FY24 Project Safe Neighborhoods Western District of Texas #81

The population of the Western District of Texas (WDTX) exceeds 7.5 million people. The WDTX is comprised of 68 counties, 93,000 square miles, 660 miles along the United Sates/Mexican border, and two time zones. No other district covers nearly as much border with Mexico. Due to the proximity of the Mexican border, the WDTX works to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that employ violence on both sides of the border. Transnational gangs affect virtually all corners of the WDTX through narcotics, firearms, and human smuggling.  WDTX also aggressively pursues human smuggling organizations and works to combat illegal immigration. Because of the geographic size of the WDTX, the crime and the causes of it are diverse. The WDTX's Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) objective is to reduce the violent crime in the entire District, through interrupting gang activity and arresting the shooters. The District will implement a district-wide prevention and re-entry effort to keep people out of the criminal justice system and address recidivism. 
 
In conjunction with PSN, the WDTX designed a violent crime initiative that draws on partnerships to tackle violent crime and protect the communities of central and west Texas through enforcement, prevention, and re-entry programs. Proposed projects should include enforcement, prevention, and/or re-entry programs that serve the entire WDTX or certain areas/cities in the WDTX.  Priority will be given to applications wherein at least 30 percent of the funding requested is committed to combating criminal gangs and transnational organizations through interrupting violent offenders, preventing individuals from joining gangs, and addressing recidivism.