Iowa Northern District Project Safet Neighborhood

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the national average Part I Violent Crime (Rape, Robbery, Murder, & Aggravated Assault) Rate per 100,000 population in 2019 was 379.4. The national crime rate for Part I crimes remains well below those reported in the late 1990s (611.0/100,000) and below the rates reported just a decade ago of 479.3 per 100,000.

Relative to most other states, Iowa has been a safe place to reside. In 2019, in Iowa, the Part I Crime Rate was 266.6/100,000 population.

Concerning is data from four of our largest cities shows a dramatic increase in violence during 2020. Specially the data showed that in Cedar Rapids there were 163 substantial shots fired incidents in 2020, 60% higher than the four year average.1 In Dubuque, there was an increase of person crimes of 40% with a 59% increase in aggravated assault crimes.  Sioux City saw the violent crime increase 26% with a 30% increase in aggravated assaults and a 200% increase in murder and manslaughter. 

Project Safe Neighborhoods funding will assist the US Attorney in partnership with state and local stakeholders to identify specific violence hotspots and offenders who are contributing to the violence in the district.  

The U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Iowa selected the Governor’s office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) as the fiscal agent for the Project Safe Neighborhoods award.  As the State Administrative Agency (SAA) for Iowa, ODCP has a good deal of experience administering grant programs including competitive grants. 

ODCP will work with the US Attorney’s Office and the District’s PSN Task Force to develop a subrecipient selection process which addresses the broad objectives of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program along with the specific priorities identified in the PSN task force strategy.