CIRV to hold basketball tournament with police

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Community Initiative To Reduce Violence, or CIRV, and several local police departments are teaming up to have a basketball tournament Saturday.

The tournament will take place beginning at 1 p.m. at East High School, 474 Bennington Ave.

Some of the departments taking part in the tournament include the city police department, the Youngstown State University Police Department, Boardman Police Department and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Jude Koury, an intern with CIRV, said so far 10 officers have signed up to play in the tournament.

Koury said 10 teams are in the tournament, and every team will have at least one officer as a team member.

This is the first year CIRV has had such a tournament, Koury said. It has been in the planning stages for about three months.

Team members are 14 to 19 years of age.

The CIRV offers a mixture of aggressive policing and social-service programs aimed at people who have been in trouble in the past to steer them out of trouble in the future. It uses statistics compiled by the department to target high-crime areas and also people who have records associated with violence and other crimes.

Koury said the tournament’s goal is to help bring police and community members closer together, especially younger members of the community who are members of the teams in the tournament.

“We figure this is a good way to get the youths active and keep them involved,” Koury said.