The Indiana House has unanimously endorsed a plan allowing Lake County to join the nine other counties served by the Indiana Crime Guns Task Force.
House Bill 1095, sponsored by state Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, was approved 89-0 Tuesday. It next goes to the Senate for a decision on sending it to Republican Gov. Mike Braun to be signed into law.
Under the plan, the task force would work to reduce violent crime and bring violent criminals to justice in Lake County by tracing the firearms used in Northwest Indiana crimes, just as it has since 2021 in the Indianapolis and Fort Wayne areas.
In 2024, Harris said the task force investigated 150 leads, made 232 arrests and seized more than 270 illegal firearms, along with some 75,000 grams of illegal narcotics.
He said bringing that experience to Northwest Indiana, particularly Gary, East Chicago and Hammond, could help reduce the number of violent homicides and gun crimes occurring annually in Lake County.
State Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, who sponsored the original task force legislation, agreed. He said in some years the task force has made more than 400 arrests and confiscated more than 400 illegal guns.
"The plan has always been to take this statewide. There's been over 20-some cities from across the country that have come here to visit this Crime Guns Task Force. It is knocking it out of the park," Steuerwald said.
The legislation also would add two members, presumably from Northwest Indiana, to the executive board that oversees and directs task force operations.
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