Bloody Streets
With another shooting this morning, the city administration is making some moves to end the violence.
Rochester Police Chief David Moore today announced an aggressive campaign against open-air drug markets after spending a holiday weekend at three different homicide scenes.
“I do not want to see 15 or 20 people hanging out aimlessly on the street,” Moore said. “I do not want to see any of our officers riding by any of those areas and not challenging the individuals standing there.”
Rochester police responded to three shooting deaths within 26 hours Monday and Tuesday, two of which Moore said are directly related to the illegal drug trade. The third, Moore, said, stemmed from a dispute that spilled out of a downtown nightclub early Tuesday. Police have not released the names of any of the victims.
Moore intends to almost quadruple the size of a unit that specializes in street crime and will order the officers to clear loiterers from street corners. The Tactical Unit will be expanded from 22 to 80 officers, including 38 police recruits who are scheduled to graduate from the police academy in August.
Moore said he’ll postpone that graduation and have the recruits on the street within 10 days working with seasoned officers to clear the corners. He said the most crucial elements of their training will be complete by then. All people hired as Rochester police officers swear an oath of office before they enter the police academy and are considered sworn police officers on the first day of training.
This should be interesting. I suspect the folks involved will move indoors. How long before the first rookie shoots someone? Rookies to battle street crime, yeah, that’s the ticket.
