The New Orleans Police Department spent the early morning rounding up some known offenders who police say are wanted in connection with domestic violence offenses.

Police were looking for 86 people who were wanted for various domestic charges from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m., eventually catching and arresting 18 of them.

21 percent of the people were arrested. In some cases where the suspects could not be found, police said they had pre-Katrina addresses, while some had already moved out of town.

“This started early this morning. Now that’s 18 that were taken off in a six hour period. Now we think that’s certainly positive,” said New Orleans Superintendent Warren Riley.

Riley said that the police do this type of round up each year in connection with Domestic Violence Awareness Month. He added that New Orleans routinely ranks among the nation’s top in domestic violence offenders.

“With the police department, I don’t think we are ever successful. Crime will never stop. We will always have challenges. But we can make progress. So this was morning was a positive thing,” Riley said.

The 18 suspects were arrested on a total of 24 violations on range from domestic threat to domestic battery. Some also had addition city and state charges.