CLEVELAND — The state of Ohio's effort to help Cleveland fight violent crime continued this week, with their fifth “surge” operation since Gov. Mike DeWine first announced the initiative in August.
“We have a shared mission and that’s to keep the community safe and to remove these criminals from our roads,” said Sgt. Bridget Matt with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
On Thursday, the focus was on the 3rd police district, an area that includes downtown Cleveland, plus the Hough and Fairfax neighborhoods. The district has seen a 10% drop in felony assaults compared to this time last year. But numbers from the Cleveland Division of Police also show a nearly 30% jump in homicides, a 46% increase in robberies with a firearm and a 144% spike in grand theft of a motor vehicle.
“We try to focus all of our efforts using a data-driven approach,” Matt said. “So it’s really targeting the violent crime hot spots in whichever district that we’re in that day.”
During their fifth operation, OSHP and the Ohio Investigative Unit helped:
- Arrest 18 felons
- Seize seven illegal firearms
- Recover four stolen vehicles
- Seize illegal narcotics, including heroin, mushrooms, hash oil and marijuana
“So far these initiatives have been extremely successful in very short periods of time,” Sgt. Matt said.
Nearly two months in, the state’s “surge” initiative has led to more than 200 arrests and dozens of seized guns in Cleveland. Sgt. Matt says the operations involve federal and state agencies working with Cleveland police to cut down on violent crime across the city.
During the most recent two-day sweep on Sept. 21-22, 43 felony arrests were made, 27 illegally possessed firearms were seized and six stolen vehicles were recovered.
“It’s part of a bigger collaboration. Like I said the highway patrol we’ve been working with the Cleveland Division of Police for many, many years inside of their city. So, it’s nothing new for us. But we appreciate the collaboration and working alongside the officers from all of the other agencies involved,” Sgt. Matt said.
Sgt. Matt wouldn’t say when the next operation is happening, only that more are planned.
