WORCESTER, Mass. — The Worcester Police Department’s Crime Gun Intelligence Unit was launched one month ago.

The unit targets the most dangerous people involved in firearm-related offenses, including repeat gun offenders, with a top priority of getting illegal firearms off the streets.

Lieutenant Sean Murtha said the work of the new unit is going well.

“It's going great. They've got several guns off the street, made a bunch of arrests," Murtha said. "They resolved ShotSpotter activation, which is their mission to combat violent crime, to go after the known-violent offenders; and that's what I've been doing.”

Murtha said in the latest numbers he’s seen, the CGIU recovered three guns in their first month, with at least six arrests and resolved at least one or two ShotSpotter activations.

The unit is made up of five police officers who partner with the ATF and District Attorney Joseph Early’s office. Murtha said they’d like to make the unit bigger, but the department is currently down about 65 officers and they’re hoping to get numbers back up.

The city has also launched its annual Summer Impact program two weeks early. The program sends extra officers out during the most violent times of year, which Murtha said are generally the summer-months in the evening.

“It's been a focus on community policing in the past and also a focus on deterrence and going out there and again targeting violent offenders," Murtha said. "So given the violence that's happened in the city in the last couple of months, we started that a little bit early to try to get a lid on things before the summer comes.”

Overall, Murtha said despite a recent increase in violence, Worcester is still a safe city. He said the department has several different strategies in place to address those crimes, such as the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit and early launch of the Summer Impact program.

Worcester PD is encouraging residents to call the police if something doesn’t look right in their area.