Announcing the decision to scale back the task force Thursday are Police Chief Tom Streicher (seated left) and Lt. Col. Richard Janke. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Cincinnati's Violent Crimes Task Force will be cut in half this weekend, but officials say its new district-based teams will bring more neighborhood focus to battling violent crime.

        The 70-member task force, formed in response to the city's most violent spring and summer in decades, has worked for five months and logged more than 2,200 arrests. Now, Chief Tom Streicher says it's time for Phase II of the plan, which puts six task force members and a sergeant in each of the five police districts.

        The change comes now, the chief said, in part because crime generally declines in cold weather. That gives the teams time to get started “and be prepared for springtime, when activity is likely going to increase.”

        Task force officers will be asked to do something new, too — make better connections with the residents of the neighborhoods where they are assigned, including attending community meetings. That's key, Lt. Col. Rick Janke said, because a community's fear of crime can be as important as the amount of crime itself.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Violent Crimes Task Force started July 24. Since, the 70-member team tallied these statistics: Total arrests: 2,214     Adults: 1,914     Juveniles: 300 Drug arrests: 645 Vice arrests: 205 Warrants served: 1,804     Felonies: 606     Misdemeanors: 1,198 Curfew violations: 53 Confiscations:     Cocaine: 1,524 grams     Crack: 891 grams     Pot: 64,584 grams     Heroin: 57 grams     Money: $63,564     Vehicles: 78 Injuries:     To officers: 6     To prisoners: 15     Uses of force: 0     Uses of chemical irritant: 12    Source: The Cincinnati Police Department

        Officials will not set a numbers goal for the new teams. They'll measure success, he said, by arrests and community reaction.

        Each district is preparing a flow chart to identify which task force officers cover which neighborhoods. The charts will also organize other district neighborhood cops, first-, second- and third-shift officers and investigators by neighborhood to encourage all of them to work with task force members and promote a district-wide focus on battling violent crime.

        “This focus, we think, will reverberate throughout the districts,” said Col. Janke, the assistant chief in charge of patrol.

        The task force started July 24. At the time, there were shootings virtually every day — more than 110 throughout the spring and summer. The shootings waned in the fall, although overall violent crime remains up 21 percent this year across the city, compared with last year.

        The changes also mean the department's drug unit, Street Corner, will return to its regular work. Since the April protests and riots, officers from that specialized assignment have been reassigned to other work.

        The renewal of that unit also should help crack down on violent crime because many of the shootings and other incidents are related to drugs, said Capt. Greg Snider, District 1 commander.

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