Police Unveil Operation Pressure Point

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police launch a new crime fighting initiative designed to apply pressure in problem areas of the city.

And the increased efforts will last for months.

A total of 17 different law enforcement agencies held a news conference Tuesday morning to explain how the plan, dubbed "Operation Pressure Point," will work.

Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser reported said residents will begin to notice a mobile command center showing up in neighborhoods around the city, especially on weekends.

Related: Go Inside A Police Mobile Command Center

Police are targeting Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with their focus and resources.

According to Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, 54 percent of the city's homicides last year occurred on those three nights, as did more than 50 percent of the shootings.

The federal government, the FBI, ATF, DEA and all kinds of local agencies, in addition to state and federal prosecutors, will try to federally prosecute some of the suspects apprehended by police and others.

What they're trying to do is target 12 different areas where violent crime has gone up historically over the past year.

In April of last year, 31 homicides occurred, more than any other month of 2008. Of those, 21 occurred on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights.

Ramsey described how the program will work by saying, "It's designed to identify and target the most violent areas of our city. And we're going to do that by increasing the number of personnel in targeted zones. We're going to identify and pursue all active bench, state, probation, parole and fugitive warrants. We'll be identifying and pursuing juveniles wanted on warrants, ensuring code compliance by commercial bars and those establishments with a history of nuisance," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said some of the arguments, shooting and murders occur at those nuisance bars when the fights spill out onto the street and guns come out. We've had a few of those already this year, Schratwieser reported.

The first targeted area will be the 22nd District, up on the west side of Broad Street. That will start this weekend. That area leads the city in homicides and shootings so far in 2009.

Prosecutors will try to take the cases federal where possible because they get a bigger bang for their buck there -- longer prison sentences for people who commit violent crimes with guns, Schratwieser reported.