United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

LOCAL TEAM MEETS WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO R. GONZALES,
ENHANCES STRATEGIES TO COMBAT GANG VIOLENCE AND GUN CRIMES

Ten Area Representatives from Dallas - Fort Worth

DALLAS, TEXAS – Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales this week brought together over 1,300 federal, state and local prosecutors, law enforcement officials, community leaders and other members of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) teams from across the nation to discuss efforts to reduce and prosecute gun crime. Ten local representatives participated in the fourth PSN national conference in Denver, sharing successful strategies for combating gun crime and gang violence. The Bush Administration has devoted more than $1.6 billion to PSN since 2001, including nearly $40 million that will be distributed to local task forces this year.

“Project Safe Neighborhoods is a street-level partnership that helps local leaders solve local problems,” said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “Through this program, law enforcement at every level supports innovative strategies to combat gun crime and gang violence in communities across America.”

The conference centers on PSN’s many successes in fighting gun crime since the initiative was announced by President Bush in 2001, and on using PSN’s partnerships and successful strategies to combat the problem of gang violence.

“Project Safe Neighborhoods is a tremendous opportunity for the combined forces of federal, state and local partners to return neighborhoods to the law-abiding citizens who deserve a quality of life where they can sleep well every night knowing their families are safe,” remarked U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper. Roper continued, “PSN has been a huge success in the Northern District of Texas and I look forward to expanding PSN’s successes to include using our strong partnerships, pioneered under PSN, to combat gangs and gang violence in the DFW area.”

Since combating gang-violence can only be done by working in partnership with state and local law enforcement and community organizations, the Attorney General directed each U.S. Attorney to convene a Gang Prevention Summit in his or her district designed to explore additional opportunities in the area of gang prevention. These summits are to be held in the next eight months and will bring together law enforcement and community leaders to discuss best practices, identify gaps in services, and create a prevention plan to target at-risk youth within their individual communities.

The Attorney General announced that the Department of Justice released nearly $30 million in grant assistance to support state and local anti-gang efforts of PSN task forces across the country. The sum of $463,818.00 has been allocated to support enforcement and prevention efforts to combat violent gangs under PSN. In addition, the Department will award $10 million across the country to support PSN efforts to fight gun crime that is not necessarily gang-related.

These efforts will complement additional Department programs, such as the Attorney General’s Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, which has allocated a total of $15 million to fund comprehensive prevention, enforcement and re-entry efforts in six sites: Los Angeles, Tampa, Cleveland, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee, and the “222 Corridor,” between Easton and Lancaster in Pennsylvania.

PSN conference training topics range from enforcement strategies to remove violent gang members and gun criminals from the streets, to school violence prevention programs, and building community partnerships. The strength of PSN continues to be its strategic mix of federal, state and local agencies and community leaders focused on law enforcement and crime prevention. Prosecutors pursue the strongest possible punishment for those who violate firearms statutes, while community partners aggressively educate their constituents about consequence of illegal gun violence and gang activity through services and resources provided by PSN.

For more information, please visit the PSN website at www.psn.gov.

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