Metro Police Say Primary North End Burglary Offenders Now "out of the Picture"; Other Crimes Down Here

In an e-mail to the Salemtown list, Central Precinct officers say that the arrest of Darren Lamont Hardemon and four other individuals, including juveniles, should provide relief to the North End after a 6-month crime spree:

We wanted to let our neighborhoods know there have been 5 arrests this week related to the residential Burglaries in the areas of Hope Gardens, Salemtown and Germantown. Two Adults were arrested and charged for Burglary and/or Robbery from this area by Central Precinct Detectives this week. We sent out a BOLO on these same two adult subjects in the below email in Jan./Feb. after we identified them on previous Burglary arrest in the area and we felt sure they were likely to commit future crimes. We have been actively trying to gather enough evidence since this date on them. Recently we have arrested them again and it is our belief that they are a major part of most of the issues in the area.

We also arrested three Juveniles for breaking into homes in the area last week. We expect more Juvenile arrest in the near future. We believe that between the adult group identified and the juveniles we have identified and arrested we have taken the primary offenders out the picture. In spite of their arrests, please remain vigilant because there may still be others out there willing to take their place .
We have had great communication and cooperation in our efforts and truly believe this helped limit the opportunities of these thugs. Central Precinct will continue our efforts in your area and hope that by years end will be able to have crime reduction across the board.

In your neighborhood Burglaries are the only area of crime increase we see and what we believe is we will see a large decline with these folks getting arrested this past week. Other areas of crime in your neighborhood are down overall for year to date. Police self - initiated activity is up considerably.