Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2022, $128,947)
Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
2022 Project Safe Neighborhoods Discretionary Grant Program
Project Abstract
The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) is pleased to submit this application on behalf of the Middle District of Georgia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for FY 2022 Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). CJCC seeks to use PSN funds on violent crime reduction throughout the Middle District with a primary focus in three of its population centers, Albany, Columbus, and Macon. Each of these communities have experienced increased homicide and violent crime rates during the past calendar year and the current trends indicated that the surge of violent crime has not decreased. Implementation for this proposal will begin on October 1, 2022 and end September 30, 2025.
The PSN Task Force for the district has a site in each of these three communities comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement partners. The District intends to utilize data for violent crime incident, gun crime, gun confiscation, calls for police service, and incident reports, to identify the areas of each community which are plagued by gun violence. Additionally, the District utilizes task force meetings to review crime data as well as pretrial data from local prosecutors and federal prosecutors, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, and other crime-related data. Task force meetings have led to the creation of a priority offender list that has led to an increase in PSN indictments to date since its inception in February 1, 2018.
It is the intention of the task forces to utilize the grant funds to achieve a reduction in gun violence and diminish gang recruitment and operation by working with stakeholders and community partners throughout the district. A portion of grant funds, 30 percent, will be used to fund the efforts of local gang task force unit(s) who supports PSN initiatives throughout the Middle District.