Fighting Crime On The Streets, Rome Police Unveil New Unit

The Rome Police Department has a new unit to fight crime.

The newly created Street Crimes Unit or SCU was implemented in April.

The unit was developed as a result of the rise in gun related crimes in the City of Rome.

Rome Police officials and Mayor Jackie Izzo introduced the SCU at Rome Police headquarters on Tuesday.

The Street Crimes Unit works in conjunction with the Special Investigations Unit, who gather intel on potential weapons possession and narcotics related crimes.

The officers are not responding to everyday calls for service. That allows them the freedom and time to focus their efforts on these types of crimes and criminals.

Rome Police Chief David Collins says allowing officers in the Street Crimes Unit to focus mainly on these types of crimes has greatly increased their effectiveness in removing these threats to the community

Mayor Izzo says so far, the initiative has been a success.

Izzo says she thinks the one day the unit made and impact was during on “shots fired” incident in May on West Dominick Street.

She says police had the shooter in custody within 10 minutes because all of the units had been working together.

As a result of their investigations the SCU unit has made 59 arrests.

Of those arrests the following items were seized:

• 2 handguns (1 ghost gun)
• 28 Vehicle and Traffic arrests (Aggravated Unlicensed Operation)
• 21 warrants executed (4 felony CPW warrants, 1 felony CPCS)
• 87 grams of methamphetamine seized
• 30 grams of cocaine seized
• 11 grams of fentanyl seized
• 10 grams of MDMA seized
• 60 Suboxone strips seized
• About $1,700.00 in US Currency