Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks on Combating Violent Crime

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Mr. Attorney General.

The Justice Department has no higher priority than keeping the American people safe.

The law enforcement agencies represented here are essential to that mission and I am proud to serve with them.

Since the start of this administration, this Department has been laser-focused on targeting the most significant drivers of violent crime — with gun violence at the top of that list.

Our strategy is data-driven and focuses on doing what we do best: acting as a force multiplier with our state and local law enforcement partners — who are on the front lines of the fight against violent crime — and deploying technology and other cutting-edge tools to go after the individuals most responsible for crime in our communities. 

We are seeing returns on our efforts. After a peak during the pandemic, violent crime is on a downward trajectory — including double-digit drops in homicide rates across many major cities. 

But communities across this country are still coming together in grief because of the devastation of gun violence — including just yesterday in a school shooting in Iowa that claimed the life of a sixth grader.

We must continue to do all we can to reduce gun violence and protect the people we serve.

Crime gun intelligence — the ability to trace the guns and ballistics from crime scenes and identify the most prolific repeat shooters — is integral to our strategy, and it has been a game changer. That’s because crime gun intelligence allows us to take those repeat shooters off the streets, to drive case-closure rates up, and to drive violent-crime rates down.

Working with our state and local partners, the ATF is now tracing more illegally deployed firearms than ever before.

With a database of over six million pieces of ballistic evidence, ATF has generated more than 800,000 investigative leads. These investigative leads help solve violent crimes and make our communities safer.

We are committed to making ballistics and gun-tracing — and other crime-gun intelligence tools — available to every law-enforcement agency in the country, from the smallest towns to the biggest cities.

Taking crime gun intelligence from a violent crime scene should be as standard as taking fingerprints from a criminal.

Now, crime-gun intelligence has also enabled us to maximize the benefits of the most significant gun safety legislation passed in 30 years — the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Among other common-sense steps, this law enables the FBI to conduct enhanced background checks for prospective firearms purchasers under the age of 21. Over the last year and a half, those enhanced checks have kept 527 guns out of the hands of young people prohibited by law from possessing them.

It helps the Department crack down on black-market gun dealers who peddle deadly weapons and increase prosecutions for unlicensed firearms dealing by 60% since 2021.

Our intelligence-based violent crime strategy is also delivering in terms of arrests. Over the last year and a half, the U.S. Marshals Service has deployed crime data to target its fugitive apprehension efforts in areas with the highest violent crime rates. Then, working with state and local partners, they’ve arrested more than 6,700 of the nation’s most violent fugitives, making our communities safer.

It’s by working in tandem with our state and local partners that we can move the needle and continue the downward trajectory we’re seeing in violent crime across the country.

Just yesterday, our U.S. Attorney in Maryland announced that homicides in Baltimore dropped by more than 20% this past year — again thanks to strategic law enforcement initiatives and community partnerships.

The City of Detroit made a similar announcement the day before — reporting that it closed out 2023 with the fewest homicides on record since 1966 and double-digit reductions in shootings and carjackings — thanks to their federal, state, and local partnerships.

And on the west coast, in October, the City of Sacramento announced an 18% reduction in violent crime, including a 40% reduction in homicides. Federal law enforcement partnered closely with local authorities in Sacramento on strategies to address violent crime and gun crime in particular. 

As we start this new year, the declining murder and violent crime rates are undoubtedly good news. But while the trends are broad, they are not uniform —  so we cannot and will not relent. To the contrary, we need to double down on what works. 

That means:

• More joint federal, state, and local efforts to target violent criminals;
• More investments in putting more cops on the beat;
• Making more cutting-edge crime gun intelligence available to as many of our partners as possible;
• Disrupting every aspect of the violence-fueled fentanyl supply and delivery chain;
• Stopping the spread of ghost guns and devices like Glock switches that convert firearms into weapons of war;
• And, of course, investing in our partnerships with state, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies across the country.

The strategy is paying dividends, so we need to maintain our momentum.

I want to thank the men and women of our law enforcement agencies for their tireless efforts to keep the country safe, to protect civil rights, and to uphold the rule of law.

I’m looking forward to our discussion this morning on how we can continue our progress in safeguarding our communities.