LANDOVER, Md. -
For the second time this summer, Prince George's County Police are throwing every available resource into the six most crime ridden areas of the county.
The timing couldn't be better. Just hours before the officers deployed for day one, there was another fatal shooting in the county, in the 700 block of Glacier Avenue. A man was found dead in a home there.
Stopping that type of violence is what's behind a two week crime initiative to transform neighborhoods that kicked off at roll call at police headquarters Saturday.
Specialized patrol officers and detectives will saturate six crime hot spots, Langley Park, East Riverdale, Suitland, Kentland, Hillcrest Heights, and Oxon Hill. The main focus --getting as many guns as possible off the street.
"That's the bottom line. That's what's causing all the violence around here. Let's get as many guns as possible off the streets…safely," Major Joe McCann of the Special Enforcement Division said.
The commanders of the six targeted districts doled out final assignments. And then the officers fanned out. Most of the hard work will happen between 6pm and 4am when crime tends to spike.
Organizers of the two week blitz say they're not reinventing the crime fighting wheel, they're just tuning it up-- an approach that's yielding some positive results.
"We're down more than 40 percent in homicides, and our gun violence, shootings, handgun violence is down. So we know we're doing something right," McCann says.
Once the two week blitz is over, officers will go over the data, see what worked, what didn't, and start preparing for the next one.
