October 16, 2012
The Peoria Police Department has announced some changes to help keep the city safe and clean up the violence.
Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard says beginning in January, the department will be restructured to include a target offender unit. He says by bringing back more police intelligence, they hope to target groups or gangs which are causing a large amount of the violence around the city.
We want to start with the violence," said Settingsgaard. "We want to say, 'okay, who's the violent group, are they dealing drugs and then make drug cases on those individuals?' Our focus is violence, our mission might be drug work that day but the end goal is to reduce violence," he said.
Settingsgaurd says the target offender unit will chase down those responsible for homicides and shootings instead of just doing traffic stops. He say's they're not abandoning the "Don't Shoot" program but it will take a long term approach. The target offender unit will be on the streets by January.