Project Pinpoint will keep criminals on a short leash

This weekend, a special crime-fighting unit in Youngstown will take to the streets with a weapon that promises to make the city a very inhospitable place for criminals. Indeed, the advanced computer mapping software will identify “hot spots” of criminal activity and show where criminals, including those wanted on warrants, live.

Thus, when a murder occurs, police will be able to determine who lives in vicinity and conduct record checks for outstanding warrants.

“We’ll get them off the street and see what information they can provide,” said FBI Special Agent Derek Siegle of the bureau’s Cleveland office during a press conference this week for the unveiling of the newly formed Crime Suppression Unit. The FBI, Youngstown Police Department and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department have joined forces in this crime-fighting initiative, which will be in force through the summer.

The unit will be made up of four officers and four deputies who will work late at night and overnight. Two words will define the way they conduct business: Proactive;aggressive.

This is all part of the Mayor Jay Williams’ zero tolerance program designed to get criminals off the streets, thereby reducing the number of crimes, especially homicide. The consistently high per-capita homicide rate has put Youngstown on the national crime statistics map.

The element of surprise is very much a part of the CSU’s mode of operation. Residents will not know when members of the unit will be on the streets, the mayor said.

Deputized police officers

Sheriff Randall Wellington, noting that this is the first time deputies and city police officers will pair up in cruisers, revealed that police will be deputized so they will have enforcement powers if the work takes them into outlying areas. It is a recognition that criminals are not confined by geographic boundaries.

The mapping software — it’s called Project Pinpoint and was first used in Philadelphia — promises to be an important weapon because it will provide law enforcement with profiles of high-crime neighborhoods.

In explaining Project Pinpoint, police Lt. Dave McKnight, head of the vice squad, said a list of persons of interest would be generated following a crime, such as a series of robberies, and then the streets in the target area or areas will be saturated with law enforcement types.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies have been cross-trained and are, therefore, familiar with the Vice Squad, FBI/Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force and the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, These entities, along with the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, are all involved in the campaign against crime in the city of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Such collaboration is bearing fruit, as evidenced by the 12 percent reduction in overall crime in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year.

Unfortunately, there were more homicides in the first five months of the year compared with the first five months of 2007. It is this trend that makes the newly created Crime Suppression Unit, along with the saturation patrols, and traffic interdiction by city police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol all the more important and necessary.

Murders in Youngstown must be reduced not only for the sake of the city’s residents, but the community’s reputation and revitalization effort.