YPD, Feds, APA, to announce partnership results today

June 21, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A surge in gun violence late last year that resulted in 13 homicides in the last two and a half months of 2018 also led to an increased partnership with federal and state parole authorities.

The fruits of that cooperation will be unveiled today at a news conference with U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman, police Chief Robin Lees and others as they release the results of that cooperation, including some of the patrols and details undertaken during Operation Steel Penguin.

Lees said Herdman convened a meeting late last year with all federal law enforcement after the surge in violence, to see how they could assist the police department.

Because several of the different law enforcement task forces had cases that were expected to culminate in arrests and indictments this spring, it was decided that would be a good time to crack down on gun violence by targeting people who were known to be involved or influencing some of the gunplay in Youngstown.

Lees said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobbaco, Firearms and Explosives along with the state Adult Parole Authority also used their resources to look for guns and gun offenders, which became known as Operation Steel Penguin.

Under Operation Steel Penguin, parole agents, along with police and the ATF, would search for people on parole, through a series of traffic stops and home searches, who were known to be involved in gun crimes.

Several people have been arrested through the detail and some of them face federal firearms charges, where sentences are longer.

Parole and ATF agents also teamed up with the city to search reports to find out what areas of the city experienced the most gun crimes and what times of the day they occurred, so they could patrol at those times.

The city had 26 homicides in 2018. In 2019, Youngstown has 10 homicides. In 2018, Youngstown did not record its 10th homicide until Aug. 1.

There has not been a homicide since May 12 and Lees said part of the reason is because of the work of federal, state and city police in allocating extra resources to target people known to carry guns.

“Any time you’re being proactive and making arrests on firearms violations, that usually has a direct impact on street violence,” Lees said.