Almost 100 calls for gun violence a year has prompted the Delray Beach Police Department to create a new strategy to lower that number.
A new gun violence team has been created to help get guns off the streets.
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Captain Gene Sapino said there is no simple solution. The city has averaged 94 calls for gun violence in the last three years and he feels that number is too high.
One of the most recent cases of gun violence was a drive-by shooting that left a 27-year-old man and a baby inured.
“We stepped up our enforcement efforts,” said Sapino.
The new gun violence team will have a new three-pronged strategy; community engagement, enforcement, and technology.
“They are no longer going to focus on locations, because sitting at a location and waiting for them to come to us, that is where I think were are getting behind the eight-ball,” said Sapino.
The team will be an extra layer to the efforts to the work patrol officers do on a day-to-day basis.
Sapino said the recent shootings involving an on-going feud in the city is a perfect example of criminals who should not have guns. The gun violence team will focus on taking guns out of criminals hands before they are used.
“This teams approach will be to identify offenders that have been vetted,” he said.
The police department will talk to the community about the new team’s strategy Thursday night at Pompey Park during a community conversation. The event starts at 7 p.m. and open to the public.
