BILLBOARDS Police aim high in anti-gun effort

Lamar Advertising donated locations for Project Safe Neighborhoods.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Twenty-five billboards that show a handgun and proclaim "Your future is shot" will begin to sprout in hot spots where firearms are a way of life.
Lamar Advertising donated the 25 locations around town as part of a Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. said Thursday. The goal is a dramatic reduction in gun violence, a continuation of the Gun Reduction Interdiction Program from the summer of 2003.
The chief spoke at a news conference Thursday in city council chambers. Also on hand were U.S. Attorney Greg White, U.S. Marshal Peter J. Elliott and others.
White said PSN is the No. 1 domestic initiative. He said it offers grant money to fund local prosecutions, Weed and Seed and the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force.
The goal is to prosecute gun cases in federal court, White said. In 2004, the federal government prosecuted 184 gun cases in the Northeast District of Ohio, 57 of which came from Youngstown, he said.
Billboard placement
He said the billboards will be placed in locations where people are inclined to pick up a gun. He said his office has a great commitment to the Mahoning Valley, to drag criminals "out of the spider holes where they hide."
The billboards show two tip lines, (866) 4WANTED for the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and (800) ATF-GUNS for the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Elliott said that, since the task force was formed in 2003, the unit, which includes city police, made 1,450 arrests in the area. He credited tips from the public.
Jail population
The Vindicator asked White and Bush about the cause and effect of more arrests in the coming months from PSN, considering the Mahoning County jail situation. A lack of funding has caused the sheriff to transfer inmates and county lawyers to ask that a federal judge release most of those who remain.
"I know the county has big budget problems, but we can't stop the momentum built up over the past two years," White said. "There's no reason we can't get the homicide rate down to zero."
Since December, the city has recorded 14 homicides, nearly four a month.
"We still have to take the worst people off the streets," White said. "Hopefully, there will be a way to work out of the economic cycle."
Bush said he can't turn the arrest system off and on like a light switch. He said police make arrests and take people to jail.
"Hopefully, the system can accommodate them," he said. "I have concerns about high crime and getting the bad guys off the streets. Incarceration is the cost of doing business."