Central District of California Project Safe Neighborhoods FY 23 Grant Application

The Central District of California (“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, serving over 19 million residents. 

Since 2019, many neighborhoods in the CDCA have seen an increase in violent crime 
and crimes involving firearms. Three areas that have statistically high levels of violent crime 
compared to other areas are the City of San Bernardino and the areas that make up the Los 
Angeles Police Department’s Southeast and 77th Patrol Divisions. 

The CDCA’s allocation for Fiscal Year 2023 (“FY23”) has not yet been announced. The 
CDCA PSN strategic plan for FY22 had two major components, and funding is to be allocated 
accordingly: one, to continue focusing PSN resources on the three high-crime areas identified 
above; and two, to offer a series of “micro-grants” to support smaller-scale crime reduction 
efforts in CDCA neighborhoods where the funding can have a larger impact. The FY23 PSN 
strategic plan will likely build on this current model, with any changes based on crime statistics 
and analysis provided by the PSN research partner.

PSN programs should be designed to address at least one of the following:
• Law enforcement 
• Intervention/rehabilitation 
• Prevention/outreach 
• Research 

PSN programs should focus on issues specific to the CDCA, including, but not limited to,
gang violence, the proliferation of ghost guns, silencers, and “Glock” auto-switches or autosears, repeat and habitual offenders, firearms possession by prohibited people, such as felons and 
domestic abusers, commercial and residential robberies, and violence related to homelessness. 
Because the CDCA experiences a spike in violent crime during the summer, PSN programs 
should include a summer violence reduction strategy. 

PSN programs and providers will use a collaborative approach to partner with other PSN 
components and community stakeholders to build on existing public safety efforts. The United 
States Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives will work 
with federal and local law enforcement partners, as well as community non-governmental and 
non-profit organizations to implement programs and strategies to combat violent crime and 
utilize research to measure effectiveness. Providers will also work closely with the CDCA PSN 
research partner and fiscal agent to ensure that data is regularly and in real-time collected, 
analyzed, and used to adjust the program’s implementation to maximize the program’s impact on 
crime reduction.