“Police Remove Guns from City Streets”
The Fort Myers Police Department is cracking down on people who illegally carry firearms. Undercover vice and uniformed patrol removed 18-guns from City streets during the month of November. Operation Safe Neighborhood is a proactive approach to reduce crime and improve quality of life in the City ofFort Myers. A task force assigned to the operation works to identify and arrest people that commit violent crimes and to arrest individuals who illegally possess firearms. In addition to gun interdiction the directed patrols have had positive results:
2,848 Citizen Contacts 730 Traffic Stops 719 Traffic Tickets 175 Arrests 145 Felony ChargesChief Doug Baker unveiled the operation to community leaders in 2008 and says the anticrime effort couldn’t be possible without a partnership with the community. “The unit is enhanced by intelligence information from concerned citizens and informants. Tipsters can remain anonymous. Every illegal gun taken off our streets is one less gun that can be used against an innocent citizen, gun down an officer or carelessly end up in the hands of a child.” Since the start of this year, 303 guns have been removed from City streets.
Shelly Flynn Public Information Officer 239-321-7721