Crime unit sweeps back to the streets: Arrests help send message after a two month hiatus

The Street Crimes Unit is back.

After nearly two months of laying low, the Charleston PoliceDepartment's specialized unit gave notice last week of a full-fledgedreturn to the streets with a series of drug and prostitution sweeps.

The five-member unit, using the trademark surprise tactics thatearned it the nickname "the Jump Out Boys," arrested 36 people lastweek on a variety of charges on the city's West Side and East End.It was the unit's first sustained crime-fighting initiative sinceearly December, when Kanawha County Prosecutor Bill Forbes sent aletter accusing the unit of "lawless conduct" and civil rightsviolations "on an apparently systematic basis."The hotly …