Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey Announces $17 Million in Grant Funds for Project Safe Neighborhoods

    Announcement Follows Meeting with Denver Metro Gang Task Force



    DENVER, Aug. 14 /EMWNews/ -- Attorney General Michael B.

Mukasey today met with Denver's Metro Gang Task Force, and announced that

the Department of Justice intends to award more than $17 million to combat

gangs and gun crime around the country through locally organized Project

Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) task forces.



    During the meeting, the Attorney General was briefed on several major

gang takedowns that the Metro Gang Task Force has led recently. Last month,

the Task Force concluded a two and a half year investigation resulting in

the indictment of 27 members of the Asian Pride street gang for

distributing hundreds of thousands of ecstasy tablets in the Denver area.

Last year, its work resulted in the indictment of 80 members of the Rolling

30s Crips and the Tre Tre Crips on charges of distributing crack cocaine

and cocaine, money laundering, and firearms offenses.



    The Task Force unites federal, state, and local law enforcement

agencies to effectively fight gangs in the Denver metro area. The Task

Force includes the FBI; ATF; the Denver Police Department; the Aurora

Police Department; the Adams County Sheriff's Office; the Arapahoe County

Sheriff's Office; the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office; the Douglas County

Sheriff's Office; the Thornton Police Department; the Rocky Mountain High

Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; the Denver District Attorney's Office; the

Colorado Bureau of Investigation; the Colorado Department of Corrections;

the Colorado State Patrol; and the Colorado Air National Guard.



    The funds announced today will be distributed to each of the country's

94 judicial districts. The U.S. Attorneys in each of those districts,

working with local law enforcement and other officials, tailor their PSN

strategy to fit the unique crime problem in that district. Colorado will

receive $196,000 in PSN funding.



    The PSN task forces are a cooperative effort between federal, state and

local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, along with research and

media outreach partners, as well as community leaders. Since 2001, the Bush

Administration has committed approximately $2 billion to federal, state and

local efforts to fight gun crime and gang violence. These funds have been

used to hire more than 200 federal prosecutors and over 550 new state and

local prosecutors to focus on gun crime; provide training; hire research

and community outreach support; and develop and promote effective

prevention and deterrence efforts. Each district engages in deterrence and

prevention efforts through community outreach and media campaigns, and

ensures that law enforcement and prosecutors have the training necessary to

make the program work. Nearly $4 million of the funding announced today

will be used for training and technical assistance to train additional

personnel and support program infrastructure so that PSN can be sustained

in the years ahead. To date, the national PSN training and technical

assistance partners have trained nearly 33,000 individuals in over 300

nationally-sponsored training events across the nation who work to make our

communities safer. Local PSN programs have organized training for many

thousands more.



    To date, the efforts of PSN task forces have yielded strong results,

including:



    -- In FY 2007, the Department prosecuted 12,087 defendants on federal

firearms cases. Nearly 94 percent of those offenders received prison terms

and nearly 75 percent were sentenced to three or more years in prison.



    -- From FY 2001 to 2007, the Department of Justice has filed 68,543

cases against 83,106 defendants for federal firearms violations. This

represents more than a 100 percent increase in cases filed over the prior

seven year period.



    The grants announced today are administered by the Office of Justice

Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and support a comprehensive

approach to fight gang violence and gun crime. The more than 150 PSN task

forces across the country build effective local partnerships, use research

tools to guide and measure the impact of their strategies, provide

comprehensive training to law enforcement officers and others, convey the

initiative's message to the community, and build productive coalitions with

citizens.



    The funds complement existing Department of Justice programs to combat

gangs and reduce gun-related crime throughout the country, including the

Comprehensive Anti-Gang initiative, launched in May 2006. The initiative

has provided resources for prevention, enforcement and offender re-entry

efforts to 12 sites nationwide, including Los Angeles, Tampa, Cleveland,

Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee and the "222 Corridor" that stretches from

Easton to Lancaster in Pennsylvania; Indianapolis; Oklahoma City;

Rochester, N.Y.; Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; and most recently, Chicago and

Detroit.







    To find out about more about PSN and its local programs, visit the PSN

Web site at http://www.psn.gov.