Youngstown Chief of Police Carl Davis announced Friday during a press conference that Youngstown Police Department will resume the city's Impact Initiative, a saturation campaign by the city police department, in conjunction with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Mahoning Co. Sheriff's Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in high crime areas in the city.

Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown opened the press conference to offer condolences to the family of victims of gun violence in the city and in Texas.

Brown said the purpose of the meeting is to educate and inform citizens.

Chief Davis, joined by Mahoning Co. Sheriff Jerry Greene, and other law enforcement officials, said he is praying for an end to gun violence in the city and said there are too many guns on the city's streets.

The program will focus on high volume traffic stops, focus on sections of the city with evaluated crime rates including drug trafficking and gun violence, and any other form of criminal activity, Davis said.

Davis declined when asked to identify the areas the city will be focusing on with this initiative.

Davis asked that the community be understanding of the increased police presence, and asked for community cooperation with the police.

Davis recently said that the city was able to restart the community policing program because of 5 new hires, however, on May 26, the union representing Youngstown officers filed a grievance over the plan, stating the decision to pull seven patrol officers and move officers to a community policing unit will impact response times and may put officers in danger.

Davis said that “community police offers are Youngstown police officers,” when asked about transferring 7 city officers from patrolling the community policing beats.

According to the police officials, the saturation patrol which ran for 11 days in 2021 throughout the summer and lead to 21 guns seized and several gun charges, 268 grams of fentanyl, 70 grams of cocaine, 15 grams of heroin, 500 grams of marijuana in 550 traffic stops.