2022 Project Safe Neighborhood (Colorado)

2022 Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) - Colorado

    The District of Colorado’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program originates from the U.S. Attorney Office’s (USAO) work with its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to address violent crime in different communities across Colorado.  The resulting PSN program allows the USAO to apply federal enforcement resources where they will have the biggest impact in communities most troubled by violent crime.  The PSN program uses data, law enforcement intelligence, and input from the communities to identify and prosecute the most violent offenders and the most prolific perpetrators of gun violence.

    The goals of the District of Colorado’s PSN program include focused and strategic enforcement, community engagement and violence prevention efforts.  Based on the current crime violent trends, however, the District of Colorado has identified that its most important goal is enhancing focused and strategic enforcement, which can most directly contribute to reducing violence in communities.  The USAO will seek to address the increase in violence through priorities of investigation and prosecution, and increased collaboration, tailored to each Targeted Enforcement Area (TEA), which are outlined as follows: the Denver Metro area, Colorado Springs, Northern Colorado (Greeley, Fort Collins, and Loveland) and Southern Colorado (Pueblo, a city that historically has an unusually high per capita incidence of violence).   
    Key characteristics of the plan include targeted efforts for investigations and prosecutions: 1) Reduce violent crime through enhanced targeting of the most violent offenders for prosecution, including utilizing proactive investigative techniques and technologies to target the most violent offenders in each TEA; 2) Increase capabilities of task forces within each TEA to identify the most violent offenders in their jurisdiction; 3) Enhance likelihood of federal case acceptance in each TEA, with special emphasis on the Denver Metro TEA, which currently is experiencing the greatest amount of violent crime; and enhancement of prevention resources and community engagement efforts, especially in TEAs: 1) Enhance coordination and collaboration for anti-violence organizations, including both law enforcement and community-based organizations; 2) Identify and meet training needs among prevention organizations, including both law enforcement and community based organizations; and 3) Enable effective research into statewide violence trends to ensure future enforcement efforts are appropriately tailored to current violence trends.

    Various forms of data and intelligence will be collected and applied to targeted efforts and evaluations to include CGIC data, incidence of violence in each TEA, and community-based intervention strategies based upon sociological data and incidence of violence, as well as health-based and civilian-led gang intervention information.  In addition, to assist with the documentation and utilization of data, a research partner will be selected through a competitive bid process to assist in data and intelligence collection for the FY 2021 project to span October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2024, with an option for renewal of the contract for two additional years to cover the 2022 and 2023 PSN Program.