MARION — The Marion Police Department is stepping up patrols in the wake of recent crimes and concern from city residents.
The department began a new enforcement program about a week ago that targets drug and gang activity.
Marion Police Capt. Jim Gray said the department felt the need to step up patrols after many calls from residents living in areas with high crime rates.
Gray also said a recent incident involving the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl prompted many residents to ask for help in curbing crime.
“We’re taking some of the officers from the police department and we’re concentrating on high crime areas,” he said.
That includes the area where the alleged sexual assault took place, at Rosewood Apartmens on Rosewood Avenue.
“We receive a lot of complaints from the tenants out here as far as gunshots, robberies, assaults, different violent crimes,” Gray said of the housing complex.
Such incidents are intolerable, and part of the reason officers are increasing patrols, he said.
“That’s a tragedy.We don’t want anything like that to happen — not only in this neighborhood, but in any neighborhood,” Gray said, “and what we’re hoping to accomplish is to identify some of these people that are not living in this area, that have really no ties to this neighborhood, and they shouldn’t be here committing these crimes.”
The majority of people committing drug and gang crimes in Marion are from other areas — as far away as North Carolina or as close as Dillon County, Gray said. But Marion police and undercover agents are looking for out-of-state license plates on vehicles and suspicious behavior in high-crime areas, as well as illegal behavior committed by local residents.
Many officers will have to work extra hours on the nights and weekends during the increased patrols, Gray said.
Their efforts, he said, will be well worth the department’s ultimate goal of keeping city residents safe.
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