POLICE: COLLABORATION ON STREET CRIME WORKING

The Rocky Mount Police Department's Street Engagement Team is
continuing its efforts to crack down on illegal drugs, firearms and
street violence within Rocky Mount.

So far this year, the SET team has seized more than 160 weapons, made
significant drug arrests and confiscated large amounts of illegal
drugs.

Rocky Mount police Capt. Robert Baggett - the division commander who
oversees the team - said department wide, police have seized 366
firearms this year.

When compared to last year's total of 282, the number is significant,
Baggett said.

"We've got people that are doing more gun-related work," Baggett
said. "We are tougher on illegal guns. We are focusing on drugs, guns
and violence."

Through collaborating with other divisions such as the department's
Uniform Operations Division and the Investigations Division, officers
working with the SET team have been involved with cases that range
from local to federal, he said.

"We are working closer as a police unit," Baggett said of the ongoing
cooperation between all of the police divisions."

Capt. Martin McCoy, commander of the Investigations Division, said
the SET team has become involved with all aspects of police work.

"Now, that unit is intertwined in the entire police department,"
McCoy said. "It does what no other unit has done before. It's leaps
and bounds from what any other unit has done before."

McCoy gave an example of a recent shooting that occurred on Baber
Court Wednesday evening. The SET team responded to the scene to
assist investigators, who then assigned SET officers to the case.

In a matter of hours, McCoy said, the suspect was taken into police
custody and charged.

Another example of the cooperation between the divisions is a recent
traffic stop that yielded more than $25,000 worth of cocaine.

Capt. Laura Fahnestock, commander of the Uniform Operations Division,
said a recent case involved a patrol officer stopping a vehicle for a
stop sign violation.

That incident, she said, led to the discovery of more than 250 grams
of cocaine.

"Even the patrol officers are looking for guns and drugs," Fahnestock
said, adding that younger officers in the patrol division learn
tactics from SET officers.

Baggett said because of the nature of their work, officers on the SET
team sometimes put in up to 24 hours because of the intensity of the
job in addition to weekly training sessions.

"That happens more than people think," Baggett said. "They go beyond
because it's what they believe in."

McCoy said that because the SET team is involved in all of the Rocky
Mount police divisions, officers are training together across the
board.

"The importance of working together and training together is that
everyone has a more direct buy-in from the bottom to the top," McCoy
said, adding division commanders are constantly meeting on a daily
basis.

Since its inception in August 2007, the SET team has made more than
3,777 criminal and traffic-related arrests.