by Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post
Area law enforcement conducted an overnight operation which resulted in at least nineteen arrests.
According to Acting St. Joseph Police Chief Eric Protzman, a joint helicopter operation was conducted by the St. Joseph Police Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Buchanan County Drug Strike Force, with assistance from the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department, Country Club Police Department and Elwood, Kansas Police Department.
During the operation, officers made approximately 70 contacts by traffic stop or check subjects. There were 89 written traffic violations (citation or warning) and 40 verbal warnings.
There were approximately 19 arrests made with some individuals having more than one charge. These charges included eight city warrants, six state warrants and two city charges (drugs or traffic). There were 11 investigation arrests including resisting arrest, drug possession or unlawful possession of a firearm.
“This is something that we did several times in the last year and a half. We didn’t do it for a while with COVID… we kind of held back a little bit as people were staying home more and weren’t on the street as much,” says St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally. “But as the summer progressed, we continued to see more vehicles running, that sort of thing. So last night, another partnership with the Missouri State Highway Patrol of having the helicopter in the air, so when some vehicles and some of the folks that were wanted ran from us, we had their assistance to apprehend them in a safer manner.”
Two firearms were recovered during the operation and there were six pursuits that ended with the drivers being taken into custody.