Columbus police ramp up summer violence prevention efforts
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Summer in Columbus is ramping up. Columbus police data shows there is typically an increase in violence in those months.
Last weekend, there were at least five shootings around the city and the Taco Festival at Goodale Park had to shut down early due to reports of fights.
Police data shows there were 13 homicides in the month of May, which is the most of any month so far this year. The city’s homicide rate is still the lowest it has been in more than a decade.
“Obviously, we're never happy with one homicide, let alone, you know, the numbers that we've had in the month of May,” Columbus Police Deputy Chief Smith Weir said.
Weir said they are constantly watching behaviors and trends to prevent violence. He said their summer safety initiatives officially start next week.
“Each zone is going to put together a plan and everybody in that starts June 1 and the zone will be implementing a community plan where they will have additional officers out on the streets working on quality of life issues, working on being visible, on being at events and places that tend to get crowds in the summer,” Weir said.
He said they are also bringing back Operation Moonlight where more officers will be on patrol at city parks and events.
“It'll prioritize areas where there's going to be large crowds like festivals and everything like that,” Weir said.
Weir said another focus is solving crimes that have already happened, specifically non-fatal shootings.
He said they are expanding their non-fatal shoot team. Their goal is to get shooters off the street before they pull the trigger again.
“We've been running a pilot project on that for about a year now and we just got approval to move forward, making it a permanent fixture. So that process, that implementation process will be going, playing out over the course of the summer and then into the fall in terms of building out those teams and those detectives. So we're really looking forward to that," Weir said.
Weir said that the team started in just zone six and has been successful. He said the plan is to start expanding it through the entire city this summer and into next year.
Weir said with festival season now underway they have plans to meet with organizers to talk about security and restrictions they can put in place to ensure a safe event.