Justice Department Awards $75 Million to Fight Violent Crime

The US Department of Justice announced that it is awarding $75 million in grants to law enforcement agencies across the country to aid in fighting violent crime in the US. The grants are part of the Justice Department's Violent Crime Reduction Partnership and the grant monies will be used to develop strategies to fight crime on the local level.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford announced the grants and issued the following statement in the Department of Justice press release, "For too many Americans, violent crime has a grip on the communities where they live, work and go to school." He continued, "The Violent Crime Reduction Partnership will speed relief to those cities experiencing some of the highest levels of violent crime. These funds will allow communities to develop effective, custom solutions to solve the unique issues facing their communities."

Over one hundred groups including state police, county sheriffs, and cities will be receiving funds from the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership grants. Grants range anywhere from $44,857 for the Cimarron County Sheriffs Department in Oklahoma to over $3 million for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations. Both California and Florida are the states with the largest number of grants awarded to individual cities and departments.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has recently shown that although the overall crime rate in 2006 has dropped to its lowest point in thirty years, violent crime numbers are increasing. The UCR's figures come from agencies reporting crimes that include murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults. The agencies are from the state and local level, and even include law enforcement agencies you don't normally think of, like college and university campus police forces. The UCR also shows that crime varies by regions and by populations.

The grants were determined by Justice Department officials that held meetings with law enforcement agency representatives as well as community leaders to evaluate crime in certain cities and other local and regional areas throughout the country. During the past year, Department officials visited 18 major cities to study various change in crime patterns from 2005. There was evidence of a correlation between the prevalence of street gangs and the incidence of youth violence with the number of violent crimes in the given area. Assessments as to which cities and states were then made calculate final numbers in how much in grant money an agency would receive.

The Violent Crime Reduction Partnership works in the same vein as the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, an initiative to prosecute gun crime. PSN also works with local law enforcement, as well as prosecutors and provides training and additional education in stopping gun-related crimes. Last month, the PSN was awarded grants totaling $50 million. For the fiscal year 2008 department budget, the Department of Justice has additionally requested more than $200 million in order to continue the grant program within the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership.

Source: US Department of Justice