CLEVELAND (WJW) – Ohio State Highway Patrol video obtained by the FOX 8 I-Team shows troopers taking dozens of guns and other weapons off the streets.
Troopers say the video shows several traffic stops in the last year where officers found weapons. Many of the weapons found by troopers were loaded.
“We noticed a definite spike,” said Sgt. Ray Santiago, of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Records from the patrol show that in 2019 there were 941 weapon violations. In 2020, there were 1,229, which is a 31% increase.
“We don’t know what is causing the spike,” Santiago said, as he looked over more than 100 photographs of some of the guns confiscated by the patrol last year. “These guns were in the hands of people that should not have had them. Some of them were recovered stolen, some of them were being handled by impaired drivers that had so business handling them, but the one thing they have in common is that they all pose a significant community safety threat.”
State patrol troopers tell us they recovered over 1,330 guns last year and 35% of those guns were recovered here in northeast Ohio.
“This amount is shocking and concerning ,” Santiago said, adding the patrol is working with local law enforcement officers to help make communities all over Ohio, including Cleveland, Akron, and Medina safer.
“We are just trying to help families to not have to cope with future tragedies,” he said.
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