Salisbury Police and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office have put their heads and their resources together over the past week to battle an outbreak of gun violence in the city. So far the crackdown seems to have quieted things down, another example of how law enforcement agencies successfully team up to address crime.

According to Police Capt. Shelia Lingle, here are the stats on the joint law enforcement project over five days, from the time it was announced on Sept. 20 through last Thursday :

• 136 traffic stops

• 47 citations

• 9 warrants served

• 77.3 grams of marijuana confiscated.

• 30 pills confiscated

• .2 grams of crystal meth confiscated

• 1 rifle and 1 machete seized

As Sheriff Kevin Auten said last week, crime knows no boundaries.

Joint investigations often cross county lines too. Auten’s department, Kannapolis Police and the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office worked together in recent months to investigate and charge a father and son who they say have been involved in the black tar heroin trade. Undercover officers and information sources made buys from the pair in the Kannapolis and Mooresville areas, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The seriousness of the charges was enough for a $2 million bond to be placed on one of the suspects.

The recent, gang-related shootings in Salisbury did not occur in a vacuum. Law enforcement sources say similar activity took place  in other cities along the I-85 corridor recently, with five killings in Charlotte alone. That doesn’t make local concerns any less urgent; the fact that some of the shooting was near a school during a football game especially alarmed Salisbury residents. Similar activity in other communities, however, does reinforce the need for agencies to collaborate.