COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Whitehall Division of Police targeted violent crimes in the community through a crime blitz on Thursday with a focus on getting guns off the streets.
Sgt. Jonathan Earl told 10TV that during the blitz, officers made 14 arrests with several felony arrests of having weapons under disability, felony parole violation for burglary, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest.
Officers were able to recover three guns and drugs including ecstasy, fentanyl, oxycodone, crack, suboxone and marijuana.
“Anytime you have focus on patrol issues and have extra manpower on the street, we never know what we are going to find,” said Whitehall Police Lieutenant John Grebb.
In an encounter during the Thursday blitz, police attempted to pull a man over for a traffic stop, but he refused. When officers finally got him to stop, they found a gun he hid inside his daughter's backpack.
Police said the man had prior felony arrests and is not allowed to have any guns on him.
“We have extra officers on the street. That is going to allow us to focus on our problem areas. We have areas of the city we have identified as having violent crime or having a lot of drug activity,” Grebb explained.
Grebb believes the blitzes make an impact. “The number of arrests we are able to generate through these things, and the media coverage, frankly gives it great coverage for the community to know exactly what is going on.”
In addition to the 14 arrests, police said they will talk to those suspects to see if they are involved in other crimes, giving the blitz a ripple effect.
“It's impactful just for the immediate response in general. The community sees us out here, sees the extra cruisers, they see the lights, they see the activity. They know we are out here working to keep them safe,” Grebb said.