COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the last eight months, the Columbus Division of Police has been focusing on solving crime in north and northeast Columbus.
The department created a new team under the felonious assault unit called the non-fatal shoot team. That team is made up of eight detectives and two officers who are focused on investigating and solving non-fatal crime on the north and northeast side.
It’s focused on the north side because that’s where police say the city has the greatest number of shootings.
The pilot program started in March, and since then they have responded to about 40 shootings.
“We have had 40 calls out, with a 64% solve rate. That’s higher then what we have for our regular unit rate which is 42.6,” said Lt. Julie Williams of the felony assault unit.
Lt. Julie Williams and Sgt. Scott Soha are a part of the new team.
“The difference between a fatal and non-fatal shooting could be inches, could be a few seconds, or a really good hospital,” Soha said.
The goal is to arrest violent offenders before a shooting turns deadly.
We asked the division of police if this new pilot program is taking away from any resources the department needs for other crimes.
“At this point we have volunteers from felony assault unit. They know investigations and how to conduct them. We are using from the current unit,” said Lieutenant Williams.
Sargent Soha said they have the adequate staff for the non-fatal team. He said the felonious assault team nearly doubled about a year ago.
10TV wanted to know what the community thinks about the pilot program. The zone police are focusing on includes Linden and North Linden.
Ralph Carter has lived in Linden his whole life. He said he wants to see less crime in his neighborhood.
“Safety is very important for the community," Carter said.
Carter runs youth programs in Linden to help the kids.
“There is no wrong effort made to reduce violence,” said Carter.
Police hope the enhanced effort helps build trust that leads to safer neighborhoods.
“We are seeing the same people, same neighbors, same people’s concerns. The same store owners that have concerns. They know our names, they are coming out and giving us more information or tips to help solve crime,” Soha said.
Police hope to expand the program to other neighborhoods in the coming year.