Columbus police say Gang Enforcement Team won't be 'rogue' unit

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — The Columbus Police Department’s special Gang Enforcement Team has been in play since October, and ABC 6 is taking a close look at it now in light of the deadly officer incident involving Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

Nationally, and now locally, there’s concern about the oversight and strategy of specialized police units.

“This is a not a unit that’s going to be rogue," Columbus Police Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts told ABC 6 on Thursday. "There are several layers of oversight, including myself, and I ran a similar program in Detroit, and so I know what I don’t want to see. I know what Chief Bryant doesn’t want to see, and we know what the community doesn’t want to see. The buck stops with me."

Potts said the Gang Enforcement Team is her responsibility.

“I hold people accountable, and this unit knows going in what our expectations are," she said. "We’re very clear, they’re not going to be able to treat the citizens of Columbus any kind of way. We hand selected these individuals for that very reason."

Following the fatal police beating of Nichols, and the elimination of the Memphis Police Department's SCORPION unit, specialized teams are under scrutiny. Potts gave ABC 6 insight on why the pilot program was started here.

"To disrupt violent gangs in the city of Columbus," she said. "Their goal is to use intelligence-targeted enforcement.”

Potts said the officers involved receive extensive education, including raid training and tactical surveillance training.

"There’s a concern any time you do enforcement actions right?" she asked. "But I’ll say this, speaking daily to mothers of murdered children is why we’re doing what we’re doing. The gang violence and the gun violence in Columbus must stop, and that comes with enforcement.”

Potts said all the officers involved with the Gang Enforcement Team are in uniform with body cameras, and won't be like any other previous special unit.

“It’s offensive to me to go back and talk about Jump Out Boys that existed 20 years ago," she said. "The division learned from that and we’re not going backwards."

Particularly after the death of Tyre Nichols, and in this community, Henry Green, who died in a police incident in June 2016, there is increased scrutiny involving specialized units.

Thell Robinson leads Halt Violence, a group that has been working in the community for years with gang members and people of all ages.

They offer services like trauma counseling, employment help and more. The group is expanding by opening a new space in March in the Hilltop.

Robinson himself works to help squash beef in the community and worries this could lead to increased tensions — something he hopes won't be the case.

"Some of these neighborhoods, individuals got some serious beef going on, they have some PTSD. I'm not condoning anything, but knowing the climate of the culture, to determine if it would be a good fit or not, and it wouldn't," he said.

His group does not have a connection with the police.

Potts told ABC 6 that the team has accounted for 131 felony arrests, including 74 gang members; also, 82 guns have been recovered and 16 homicide suspects have been taken off the streets.

“We’ve heard the citizens since we got here, and they talked about what are we going to do to reduce the gang and gun violence," Potts said. "We put together a team of highly-trained, qualified police officers who were doing the work in the community already, and we just put them centralized.”

Potts wouldn't reveal the number of officers on the team. However, she is confident they will play a key role in reducing crime.

Robinson would like to see alternative tactics when it comes to taking on crime.