Cleveland announces ‘Operation 216′ collaboration with US Marshals to crack down on crime

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The city of Cleveland announced a new partnership on Tuesday to crack down on violent crime. It’s called Operation 216.

Cleveland police are teaming up with the U.S. Marshal’s Office to tackle violent crime.

“We are so grateful for the partnership we have with U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott and his team,” said Mayor Justin M. Bibb. “We are committed to an all-hands-on-deck, collaborative, and coordinated approach to cracking down on crime in our city and, as we saw last summer, operations like this really make a difference.”

Recently, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office announced plans to increase patrols downtown and last week Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond told 19 News they’re working with Ohio State Highway Patrol to look for stolen cars and enforce traffic.

“So we’re gonna be looking to the chief, Pete Elliot his team, the other law enforcement agencies what are the mechanics how’s it gonna take place?” said Cleveland City councilman, Mike Polensek.

Polensek said he is beyond fed up with the surge in crime.

“When you hear from folks who are afraid to sit on their front porch, they’re afraid to go to church, they’re afraid to go to bible study, they’re afraid to go to a neighborhood store or business for fear of being carjacked or robbed,” Polensek said.

Polensek wrote a letter to U.S. Marshal Pete Elliot on July 27.

“We’ve been talking for some time now myself; U.S. Marshal’s Office and I’ve been talking to other law enforcement agencies as well about just the tsunami of violent crime in our city,” Polensek said.

Operation 216 will bring in more resources from the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.

“Combating violent crime and arresting those responsible for these acts is our top priority,” U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said. “We are pleased to be able to provide support to the Cleveland Division of Police as we work together to secure our streets and remove violent offenders from our communities.”

They’ll be targeting hot spots across the city of Cleveland. While the specific timeline isn’t being released, the city said most of the operation will take place in August and September.

“The importance of the teamwork and collaboration we have with the U.S. Marshals cannot be overstated,” said Cleveland Chief of Police Wayne Drummond. “The Marshals, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and Cuyahoga County Sherriff’s Department are great partners year-round and we really appreciate the hard work that they do.”

We asked some Clevelanders what they thought about marshals stepping in to help.

“I think more police and them having a presence in the area would help for sure,” said resident Kevin Bak.

“Maybe just with the idea that there’s gonna be more too might deter crime as well,” said Clevelander Trent Szmania.

“We need more of them and they need to pay them more, that’s what needs to happen,” said Jonathan Thomas of Cleveland.

At the same time, the Cleveland Division of Police is down 267 officers.

“As the crime level has gone up the number of police officers has decreased and now we are below 1923 levels we’ve never seen anything like this,” said Polensek.

Operation 216 will also include an additional cold case investigator assigned to work on solving cold homicide cases.

Mid-July, several weeks before Councilman Polensek sent his letter to the U.S. Marshals, the Mayor’s Office convened a meeting of multiple criminal Justice partners that included the Marshals and other stakeholders.  

This additional support they’re offering stems from the collaborative efforts discussed during that meeting and is a part of Mayor Bibb’s RISE Initiative.

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