Offenders stayed on wrong path, officials say

The No Violence Alliance in a Tuesday sweep arrested 54 people in the northeast area, sending a message citywide.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said that if people continue with violence “We will meet you with all we’ve got.”

As part of the NoVA program, offender were offered “anything we could do to help them choose a different path and to interrupt a cycle of violence,” said police Major Joe McHale, manager of NoVA. “Instead they chose violence.”

The sweep called “Operation Ice Melt” also closed nine properties associated with criminal activity.

The effort also cleared 39 warrants, filed 15 new charges and recovered six guns and a variety of drugs and stolen property, officials said.

NoVA is a collaboration of law enforcement and community leaders credited with helping reduce homicides this year by at least 25 percent.

It uses police intelligence to identify offenders and their connections, offers to help them abandon crime and warns them they will be arrested in groups if they do not.

The northeast group simply chose to continue with crime, officials said.