominated for the position of U.S.
Marshal in October 2017 by President Donald J. Trump and confirmed by
the U.S. Senate in March 2018. His 43-year journey of public service
started in August 1978 as a member of the Missouri State Highway Patrol
where he served nine years as a uniformed Trooper in the Springfield
area, an undercover investigator, and the originator and supervisor of
the Highway Patrol’s first Intelligence Section. He was recruited by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 1987 and
served a 20-year career as an ATF agent working many undercover
investigations in the Kansas City office, the Resident Agent in Charge
of the Omaha Field Office, the Intelligence Division Chief where he
created ATF’s nationwide Intelligence Field Groups and re-engineered the
Headquarters Intelligence Division, and ultimately returned to Kansas
City as the Special Agent in Charge of the four-state field division
consisting of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. His ATF career was
noted for several significant investigations to include a cold-case
murder which earned him the National Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association (FLEOA) Investigator of the Year award, the Oklahoma City
Bombing, the Atlanta Olympic Park bombings, the Keyhoe Brothers national
manhunt, and as an Incident Commander in the D.C. Snipers case to name a
few. His work in the Intelligence Community earned him the designation
of an Intelligence Fellow by the Director of Central Intelligence.
Following his ATF career, James served four years
as the Director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety and Homeland
Security Advisor to the Governor. During those four years he served as
the Incident Commander managing 20 federally declared disasters,
spearheaded the creation of the statewide interoperable communication
system MOSWIN, and created the state’s Intelligence Fusion Center known
as the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC).
In 2009, James took his organizational leadership
skills in a different direction serving the Metropolitan Community
College of Kansas City (MCC) first as its Vice Chancellor of
Administrative Services for a year then Chancellor of the college for
nearly eight years. Chancellor James was credited for taking the college
from the brink of financial disaster in the aftermath of the 2008 and
2009 economic depression to a very financially strong institution known
for its workforce development programs serving the industries of Kansas
City and strong academic degree programs. Never removed from law
enforcement, James created the college’s first campus police department
to improve the safety and security of its students, faculty, and staff.
He recruited and hired the college’s first police chief who was a direct
report to the Chancellor unlike any other college or university. He
retired from MCC in 2017 as Chancellor Emeritus.
From the time he was sworn in as U.S. Marshal in
April 2018, he immediately began looking for opportunities to focus
fugitive apprehension efforts in a strategic manner to affect violent
crime. Since the summer of 2018, the USMS Western District of Missouri
Kansas City Office has conducted multiple enforcement operations with
the following results:
-
2018 – Operation Washout (10 days) – 56
arrests for felony warrants, 12 firearms and numerous narcotics
seized. -
2019 – Operation Triple Beam (90 days) – 355
Arrests and the seizure of 69 firearms (43 handguns, 18 rifles, 8
shotguns), 4.4kg narcotics, 2,382 rounds of ammunition and $1,228 in
currency. -
2020 – Operation Relentless Pursuit (60 days)
– 176 arrests and the seizure of 12 firearms (9 handguns, 1 rifle, 2
shotguns), 1.034 kg narcotics, 141 rounds of ammunition and $3,581in
currency. -
2020 – Operation LeGend (90 days) – 488
arrests, 76 firearms seized, 5.49kg narcotics and $33,757 in
currency. -
2021 – Operation Triple Beam (60 days) – 150
state, local, and federal arrests, 2 gang members arrested, 10
firearms seized, 0.145 kilograms (kg) of narcotics seized, 96 rounds
of ammunition seized, $4,498 in U.S. Currency seized
The other priority Marshal James identified for
the Western District of Missouri was to increase the number of law
enforcement agencies participating in the USMS Midwest Violent Fugitive
Task Force (MVFT). During his tenure, the USMS added 10 agencies and 47
Task Force Officers to include the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office,
Independence Police Department Street Crimes Unit, Kansas City Police
Department’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit, the Clay County Sheriff
Fugitive Apprehension Unit, the Buchanan County and St. Joseph PD’s
Street Crimes Units, the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, the Clinton
County Sheriff’s Office, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, and the
Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control to the
USMS Kansas City component of the MVFT. The Springfield and southwest
Missouri component of the task force includes Christian County Sheriff’s
Office, Greene County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Apprehension Unit, the
Springfield Police Department, and the Joplin Police Department. Since
Marshal James April 1, 2018, start date this revitalized Midwest Violent
Fugitive Task Force has been responsible for the arrest of 2,568
fugitives.
Marshal James credited the career leadership team
of the USMS Western District of Missouri and the partner agencies for
the hard work and success of the task force. James stated, “These are
the best people I have ever worked with, and I can truly retire
confidently knowing that this great work will go on without me. It was
the honor of my lifetime to wear America’s Star – the gold badge of a
United States Marshal in this closing chapter of my law enforcement
career.”
The U.S. Marshals Midwest Violent Fugitive Task
Force—Springfield Division, partners with members of the Greene County
Sheriff’s Office, the Christian County Sheriff’s Office, the Springfield
Police Department, and the Joplin Police Department. The mission of U.S.
Marshals Service fugitive programs is to seek out and arrest fugitives
charged with violent crimes, serious drug offenses, sex offenders, and
other serious felonies. To accomplish this mission, the U.S. Marshals
Service partners with local law enforcement agencies in 94 district
offices, 85 local fugitive task forces, 8 regional task forces, as well
as many foreign countries.
Submit tips on fugitives directly and anonymously
to the U.S. Marshals Service by downloading the USMS Tips app to your
Apple or Android device, or online at:
https://www.usmarshals.gov/tips/index.html
Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found
at http://www.usmarshals.gov.
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America’s
First Federal Law Enforcement Agency