On Monday Omaha Police responded to a recent spike in violent crimes across the metro.
Officer Michael Pecha tells NewsRadio 1110 KFAB that although there has been a recent uptick in violent crimes, he assures Omahans that they are working diligently to solve recent crimes and keep the city safe. "It may seem like there's a major increase in violent crime, but when we look at the long term violent crime has been trending down for us this year."
Pecha says Omaha Police along with federal agencies are have many leads on recent crimes that they are focusing on and have put extra staff in areas that have high rates of crime. "We do have an idea of what's leading to these, we can't give all the details about our investigations, but we have been allocating extra personnel to address this violence. Putting officers in areas and positions where we think they'll be effective in helping prevent further violence."
A full statement from Omaha Police can be found below.
The Omaha Police Department has received questions from local media and from concerned citizens about the recent increase in violent crime in Omaha.
The OPD senior command staff met to discuss these incidents. Compared to previous years, violent crime is down in Omaha in 2017, but the Omaha Police Department has seen a recent spike. Much of the information the command staff discussed is confidential, but the Gang Unit, Uniform Patrol Bureau, Homicide Unit and our Federal partners are following up on leads, and have an understanding of what is occurring. OPD has allocated extra personnel to address this violence.
Specifically regarding concerns about the homicide at the North Freeway and Hamilton Street that occurred on Sunday, November 5th—based on information gathered during the initial investigation, road rage is not considered a factor in this incident.