Originally published on April 23, 2021 2:23 pm Knox County is forming a task force to address a drastic uptick in violent crimes this year. In the first four months of 2021, Galesburg Police Chief Russ Idle said his department has made 15 arrests linked to shooting incidents, 18 arrests for gun crimes, seized 11 illegally-possessed guns, and made 48 felony drug possession arrests. "Normally, we see something in the low single digits for these type of events, and we're edging up to 30 (violent crimes) this year already," Idle said. "So it's a significant increase. It's something we really want to put focus on and do something about."