Project Safe Neighborhood - Central District of California

The Central District of California (CDCA) has been allocated $915,514 for FY 21 funding. Generally, CDCA will work with federal and local law enforcement partners, as well as non-governmental and non-profit organizations to implement programs and strategies to combat violent crime and utilize research to measure effectiveness. CDCA covers seven counties in Southern California – Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. It is the largest district in the country and encompasses more than 5% of the United States population. In 2019, several of the large cities in the District saw an overall decline in violent crime rates. For example, in LA, Part I Violent Crimes were down 7% the prior year. However, firearms continue to pose a problem, with the LAPD seizing nearly 7,000 guns in 2019, which was the highest number in the last decade.

CDCA will use a collaborative approach to combat violent crimes and firearm offenses to foster safer neighborhoods. The PSN Task Force will focus its efforts on issues specific to the District, including gang violence; ghost guns, Glock auto-switches, and illegal silencers found in the District; repeat and habitual offenders; and geographic hot spots that have seen recent increases in violent crime rates. CDCA plans to continue to build on the established and successful enforcement practices to combat violent crime. The reduction of gang violence and firearms, particularly ghost guns and illegal Glock auto-switches and silencers, will continue to be a focus of the program. The PSN Task Force believes in promoting innovative solutions to these specific issues, as well as violent and firearms crimes generally, including identifying research and other partners such as software developers to aid law enforcement in creating technology to properly identify and catalog ghost guns and Glock auto-switches.

CDCA will provide leadership and oversight to the project design and implementation plan to successfully meet the goals and objectives required in creating safer neighborhoods. CDCA’s PSN Task Force will lead the efforts to support local community intervention strategies in targeted regions to reduce violence and provide support services for those contributing to violent crime as well as their families. In addition the Task Force will support a research partner to collect and compile data related to these efforts to measure outcomes.