Catalytic converter theft has been on the rise across the state as of late and the City of Greenville is no exception as Chief Marcus Turner reported the arrests of three suspects for the crime.
“In reference to the catalytic converters, we were able to make three arrests on catalytic converter thefts. One was actually caught in the act,” he noted during Tuesday’s regular city council meeting.
Prior to Turner’s report to the council, Mayor Errick Simmons pointed out the frequent arrests that have been made for the crime and inquired of the fleet department’s status regarding its vehicles.
“We had two trucks that were hit, the converters were stolen off of them,” fleet director Milton Davenport said. “One was at the park commission on the south end of our campus and we had a problem in a living area. Right now at this time, there’s nothing to report other than we had two break-ins.”
Turner commended GPD officers and highlighted the impact assigning take home cars to them has had.
“There’s been a great presence in the community and there’s been an over pouring of wanting to get to work, so, we haven’t had a real short shift in the last couple of weeks and we hope that that continues,” he said.
Turner reported for the month of February, GPD wrote 130 citations, three of which were federal indictments; made 20 juvenile arrests and 24 felony arrests; and 20 arrests with special operations.
“One number that has been very concerning is the number of complaints for domestic violence calls that we’ve been getting. We had 63 of those this past month,” he pointed out.
However, another highlight for GPD in the month of February was its uptick in Crimestoppers tips.
“Crimestoppers had been quiet for a while, but we received 12 tips and on those 12 tips, we were able to make five arrests. So that is pretty good for our department at this time,” Turner added.
