DOJ and NDAA Launch Gun Violence Prosecution Trainings

By Steven D. Dillingham, Ph.D., LL.M., APRI Chief Administrator

On January 23, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced details of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) and grant awards by DOJ to local prosecutors for hiring staff to combat gun violence. He was joined by NDAA President Kevin Meenan and Executive Director Newman Flanagan before a capacity audience of federal and local prosecutors and law enforcement officials at the National Advocacy Center (NAC). This first ever PSN conference marked the beginning of training activities for local prosecutors that will be led by NDAA, and will include both the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) and the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA).

“Project Safe Neighborhoods is a new national initiative that will get gun-wielding criminals off our streets and out of our neighborhoods,” the attorney general said. “These new federal, state and local prosecutors will insure that our gun laws are vigorously enforced so that our citizens will be protected from gun violence.”

NDAA President Kevin Meenan addressed the conference participants and stressed the importance of federal, state and local prosecutors and law enforcement officials working together. “As more than 99 percent of our nation’s violent crimes are investigated and prosecuted locally, effective partnerships are critical,” President Meenan reminded the participants. In May 2001, Meenan represented NDAA at President Bush’s launching of the PSN initiative in Philadelphia.

NDAA will be offering more training on combating gun violence to the prosecutors hired under DOJ’s community gun violence prosecution program (administered by BJA) as well as all other prosecutors. Plans also call for additional hiring grants—for a total of 580 prosecutor positions. Training schedules should be announced soon with training beginning possibly as early as May or June 2002.

At the conference, APRI released its first in-depth report on Project Exile in Richmond, Virginia. This program has been identified as a model for combating gun violence and was studied closely by Congress in appropriating funding. APRI will be issuing future reports describing initiatives by other communities across America to combat gun violence.

Among the key organizations participating in the three-day conference were: DOJ, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the International Association of the Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC). Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Chris Wray moderated the opening sessions and OJP Counsel Reagan Dunn addressed the strategy, scope and future of the initiative. Approximately one hundred elected and designated local prosecutors participated in the conference.

For information regarding PSN, go to www.projectsafeneighborhoods.gov, or contact the APRI Violent Crime Program at gvp@ndaa-apri.org or (703) 518-4394.