APRI Highlights - Spring 2003

Project Safe Neighborhoods; Providing Resources, Producing Results

Gun violence reduction remains high on President Bush’s domestic agenda. At the second annual Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) National Conference in Philadelphia, January 30 – February 1, 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced $54 million in new federal awards to combat gun violence, enhance cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement, support investigations, provide training, and community outreach efforts. NDAA President Dan Alsobrooks told the 1,400 conference participants that “by working together, the whole impact of our agency’s efforts was greater than the sum of its individual parts.”

Project Safe Neighborhoods promotes greater coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement through a well-planned strategy of tactical intelligence gathering, aggressive prosecution, and enhanced accountability through performance measures. Over 550 new state and local prosecutors, nearly 400 new ATF agents and 207 new federal prosecutors have been hired across the country to focus on gun violence. As a result, during FY 2002, federal prosecution of firearms offenses increased 20.2% over previous years and 10,634 defendants were charged nationwide for violating federal firearms statutes. State and local prosecution of firearms violations also remained high. In Las Vegas, for example, the District Attorney reports a 100 percent increase in the number of firearms cases.

APRI’s Community Gun Violence Prosecution Program (GVP) provides support to America’s prosecutors to maximize their success in reducing gun violence nationwide. At the PSN National Conference, APRI conducted several panel discussions focusing on topics of particular interest to state and local prosecutors. Participants learned of successful state and federal interagency efforts to screen cases in order to determine the most effective forum to prosecute gun cases. Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, Memphis District Attorney General William Gibbons and representatives from their respective U.S. Attorney’s offices described the successful collaborations both districts have crafted to target gun crime reduction. In a snapshot panel of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, participants heard from three cross-designated prosecutors regarding their experience working in both state and federal court. APRI also facilitated a discussion of gun violence prosecution strategies and measures of success.

APRI also distributed our latest publications related to gun violence reduction: Cross-Designation & Federal Firearms Laws: What Local Prosecutors Need to Know, and a pre-publication edition of Promising Practices in Partnering to Reduce Gun Crime: Prosecutors’ Guide to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. All publications of APRI’s Community Gun Violence Prosecution Program are available on the APRI Web site.