FY24 Project Safe Neighborhoods Southern District of Texas #80

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) comprises five key components Leadership, Partnership, Targeted Enforcement, Prevention and Accountability. The PSN Program, led by the United States Attorney's Office (USAO), local law enforcement and community partners will develop and implement policies aimed at the reduction of violent crime, on a short and long-term basis, in a targeted area. Based on this strategy, a PSN task force of interested stakeholders will divide funds between enhanced law enforcement activities, community prevention outreach, deterrence, and re-entry efforts. Grant fund recipients will be monitored to ensure positive results in the community and associated reduction in violent crime. 
 
The Southern District of Texas, USAO will continue to strengthen its partnerships with the Texas Anti-Gang Center (TAG), Houston Police Department, Harris County Sheriff's Office, Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, respective county district attorney's offices, federal law enforcement partners, and the Mayor's Anti-Gang Office targeting violent crime reduction in the Houston metropolitan area. 
 
The USAO, in conjunction with law enforcement and community partners, will focus on southeast Houston and the northwest FM 1960 corridor (west of I-45 North) as the locations to direct these funds based on sustained, high levels of gun and gang violence. Crime in this area, including murders, aggravated assaults, and robberies, remains at troubling levels. Historical rises in violent crime appear to be largely driven by gang membership, lack of employment and educational opportunities, and poverty, which PSN seeks to address. The PSN grant will be distributed through the Texas Office of the Governor Public Safety Office, after a competitive process, to recipients that have devised programs, strategies, or projects that are aimed at making a positive impact and reducing violent crime in southeast Houston and northwest Harris County. These programs include, but are not limited to, research and crime analysis, law enforcement efforts, community crime prevention outreach programs for at-risk youth and adults, gang intervention, community-law enforcement relations, and offender and family re-entry programs.