CINCINNATI — Cincinnati city officials presented updated data on crime, what's contributing to it and what the city is doing to curb the issue on Wednesday.
In a similar press conference on June 24, city officials announced the creation of a new task force intended to specifically focus on street-level crimes within the city, but just after that task force was actually deployed on Cincinnati's streets, four separate shootings happened across the city.
Still, on Wednesday, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said that task force made 53 arrests in its first week of action. More than 60% of those arrests were drug related, but nearly 25% of those arrests were gun related.
In that first week, the Street Crime Task Force recovered 12 guns — two of which were stolen. Four of the arrests made were juveniles.
WATCH: Cincinnati officials share 'promising' results of strategies to stop violent crime
When asked whether CPD is looking into ways to charge the parents of juveniles who commit crimes, Theetge said it could be possible on a case-by-case basis, but could not become a blanket policy because state legislation provides hurdles to doing that. So far, they have not charged any parents, but Theetge said that could change in the future.
Mayor Aftab Pureval said that task force and other city efforts to curb violent crime will not be going anywhere until every community in the city can feel safe.
"Public safety is the only thing we're focused on right now in city hall," said Pureval.
Some of those guns were also equipped with switches that turn non-automatic guns into automatics, which allows more bullets to be fired rapidly, Theetge said.
She said those switches "doubles the disaster" for police and residents.
Still, thefts from vehicles — including guns — have remained high this year. Theetge said between June 8 and July 5, there were over 250 auto thefts committed, and 34 of those had firearms stolen from the vehicle.
"First, don't bring your gun," said Theetge. "But if you are going to bring it please secure it, strongly secure it."
Another contributor to crime in the city has been Red Bikes and e-scooters, according to City Manager Sheryl Long. During Fourth of July weekend, the city enacted restrictions on those modes of transportation, barring them between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. each evening.
Long said that's the plan again for this weekend.
Property theft was the most-committed crime in the past 28 days, with 1,028 different thefts; 224 of those thefts were stolen cars while 255 were thefts from vehicles.
Comparatively, violent crimes — which means aggravated assault, homicide, rape, robbery and strangulation — made up just 196 of the crimes committed in the past 28 days.
Compared to this time last year, shooting incidents are down 17%, Theetge said. Still, over 17% of shootings in 2025 so far have been incidents that hurt two or more victims, according to Theetge.
In all, crime rates have been lower in the first part of July, but Theetge was hesitant to call that a trend.
"We're not ready to say July's going to be a good month, but the first week of July was a good week," said Theetge.
She highlighted the task force's high amount of arrests in just one week, coupled with drones being used by CPD as efforts the department is using to curb violence. Police have been able to use a drone with a spotlight on it to check areas of the city, catch people who have been reported as suspicious and encourage people to leave if they are found in an area where they shouldn't be, like Smale Park after dark.
Theetge said that drone also allows officers to speak to people through a PA system to let them know they need to leave.
"I will tell you this, that just in the little over a week that the drones have been partnering with the task force and with others as an asset to be used, the officers are just raving about the benefit of using the drone," said Theetge.
There are three drones specifically dedicated to the task force, but Theetge said the department has had drones in some capacity for years already.
City officials said they plan to hold more regular press conferences to release data on crime and how efforts to combat crime is impacting that data. Theetge said the press conferences are an effort to increase transparency with the public.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced it is offering cash rewards for information that helps curb recent rises in gun violence in Cincinnati.
"Cincinnati communities are facing a surge in violent crime — especially gun-related offenses," reads a press release from the ATF Columbus Field Division. "This violence must be stopped and the public's help is critical."
The press release says the ATF, in partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Cincinnati Police Department, is offering cash rewards of up to $2,500 for information that leads to the arrest of "violent offenders or the recovery of illegally possessed firearms."
The press release from the ATF does not go into further detail about how prevalent the issue of stolen guns may be in Cincinnati, but it's an issue Cincinnati police officials have been talking about in recent years.
At the end of last year, there were several larger-scale gun thefts from stores around the Greater Cincinnati area. In August, four juveniles were arrested after crashing a vehicle into a Union Township gun store and stealing multiple firearms.
In November, ATF officials also offered a $10,000 reward for information after a group crashed a vehicle into a Norwood pawn shop before breaking into the business and stealing multiple guns.
In 2023, during a presentation to city council members, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge and Jillian Desmond, CPD's senior crime analyst, said car thefts and burglaries had been up that year — and so were incidences of gun thefts from those vehicles.
During that presentation, Desmond said Cincinnati had roughly 650 stolen guns between January and November of that year in around 300 separate incidents.
One month later, Cincinnati council introduced ordinances that aimed to create harsher penalties around stolen guns — specifically for the original owners of those guns.
