CLEVELAND — About a dozen car windows were smashed overnight on Cleveland's West Side, according to police.
The break-ins occurred on West 93rd Street and on Tillman Avenue. News 5 spoke with some of the victims, none of whom reported anything stolen from their vehicles.
On Wednesday afternoon, Cleveland Police Chief Annie Todd held a press conference, saying they have seen an increase in car break-ins over the past month.
Watch the press conference:
Todd said that the department has mostly seen young people breaking into the vehicles.
"What we're finding from video that we've seen is groups of young people that are driving around, sometimes, or a lot of times, in stolen vehicles, and they're going through these neighborhoods, and they're just breaking car windows, and then they lean into the cars there. It takes a matter of seconds," Todd said during Wednesday's press conference.
Todd said that in many of these break-ins, nothing is stolen from the vehicles.
"Our residents are coming out, and they're impacted," Todd said. "It's cold outside now. You have a broken window on your vehicle. You can't go where you need to go, and it's just unacceptable."
These break-ins come just days after Cleveland Police launched a new initiative to reduce car break-ins.
STANCE, or Street and Nuisance Crime Enforcement, is a new police detail that will work the evenings in hot spots for car break-ins.
RELATED: Cleveland police launch new police detail to focus on car break-ins
The department's STANCE initiative has led to almost 30 arrests related to car break-ins over the past few months, but Todd said they are still making adjustments to the unit.
"I want the community to be aware that we are continuing to change our methods as we see changes and what's happening," Todd said.
She also said she needs help from residents in keeping a watchful eye and checking their security footage if something happens in their neighborhood.
"Additional footage could be helpful for what we're doing," Todd said. "We want to make sure that everybody is a part of this, and people are talking to each other, but they're also letting us know what they're saying."
No further details are available on the overnight car break-ins, and this story will be updated once we learn more.
