PSN -FY 2022. Project Safe Neighborhoods grants to perform community engagement to increase crime prevention activities.

The Eastern District of Louisiana encompasses the following thirteen parishes:  Assumption, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, and Washington. These parishes hold diverse communities, be it through racial, socio-economic, ethnic, or age of the population.  These differences, however, are inconsequential when looking at the recent boom of violent crime that has occurred throughout the parishes.  

The entire area of the Eastern District, has in recent years, been stricken with increasing violent crime. These crimes include carjackings and robberies that are occurring in populated/frequently visited areas during daylight hours. Historically, these types of crimes have been seen as occurring at night and often in high crime-urban neighborhoods. That perception has been challenged of late, with the citizens of the thirteen parishes, and specifically those in Orleans Parish and the surrounding metropolitan areas, scared to go about their daily lives and tasks, such as getting gas at COSTCO or grocery shopping, for fear of a violent act being perpetrated on themselves or a family member.  

Due to this expansion of crimes within our community, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has partnered with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, such as, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), and the New Orleans Police Department, to work together to combat this exploding wave of criminal activity.   

With FY 2022 Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) funding, the group plans to work with community organizations to implement crime prevention and reduction strategies while engaging in sharing of information within the community.