MILWAUKEE — The head of the United States Marshals Service joined the mayor, law enforcement leaders and other community partners Wednesday for a roundtable discussion about violent crime in the city.

USMS Director Ronald Davis said he was mostly there to listen and explore how the federal agency can assist with local efforts to make communities safer.

“[When] a person decides that he or she wants to now run from the community and the accountability that comes with it, we’ll just make this crystal clear: There’s nowhere that they can hide,” Davis said.

Wednesday’s meeting at the downtown federal courthouse lasted about 75 minutes. The USMS director made similar visits last week to Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and said the agency plans to identify and implement strategies to aid cities in reducing violent crime.

According to the Department of Justice, U.S. Marshals arrested more than 75,000 fugitives in 2022, including more than 5,700 murder suspects. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office would welcome federal help to bring more violent criminals to justice.

“We have tens of thousands of warrants in our system,” Chisholm said. “[We have] misdemeanors, felonies across a whole spectrum. We have limited amounts of capacity and space for our most serious violent offenders.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said partnerships between residents and law enforcement will be essential in making neighborhoods safer.

“Everybody’s got a role to play in terms of public safety in Milwaukee,” Johnson said. “We cannot allow somebody to pull a trigger and then go sit on somebody’s couch and ride it out. That’s not right.”

Davis said Milwaukeeans should know U.S. Marshals would only show up in their neighborhood to arrest a violent fugitive. He said the agency will provide resources to — but not take charge of — local law enforcement and violence interruption efforts.