Commissioner Kelly: 'Operation Crew Cut' Making Impact On Gang Crackdown
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City law enforcement officials say a program targeting gangs is working.
It's called Operation Crew Cut.
The campaign by the New York Police Department started last October to focus on cracking down on loosely affiliated teen gangs that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said hang out around public housing.
Kelly: 'Operation Crew Cut' Making Impact On Teen Gang Crackdown
"They feud over local turf and frequently settle their scores with guns," Kelly told reporters, including 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks. "So you can understand why we're focusing resources on this problem."
The monitoring of social media sites is among the methods police have employed to aid the crackdown.
Kelly said the strategy is working and promised that cases would begin rolling out by the end of this month or early in April.
The commissioner said the "crews" are "very much turf-based" and "not so much even entrepreneurial."
He also said the department believes such groups to be responsible for 30 percent of the city's shootings.
"They are defending their neighborhood or attacking others who come into their neighborhood. That sort of thing," Kelly said.
Kelly also pointed to a recent drop in murders and shootings around the city as a concrete sign the "Crew Cut" strategy is working.
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