Lewiston police have used a number of special-operation strategies to combat gun violence through the years.

Operation Hotspot, which ran 2012-15, was an initiative occurring just a couple of times every year, mostly in the summer, according to Lt. Derek St. Laurent, a spokesperson for the Lewiston Police Department. Groups consisted of beat officers, probation officers, pretrial partners and law enforcement partners.

“Some of us would walk the streets, some of us would do probation checks, and some would do sex offender checks,” St. Laurent said. “It was just a big presence in the area.”

The operation was often such a presence that drug traffickers and other criminals were catching on when police would be in their areas, St. Laurent said. Many of the arrests coming out of the operation were for quality of life issues like criminal trespassing and drinking in public, he said.

The approach of the Crime Reduction Unit, a program launched in 2023 and still in use, is multi-tiered, however, St. Laurent said, referring to officers as “utility players.” The unit has been behind efforts like swarming school areas at the beginning of the school year to enforce traffic laws. Participating officers also gather information on shooters.

“Even if we can’t prosecute the shooters or those involved, we develop intelligence on why the shootings are happening and start working cases from different angles,” St. Laurent said. “I can tell you they’ve done that several times — figuring out who’s involved and what the conflicts are about. A lot of the time, it’s drug related.”

Following that intelligence, the unit will open drug investigations into shooting suspects, often turning them into informants and getting them off the streets, he said.

St. Laurent said the department also has to be smart about how it uses its resources.

“We have walking beats in the summer (and) were only given so much money for it,” St. Laurent said.  “So, we saved some for the spring and early summer, when things pick up.”

When asked what the police department could do to combat gun violence, Lewiston police Detective Nicholas Wiers pointed to past initiatives such as Operation Hotspot which put officers in high-crime areas in larger numbers. He said this approach — and the approach of the Selective Enforcement Team, which was active prior to CRU — contributed to significant reductions in crime and that is why he would like to see a similar program prevail.

The Selective Enforcement Team focused on violent crime, drugs, guns and assisting with strings of crimes.

“CRU’s approach is needed sometimes, but sometimes you need to disrupt what’s happening in your city,” Wiers said. “These big cases can take years and while they are being built, crime continues. Right now, we have to stop shootings on Lewiston streets. To do this, SET or some similar mission is needed.”

Wiers said the issue also extends beyond law enforcement. He said would-be shooters are no longer afraid of the consequences. “It’s a non-issue to them,” he said.

“I think we need to bring back the harsher penalties and the no-nonsense view on crime that we used to have,” Wiers said. “And then the city, I believe, needs to stop making decisions that entice people to come here and commit crime. Show me a city that has a drug problem, and I’ll show you a city that has a gun problem, right?”