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Cincinnati Police Chief Addresses 'Disturbing' Spike In Violence

eliot isaac
John Minchillo
/
AP
Police Chief Eliot Isaac at a 2018 news conference.

Cincinnati's police chief calls the spike in gun violence in the city during the past two weeks "alarming."
Eliot Isaac addressed City Council's Law and Public Safety committee Monday about the seven homicides in that period.

"Currently in these we're not seeing them isolated to any one particular neighborhood, they're happening all over our city," Isaac said. "Which is something that is disturbing, but something that we've seen in the past and something that almost every major city is undertaking."

Isaac said he believes the department has the right strategies in place to address the recent spike.

"Constantly looking for opportunities to deploy our folks were we need them," Isaac said. "We have a very solid strategy underway particularly when we focus on our violent offenders, our gun crime initiatives, where we're focusing on any type of guns used in homicides, we focus on places that we know are responsible for facilitating this criminal activity to take place."

He says so far this year there have been 22 homicides in the city, which is nine fewer than at the same point last year. He also reported 130 shootings in 2019.

Isaac will appear before the committee again on June 24 for a more comprehensive report on gun violence in the city.
 

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.