Posted on 04/10/2013 8:29:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
ST. PETERSBURG - A six-week gun bounty program announced in the wake of the Newton school shooting yielded mixed results, police said today.
Police recovered 120 firearms and more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, while making 34 arrests and seizing nearly $74,000.
But investigators received only one tip through Crime Stoppers that led to an arrest and the seizure of a handgun, St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said.
Under the program, announced in January, anyone who provided information leading to the confiscation of an assault rifle and an arrest would get $1,500 through the Crime Stoppers program. Information leading to a handgun would net $1,000.
It didnt happen, Harmon said following a press conference attended by Mayor Bill Foster, federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and representatives from the state Department of Corrections.
What did work was a new partnership between probation officers and police. Lists were drawn up of drug offenders on probation and of offenders with violent criminal histories on probation, said police Maj. Mike Kovacsev. Then visits were made to their homes.
And quite a few rounds of ammo for those firearms.
Good news is that they got some bad guns. Bad news is that it makes American into spies. In Communist Russia, no one could trust anyone, because they were trained as a society to turn in their neighbors.
However beautiful cocaine-central St. Pete is not a place to be caught without PPE in many neighborhoods. Think of it as Malibu crossed with Lagos, Nigeria. Until they get a "Frank Rizzo" type police chief who is not afraid to put teeth in the street in gang sweeps, the natives will run wild all too frequently. Been worse since The Hawaiian finagled the top Federal job.
If you're heeled, feel free to visit.
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