The Peoria Police Department is deploying a special task force to counter the recent uptick in shootings. The city’s had seven murders so far this year including two justifiable homicides. Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard says they are calling the new task force the “Don’t Shoot Team”.
“The past six weeks constitute 25 percent of the year so far but we’ve had almost 50 percent of our shooting incidents taking place in the last six weeks,” Settingsgaard says. “This is not something that’s unusual for the summer time. But we want to get ahead of it again. The same way we did the last two summers.”
Settingsgaard says the team of 14 officers and two supervisors will cost about $75,000. The chief says the team will focus its attention on four identified areas in the city.