CLEVELAND — Operation 216 is underway.
It's made up of federal, state and local law enforcement officers who are hitting the streets in response to the sharp increase in violent crime in Cleveland over the past several months.
Operation 216 is led by the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. According to Cleveland Police Statistics, homicide, robbery, felonious assault, grand theft motor vehicle, and arson are all up from the same time last year.
“I’ve experienced some of it myself in this neighborhood and downtown,” said Michael Levy, a resident.
While crime is up, the number of Cleveland Police Officers is hovering near 1920 staffing levels. Operation 216 is a collaborative initiative to put the brakes on crime.
“We’ve done this before, it’s not our first rodeo, but it is a focused effort with a number of different agencies that I believe is making a difference,” said Pete Elliott, US Marshal Northern District of Ohio.
US Marshals have brought in extra manpower for this operation.
Dozens of law enforcement officers from across Northern Ohio are in Cleveland working to find and arrest fugitives accused of violent crimes.
“The people that we’re going after are people that are committing homicides, shootings, stealing cars or doing egregious sexual offenses,” said Josh Lowe, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal.
Law enforcement officials said a small number of people are responsible for a large portion of crimes in Cleveland.
“A lot of the targets that we go after, a lot of the fugitives that we’re looking for, a lot of them have a lengthy criminal histories,” Lowe said.
Juveniles are partially to blame for the spike in crime in the last few months in Cleveland, according to law enforcement officials.
“I see a big increase in juvenile crime, I’ve seen a big increase in juvenile violent crime over the period of the last three years. It seems to be getting more and more, and they seem to be getting younger and younger,” Elliott said.
The number of stolen cars in Cleveland has skyrocketed nearly 90% in Cleveland since last year.
“It seems to be a theme right now that a lot of our crimes are connected to either a stolen vehicle or some type of action inside of a vehicle,” Lowe said.
News 5 was the only news organization at the scene where a 16-year-old boy, who police said was part of the gang, Kia Boys, was arrested. He’s accused of crashing a stolen Kia at a high rate of speed last month that killed a 30-year-old man and injured three others at East 78th Street and Union Avenue.
Operation 216 started just days ago, and so far, 13 homicide suspects have been arrested. Twenty-eight people suspected of felonious assault, rape, arson and weapons offenses have been arrested. The task force has also recovered 10 illegal guns.
Elliott said operations like this one do make a difference.
“It will make a difference here now, but you know we gotta find a way to sustain things here in our area, and that’s what we need to focus on,” Elliott said.
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