Dozens of Birmingham police officers on Wednesday launched the city’s end-of-the year crime suppression push.

The officers met outside the Bill Harris Arena at the Crossplex to kick off Operation All Out, which has been an ongoing initiative in the city for at least 10 years.

“The reason we do this every year is to combat the rise in crime around the holidays, the robberies and things that normally plague our city during that time,’’ said Police Chief Scott Thurmond. “We want to make sure our shoppers and residents have a safe time during the holidays, so we put officers out in the critical areas to help combat crime during that time.”

Roughly 35 to 50 officers will work together – often in smaller teams – to saturate problem areas. Those officers are additional resources who are not subject to answering 911 calls for service during their shift. They are strictly proactive.

“It doesn’t take away from our daily operations,’’ the chief said. “These are some of our task force officers who are normally out, so we refocus their attention during this time of the year.”

Birmingham police officials meet every day at 2 p.m. to look at crime and crime trends for the previous 24 hours, and Operation All Out will help target those areas.

“During that meeting, we will give out locations for Operation All Out to focus on,’’ the chief said.

Typically, Thurmond said, robberies and thefts pick up during December. Thieves are looking for easy money and easy targets.

“People leave packages in their cars or have packages delivered at home while they’re at work,’’ he said. “Get the packages off the porch as soon as you can, don’t leave them in in plain view and don’t leave your car running to warm it up,’’ he said.

The operation held roll call – will be in different portion of the city every day.

Thurmond said the operation will also address violent crime.

“Last year, if you look at our homicides in December, we had a very good December,’’ Thurmond said. “It (the operation) does have an impact on our crimes.”

The city had 12 homicides in December 2022. He said homicides for all of 2023 are down about 8 percent compared to the same time last year.

Thurmond said both the presence of, and the enforcement by, the Operation All Out teams, make a difference. The operation will remain in place throughout the end of the year.

“They’re taking the bad girls and the bad guys off the streets,’’ he said, “so they don’t victim our good citizens.”

He said the officers taking part in the effort are some of the “best of the best.”

“We encourage them to engage the criminal element,’’ he said, “and be safe and professional in doing that.”