Gary, Ind. police look to Youngstown for answers

YOUNGSTOWN — Learning about Youngstown’s crime-fighting and revitalization efforts was the goal of seven representatives of the Gary, Ind., police department, who made a one-day visit here.

Their Tuesday visit began with a PowerPoint presentation in the police roll call room by Youngstown Police Sgts. Mike Lambert and Kevin Mercer concerning Youngstown’s history and population and crime characteristics.

“We are both trying to see how we can better reduce crime and make a better city,” police Chief Jimmy Hughes said of Youngstown and Gary officials.

After that presentation, the visitors toured the city police station and municipal court and various neighborhoods in all seven wards of the city.

Hughes said he and two other Youngstown police representatives plan to visit Gary to view that city’s Shot Spotter gunshot detection technology, which Youngstown plans to acquire.

Shot Spotter is an electronic system that uses satellite mapping to identity to within 10 feet the origin point of gunfire. “They set up sensors in a zone and, by triangulating the sound, they can pinpoint it,” Hughes said, adding that the system can identify the shooter’s direction of travel during the gunfire.

Gary and Youngstown are similar in population and similarly plagued with abandoned buildings and a high crime rate, including a high homicide rate, and both experienced major steel mill closings, Hughes said.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com