Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey says Operation Pressure Point – the police-led effort to tamp down violence on the toughest streets during the most dangerous hours – cut nighttime weekend homicides in the targeted areas by half this summer, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ramsey vowed to bring it back next year.
There were 1,775 arrests, 247 guns seized, and nearly $5 million in drugs confiscated during the seven-month operation, which wrapped up on Nov. 1. Last year, 64 percent of the city’s homicides occurred in 12 police districts, half between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights. Pressure Point targeted those districts, at those times, dropping homicides from 47 to 23, and nonfatal shootings from 208 to 186 during those hours.