Efforts to fight violent crime in Tampa making progress, officials say

Efforts to fight violent crime in Tampa led to some encouraging progress in 2022, legislation enforcement officials stated Wednesday.

Violent crimes dedicated with a firearm dropped 5% in 2022, and nonfatal shootings dropped 17% in contrast to 2021, Tampa’s interim police chief, Lee Bercaw, stated at a news convention. According to the division, the town noticed 171 nonfatal shootings in 2022, down from 205 the earlier 12 months.

Bercaw, who was joined by U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Roger Handberg and brokers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Tampa area workplace, stated collaboration between legislation enforcement contributed to the reductions. The police division has additionally elevated its efforts to construct neighborhood relationships to cut back violent crime by holding public boards and partnering with neighborhood organizations, the interim chief stated.

Bercaw additionally stated police seized about 18.9% more guns than in 2021, a rise of 243 extra firearms.

However, Bercaw stated legislation enforcement nonetheless wants assist from the neighborhood. In 2022, 198 firearms had been stolen from unlocked autos, he stated. The chief asks homeowners to lock their autos and safe their weapons.

“Our goal is to make every community member and resident and visitor alike feel safe in our city,” Bercaw stated.

The variety of homicides in Tampa final 12 months ticked up from the earlier 12 months. The metropolis noticed 48 homicides in 2022 and 43 in 2021, in accordance to the division.

Handberg cited some instances in which his workplace and Tampa police labored collectively to prosecute defendants.

Among them was what officials known as “the Robles Park criminal enterprise,” a bunch whose members and associates engaged in a variety of crimes together with homicide, assault, drug trafficking and fraud, in accordance to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The group’s members had been liable for a shootout on the Truth Lounge in July 2020 that injured eight individuals, a few of them juveniles, officials stated. In retaliation for that incident, a rival group began a gunfight with Robles Park members on the International Plaza mall. No one was injured in that capturing. Four members of the Robles Park group have been charged with federal firearm and violent crimes; three of these defendants have pleaded responsible.

All informed, in 2022, 91 individuals had been charged with federal crimes, together with firearm and drug prices, and the prosecutions resulted in the seizure of 74 firearms, Handberg stated.

The majority of the instances Handberg talked about had been a part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program designed to improve cooperation amongst native, state and federal legislation enforcement businesses and neighborhood members to cut back violent crime.

“On a regular basis, federal prosecutors from my office meet with investigators from these three agencies, along with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and our counterparts at the State Attorney’s Office,” Handberg stated. “The purpose of those meetings is to identify those individuals who are drivers of violent crime.”

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The metropolis of Tampa obtained a $1.5 million grant from the Justice Department’s Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative in September, Handberg stated. The funding can be used to work with native teams to create extra protected areas and assets for underserved youth and research the effectiveness of the Tampa Police Department’s crime discount packages.

Tampa Police captain Travis Maus stated defendants arrested for violent crime usually lack constructive function fashions and wrestle with faculty and residential life.

“I’d love for them to have a different path and a different life they could lead, that’s one of the reasons we’re excited about this $1.5 million grant,” Maus stated.

The news convention comes days after a capturing in Tampa’s popular Curtis Hixon Park on Sunday that left a 16-year-old boy critically injured. In 2022, among the shootings in Tampa concerned youngsters, together with a shooting that critically injured a 17-year-old girl in a Tampa neighborhood in October and an exchange of gunfire that killed a 16-year-old boy at a Tampa McDonald’s that very same month.