HAMMOND — The FBI and Louisiana State Police will be assisting local police amid a recent string of violent crime, Hammond Police Chief Edwin Bergeron announced Thursday, while reassuring residents that the city does not have “rampant crime running around the city.”

Bergeron took to the podium Thursday to share details about his department’s crackdown on crime, which involves help from state and federal agencies, an increased downtown law enforcement presence, improved lighting and the use of drones.

“We’re going to put these people in jail if they step out of line, from a minor infraction to a major infraction,” Bergeron said. “We’re going to go after anyone who is victimizing our community.”

The announcement comes after a 17-year-old was shot outside of a bar in downtown Hammond around 2 a.m. on Saturday. Bergeron said the teenager and his family have been uncooperative with police, even laughing at detectives during questioning.

“It’s a shame when not only the kids feel they shouldn’t be involved, or shouldn’t cooperate with law enforcement, but when the parents condone these type of actions,” Bergeron said.

In June, two people gunned down an innocent 50-year-old woman, instead of their intended target, outside a Hammond gas station.

As of June 30, three people had been arrested in connection with a deadly February interstate drive-by shooting near Southeastern Louisiana University.

In May, four people were hurt and two were arrested after shots were fired into a downtown Hammond crowd. 

Bergeron said these are the types of crimes that are driving his department’s new initiative.

Police conducted a Saturday-night sweep of the downtown area, hours after the early-morning shooting of the 17-year-old, which resulted in 16 arrests and the seizure of 10 guns. Bergeron said these sweeps will happen at least three to four nights every week through the end of the summer, or longer if necessary, and each operation will involve an additional 20 officers patrolling the streets.

“We will have people working overtime; we will have people adjusting their schedules,” Bergeron said. “It will be anyone from the brand-new rookie that is starting with our police department to our administrative staff, such as myself and my assistant chief.”

The police chief said the FBI has offered its intel analysts and manpower to identify suspects traveling in and out of the state, pointing to the out-of-city and even out-of-state ties seen in many of the city’s recent crimes.

Half of Saturday night’s arrestees are not from Hammond, and three of them are from Mississippi. In the gas station shooting, police say the car used was carjacked in McComb, Mississippi, earlier that day.

Detectives believe that the Saturday morning shooting was in retaliation for another shooting earlier in the day that occurred outside Hammond city limits.

“We recognize the increase in gang violence here, gang violence that has even spread to Hammond’s downtown historical district,” Jonathan Tapp, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New Orleans Field Office, said. “No one in Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, or anywhere in Louisiana should have to think twice about going to the grocery, a ball game, or any festival without gangbangers, gunfire going off everywhere,” he added.

Additionally, LSP will assist Hammond Police through proactive patrols, Bergeron said, in an effort to “get these people stopped prior to even getting to Hammond.”

HPD will also use the LSP Fusion Center for further help with intel gathering.

Bergeron also said his department will be using its mobile command center, tapping into a network of cameras, as well as its drone program and increased lighting. He added that Entergy recently, at the mayor's request, replaced 10 street lights.

While the chief praised the ambiance of the city without the lights, he suggested that area criminals were taking advantage of the darkness. 

"Unfortunately, these criminals use that as an opportunity to hide in the shadows and to operate under the cover of darkness, and we have to step up and we have to do a job to make sure that we don’t allow to give them that cover,” Bergeron said.

The chief assured Hammond residents that they do need to be scared to walk the streets of Hammond and said the recent uptick in violent crime is “absolutely not” a major everyday issue for people in the city.

“The thing about Hammond is, if we have any violent crime, everybody gets upset, and that’s absolutely what should happen, right? Because that’s just unacceptable in our community,” he said.

He said that most of the violent crime has happened downtown, near the bars and in the middle of the night.

“Comparing us to a larger city and thinking that we’re out of control with crime, that’s just not the case,” Bergeron said. “Comparing us with a department that is manpower-deficient, that’s not the case.”