HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Huntsville is the number one place to live in the United States, low crime rates helped us secure that spot.
And, the police force wants you to get involved, here's how you can ride along with a member of the Huntsville Police Department on your own.
The Anti-Crime Team or the ACT was formed in Huntsville back in 2017, the team is made up of uniformed officers with diverse policing backgrounds who help investigators and patrol officers prevent crime here.
Huntsville Police Department's Anti-Crime Team is an integral piece of Huntsville's public safety landscape.
"Our team fills these gaps in how traditional policing goes, between your patrol officers and your investigators. Since my team can specially target certain areas and individuals where crime is happening, when we reduce that or we break up a narcotics organization or something like that, what happens is that just reverberates throughout the community, makes everything safer, which is what helps make a city as awesome as Huntsville so great, because the crime rates are low," said Leader of Huntsville Police Department's Anti-Crime Team, Sgt. Karl Kissich.
In the team's first full year of operation, officers pulled about 100 illegal firearms off the street and made 289 felony arrests.
In 2020, 368 people were apprehended.
"Like, let's say a neighborhood that is really been having a difficult time with a local drug dealer or something, my team can go on and then really- show that presence, show a strong enforcement and that causes those individuals to either- they either become incarcerated, or they go ahead and they say, 'hey, look, this is too hot,' and we go ahead and we break up that that little, tight spot of crime," said Kissich.
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ACT is a part of Huntsville Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division and works with the Department's North alabama Multi-Agency Crime Center.
When not actively helping investigators working a case, ACT Officers interact with the community and build relationships with the public, which is extremely important when it comes to keeping crime rates low and quality of life here on the up n up.
"Well, it's all about relationships and at the end of the day, you want to have good, positive relationships in the community. So when things happen, people know who to call. The police are more familiar with you know, the communities that they're serving in. So it really just comes back to that relationship," said Chairman of Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Council, Jonathan Russow.
Again, both members of the force encouraged community members to get involved via ride alongs with the police, for more information on these ride alongs, click here.