Thursday, September 18, 2014
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The police department, along with its partners, has concluded its Violence Interruption Patrols for the year, racking up 262 arrests and seizing 75 firearms.
The program, which combines personnel from several law-enforcement agencies to patrol in large numbers in areas where violent crime is a problem, ran from the first week of April until the first week of September.
Of the 262 people arrested, there were 395 charges filed, 406 citations issued and 198 citizen contacts. The patrols also seized 1,586 grams of drugs and $5,163.
As for the firearms seizures, officers working the program last year seized 62 firearms. They seized 54 in 2012.
Capt. Kevin Mercer, coordinator for the department, said the patrols were driven by crime data. Supervisors ran patrols in all four parts of town based on statistics showing the locations of the most-violent crimes.
The city recorded the same number of homicides during the program this year as in 2013, when seven people were killed.
So far this year, Youngstown has recorded 10 homicides. Youngstown also had 10 homicides at the same time in 2013. There were a total of 20 homicides last year.
Assisting city police was the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Adult Parole Authority and U.S. marshals. The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio also helped because some suspects arrested during the patrols were eligible to have their cases charged in federal court, where sentences generally are more strict.
Also participating was the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office and the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.
Mercer said an extra dimension this year was that some people arrested or contacted by police for the first time were referred to the city’s Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, or CIRV, where they are given education and help to try to escape a criminal lifestyle.