Youngstown police Chief Carl Davis talks about the formation of the neighborhood response unit that will target violent crimes in the city. The unit begins Monday. It is the second anti-crime initiative the police chief and Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, far left, announced this week. Staff photo / David Skolnick

YOUNGSTOWN — A new police neighborhood response unit will work to target and reduce violent crimes in the city.

Police Chief Carl Davis said the unit will largely focus on neighborhoods on the city’s South Side, where much of the violent crime occurs.

“This distinct problem requires a unique and specialized response,” he said at a Friday news conference.

Five patrolmen will be led by Capt. Kevin Mercer on the unit that starts Monday. The officers on the unit are Jacob Short, Fred Herdman, Luis Villaplana, Carlos Eggleston and Amir Khan.

The unit will focus on the 20 percent of criminals in the city that commit about 70 percent of the crimes, Davis said.

“Their main objective is to reduce violent crimes by removing these dangerous criminals from the street,” he said.

Youngstown has “experienced an increase in the amount of gun violence, which stems from a feud between a couple of families and a couple of other factions here in the city,” Davis said.

The unit’s goal “is preventing and disrupting dangerous street-level activities in an effort to provide a safe and secure environment and improve the quality of life within neighborhoods,” he said.

Routine calls will be handled outside of this unit, which will allow it “to dedicate its time and resources to investigate specific criminal activity that poses a danger to the public,” Davis said.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said the city “must do a better job focusing on our neighborhoods,” and reducing crime “is the key to any stability in any neighborhood.”

With Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary just days away, Brown was asked if the two police announcements this week were connected to his re-election effort. Brown said he still has a job to do and politics didn’t play a factor in the police decisions.

It’s the latest change to the police department in an effort to reduce crime in the city.

Davis and Brown announced Tuesday the creation of Operation Steel Penguins that brings together local, state and federal agencies to target criminal activity, especially gun offenses, in the city.

The department’s community police unit is restarting June 21, and the neighborhood response unit will work in conjunction with it, said Lt. Brian Butler.

But the neighborhood response unit “is a focused detail to target hot spots,” he said. “The NRU will be able to directly focus on crime as it happens and hopefully prevent it before it happens.”

The unit will primarily work late at night and in the early morning hours, when most criminal activity occurs, Butler said.

dskolnick@vindy.com