McKeesport: Task force deals with frequent gunshots
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
McKeesport Police Department announced Thursday it has partnered with multiple law enforcement agencies to create a task force in response to a recent increase of 911 callers reporting gunshots being fired in the city.
The task force has been in operation since Sept. 1 and is a collaborative of the McKeesport and Allegheny County police departments, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Team.
In a prepared statement, McKeesport police said the partnering agencies have “amped up collaborative crime suppression patrols” in recent weeks and are working proactively to curb incidents of gun violence to “ultimately preserve lives.”
The task force’s actions have led to the arrest of several people on various firearms and narcotics violations, according to police, who said that during the task force’s patrols, officers have recovered 17 illegal firearms and “a significant quantity of narcotics to date.”
Police said they’ve seen a sharp decrease in reports of shots fired and incidents of gun violence since the task force was deployed.
At this month’s council meeting, Mayor Michael Cherepko said area residents, including people who don’t live in the city, criticized him, the council and McKeesport Police Department via social media throughout August as a result of gun violence and “shots fired” 911 calls in the city.
Cherepko said he took offense to claims that the city, its officials and law enforcement officers weren’t doing enough to combat gun violence.
“All too often it becomes the elephant in the room that people don’t want to talk about, but we’ve had issues — lots of shots fired calls over the month of August,” Cherepko said during his mayor’s report. “You know, you see a lot of people are saying, ‘Oh they’re not policing, they’re not doing this and they’re not doing that.’
“What I want you to know is that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
He said McKeesport police officers “do a tremendous job putting their lives on the line to try to make McKeesport a safer place.”
“What, you think we’re all sitting at home and you think we’re OK with this and we’re not doing anything?” Cherepko said in response to the social media comments.
At the meeting, the mayor said the city will be releasing information in the coming weeks about what efforts police are taking to respond to an increase of shots fired calls. He did not offer further information.
On Thursday, the police department, in conjunction with the mayor’s office and ACPD, announced the task force had been formed “to tackle this issue in a joint effort” and confirmed it was created “due to a recent increase in shots-fired calls and incidents of gun violence within the City of McKeesport.”
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