COLUMBUS – Columbus police say officers handed out over 500 traffic and parking citations, made seven felony arrests and seized seven firearms during this weekend’s “Operation Burnout” in the Short North, which has seen a number of violent incidents in the last month.
The enhanced enforcement, which accompanied a curfew, was carried out Friday and Saturday and netted eight arrests on outstanding warrants, four incidents of drugs confiscated and the impounding of over 100 vehicles, according to a Division of Police post on its Twitter feed. One juvenile was also arrested, police said.
Police say stepped-up enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime will continue across the city this summer.
At its final meeting before taking its summer break, Columbus City Council on Monday approved spending $20.1 million for summer programming aimed at reducing youth violence.
The expenditure from the city’s Neighborhood Initiatives subfund will allow every youth to attend or work at a summer program, council president Shannon Hardin said.
At least 11 people were shot, one of them fatally, in separate incidents in the Short North on back-to-back weekends earlier this month.
Police have charged Quran Boston, 19, in the deadly shooting outside a pizza restaurant at N. High Street and First Avenue on May 14, which left 21-year-old Arthur Pickens dead.