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Lakeview Police Planning 'Unannounced Saturations' of Problem Spots in June

By Serena Dai | May 8, 2014 8:16am
 Lakeview's top cop said he plans to send packs of cops unannounced to problem areas this summer to set the tone in the neighborhood.
Lakeview's top cop said he plans to send packs of cops unannounced to problem areas this summer to set the tone in the neighborhood.
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DNAinfo/Serena Dai

LAKEVIEW — Lakeview's top cop plans on "setting the tone" in the neighborhood this summer by sending packs of officers to problem areas unannounced, he said Wednesday.

Town Hall Police Cmdr. Elias Voulgaris told neighbors at a community policing meeting that doing "unannounced saturations" would help send a message to criminals that police were around.

"The only way we're going to stop the bad element — the element coming to cause robberies and stuff — the only way to do that is by setting the tone," Voulgaris said. "That's what I want to do."

Voulgaris will be sending as many officers as he can to targeted locations in the early morning starting in June, he said.

He did not want to say which areas, but he said earlier in the meeting that crimes "absolutely" correlate to areas with more nightlife.

The commander also addressed the need to stop people on the street.

Someone had complained to the district that Voulgaris was violating people's rights by stopping them, Voulgaris said, but the commander maintained that the tactic was necessary.

Although police "absolutely" stop the wrong person on occasion, officers often need to approach individuals to investigate a situation, Voulgaris said.

"We have to stop people," he said. "That's the bottom line."

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