Weed and Seed
Weed and Seed is the Department of Justice's proven, effective strategy to promote partnerships among law enforcement, neighborhood residents, service providers, and local government. The strategy is community-based and resident-driven with a multi-agency comprehensive approach to law enforcement, community policing, prevention-intervention-treatment, and neighborhood restoration. While the Community Capacity Development Office (“CCDO”) of the Department of Justice administers Weed and Seed and provides general guidelines, Weed and Seed allows a community to work with its U.S. Attorney; local, state, and federal law enforcement officials; local and state agencies; and neighborhood residents to formulate the most appropriate strategy for their needs, goals, and objectives.
The U.S. Attorneys in Districts with Weed and Seed sites monitor each community strategy and assist in coordinating both the “weeding” phase of eradicating and reducing crime; and the “seeding” phase of coordinating and leveraging resources, developing and maintaining partnerships, and involving social services. In over 300 localities across the United States, communities have developed and implemented Weed and Seed strategies to, among other things, prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activities in those neighborhoods plagued by high incidents of crimes. For more information about Weed and Seed generally in the United States, visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ccdo
The Western District of Kentucky has one Weed and Seed site, Newburg, which is located some eight miles south of downtown Louisville Metro. In June 2005, CCDO officially recognized Newburg as a Weed and Seed site, and thereafter, Louisville Metro received $175,000 in grant funding to implement the Weed and Seed strategy in Newburg. The official recognition of and the successful grant award for the Newburg Weed and Seed site follow two years of diligent work and joint efforts of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Louisville Metro officials and agencies, and the residents and other stakeholders of the Newburg community. The U.S. Attorney committed the services of an Assistant U.S. Attorney and the Law Enforcement Coordinator to this effort.
The emphasis for the duration of the Newburg Weed and Seed initiative will be concentrated law enforcement aimed at charging, arresting, and prosecuting the neighborhood's violent criminal offenders; coordinated social services to address youth issues; unemployment; concerns related to convicted felons being released from penal institutions and returning to the Newburg community; and community policing to assist law enforcement efforts to enhance the quality of life in Newburg and foster an effective work relationship between law enforcement officials and neighborhood residents.
Project Backfire, a partnership of state and federal law enforcement including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, the Commonwealth Attorney for Jefferson County, the Jefferson County Attorney, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Louisville Metro Police Department, will continue to target violent offenders in the Newburg community. Project Backfire is an extremely valuable tool in the “weeding” phase of the Weed and Seed strategy. The principal objective of Project Backfire, which is the local initiative of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhood Program (PSN), is to prosecute violent offenders to the fullest extent of state and federal law. To this end, the U.S. Attorney’s PSN attorneys for the Western District of Kentucky have developed great working relationships with Louisville Metro police officers. Those officers have agreed to consult with Assistant U.S. Attorneys or with ATF agents regarding violent firearms offenders to provide optimum opportunity to consider the appropriate forum for any given firearm prosecution.
The United States Marshal Service has been and will continue to be a critical partner by virtue of the work of its Fugitive Task Force which includes the active participation of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Louisville Metro Police Department in addition to several other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.