On Thursday, the Whitehall Police Department was able to recover three guns and make 14 arrests.

COLUMBUS, OH – Whitehall Police Department is targeting violent crime in the community through Thursday’s crime blitz with a focus on getting guns off the streets.

Sergeant Jonathan Earl said 10 television that during the blitz officers made 14 arrests with several arrests for having a weapon on disability, violating parole for theft, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest.

Officers were able to recover three handguns and drugs, including ecstasy, fentanyl, oxycodone, crack, subaxone and marijuana.

“Anytime you focus on patrol issues and have excess manpower on the street, we never know what we’re going to find,” said Whitehall Police Lt. John Greb.

During a scuffle during Thursday’s blitz, police tried to detain a man in a traffic stop, but he refused. When officers finally got him to stop, they found the gun he had hidden in his daughter’s backpack.

Police said the man had prior felony arrests and was not authorized to carry a weapon.

“We have extra employees on the street. This will allow us to focus on problem areas. We have areas of the city that we’ve identified as places with violent crime or a lot of drugs,” Greb explained.

Greb believes that blitzes have an impact. “The number of arrests we can make with these things and the media coverage, frankly, gives the community a lot of exposure to know exactly what’s going on.”

In addition to the 14 arrests, police said they would be talking to those suspects to see if they were involved in other crimes, giving the blitz a ripple effect.

“It only affects the immediate response as a whole. The community sees us here, sees the extra cruisers, they see the lights, they see the activity. They know that we are working on their safety,” Greb said.

CrimeTracker 10: Recent coverage ⬇️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/police-arrest-14-seize-3-guns-during-operation-targeting-crime-in-whitehall/530-679bdabc-abd1-4a21-bf76-4bda2067d6e0