UPDATE, Nov. 7 :
A quick update to the stats I gave you below. Here are the full statistics for the hot spots from Oct. 22-29:
• Six homicide suspects apprehended
• Warrants cleared: 9 City, 12 State and 4 federal
• New Felon In Possession charges: 2
• New Possession of Narcotics charges:15
• New Distribution of Narcotics charges: 14
• Aggravated assault charges: 2
• Robbery charges: 1
• Total car checks/pedestrian checks/traffic violations: 662
• Search warrants served: 6
• Guns recovered: 5
• Cocaine recovered: 1,100 grams
• Marijuana recovered: 3,325 grams
• K2 recovered: 289 grams
• Cash recovered: $4,656
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I wanted to give you an update on how the plan to target violent crime hot spots is going. Since we saturated these high-crime areas beginning Oct. 16, tremendous progress has been made. In just one week (Oct. 22-29), we apprehended six homicide suspects. To my knowledge, that is the first time that’s ever happened. We also have busted 17 people selling narcotics on the street, 15 for possession of narcotics and 14 for of distribution narcotics. We have contacted many potential suspects through a total of 662 car checks, pedestrian checks and traffic violations in these hot spots. We’re also still pulling the numbers together on the numerous felon-in-possession of firearms cases we’re working. We’ve also conducted many search warrants, recovered multiple firearms and drugs. Through this, we’ve cleared numerous city, state and federal warrants. More on those stats to come soon.
As I’d mentioned before, these four hot spots comprise 13 square miles and are where 50 percent of the city’s homicides and 42 percent of the aggravated assaults with guns have happened since 2009. I’m not identifying them because the criminals don’t tell us where they’re going to be, and we don’t want to do them any favors. The officers and I have spoken with the people in the target neighborhoods, and they’ve told us our efforts are making a difference.
Another part of my plan to reduce violence focuses on reducing the opportunity for the victim and offender to come together. Oftentimes, today’s victim is tomorrow’s offender. Over and over again, we see people get shot, survive, and refuse to prosecute the person who assaulted them. They want to take justice into their own hands, and this just perpetuates violence. If we know these shooting victims have involvement in narcotics and/or gangs, we are not going to just let them walk away. We will heavily encourage them to deal with their issues through the legal system. If they still refuse, we will stay on them, doing everything within the law to keep them away from the person against whom they seek revenge, even if that means arresting them for jaywalking to get them off the street. We cannot let violent feuds continue, catching innocent people in the crossfire and destroying communities.
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