Broward County's sheriff announced Tuesday that in less than one month, the department made a huge dent in violent crime and gang-related shootings as a part of the so-called Operation Green Shield.
The initiative was launched after an uptick in shootings in northern Broward County.
"We’ve already seen as a byproduct of this operation a 35% decrease in shooting calls in these areas," Sheriff Gregory Tony said.
"We responded to a large volume of shootings and increased calls that we’ve seen for services when it came to several of our districts, in particular, Pompano Beach, Deerfield, as well as unincorporated Broward County," Tony said.
Operation Green Shield lasted from Oct. 26 through Nov. 16. and resulted in 54 felony arrests, including the arrests of 22 gang members; 27 firearms seized; heroin, cocaine, fentanyl seized; and $359,000 in illicit money confiscated.
Two of the major arrests made were of two gang members, Jermaine Garland and Breon Kinder of Pompano Beach. BSO says Kinder was selling drugs out of his grandmother’s home.
The sheriff also said much of the violence stemmed from large illegal parties people were holding early on in the pandemic.
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"We started seeing these spikes in these parties and then the association with shootings were occurring subsequent to the parties," Tony said. "So after the parties would end, there would be a gathering, there’d be a fight. People would disperse. There would be shots fired."
Five different specialized units within BSO worked together to make these arrests.
