The Columbus Division of Police announced the results of "Operation Unity" that the department says was a single-day collaboration of law enforcement and social services focused in the Linden, King-Lincoln Bronzeville, Mt. Vernon, Eastgate and Milo Grogan neighborhoods.
The goal was to address violent criminal offenders, seize firearms and confiscate illegal drugs.
Columbus police, alongside state and local law enforcement partners, made dozens of arrests last Thursday, seizing illegal drugs, firearms and conducting multiple traffic stops in Linden and other neighborhoods north and east of downtown.
Police said in a press release officers arrested 43 people, including 28 on unspecified felony charges. Police also said 11 illegal guns and hundreds of grams of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, marijuana and meth were seized.
The operation involved the execution of five search warrants and 150 traffic stops being conducted.
This style of crime-fighting employed by CPD has been used several times in the past year and the Linden area has been a focus of multiple operations.
Columbus Police Deputy Chief Elrico Alli said Linden is often chosen because crime tends to be higher in the area. The city uses both crime statistic heat maps and communication with people in the neighborhood to determine where to use Operation Unity.
But Alli says the city is also trying to connect families to support networks and services.
"It makes their neighborhood safer. It makes it easier for them to sleep at night. It's that much fewer gunshots that they have to hear from illegal guns on the streets. So, absolutely, each of these operations makes a difference," Alli said.
Alli said anytime the city is able to get criminals and guns off the street is a win for public safety and for Columbus neighborhoods.
"Families in the Linden, Eastgate and Milo Grogan (neighborhoods). Communities deserve to live free of violence and free of fear, the same as residents in any neighborhood in the city," Alli said.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said efforts the city has put into crime prevention and community policing are having an impact on neighborhoods like Linden, but he said the city will likely still utilize Operation Unity more in the future.
"There are signs of promise (in Linden), but you have to be vigilant and you can't rest," he said.
Ginther said one sign of progress in Linden is the amount of citizens who are working alongside police to report crime. He said since the protests in 2020, the police have done more to build trust in that community and others in Columbus to make people have faith in police enough to communicate with them.
"I think because of the changes we've made, the reforms we've made and the great work of our officers, the leadership of Chief Bryant, I think some of those bridges have been repaired, restored," Ginther said.
Despite this progress in Linden, there have been several recent shootings elsewhere in the city where suspects have shot at officers, sometimes injuring them in the process. A shooting on Wednesday left one suspect dead and one officer in the hospital.
None of the officers who were shot in the line of duty have been publicly named. A state law called Marsy's Law now protects police officer identities if they are considered a crime victim.
Ginther said he thinks these one-day operations where police make many arrests in one area and conduct multiple search warrants are safe. But he said being a police officer is becoming more and more dangerous because Ohio lawmakers refuse to enact tougher gun laws.
"What we need is a smart, safe gun policy that protects our officers, that protects our neighbors, that protects our cities. And that's why we continue to encourage them," Ginther said.
Alli echoed that sentiment and said when police don't use tactics like Operation Unity, officers are put at risk.
"When you have dangerous criminals running around, the same kind of thing that puts officers at risk is the same thing that puts our residents at risk, dangerous people doing dangerous things, hurting innocent people," Alli said.
Ginther said the city should expect to have more officers on the street by the end of next year than the city has ever had in its history to help fight crime.
