Virginia DCJS - FY23 Eastern District USAO Project Safe Neighborhood Grant Program

The United States Attorney's Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), with Divisions in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News, serves more than 6 million residents living in Northern Virginia, Tidewater, Central Virginia, and surrounding communities.  According to the United States Sentencing Commission, EDVA has the busiest criminal docket outside of the districts lining the Southwest United States border and the Southern District of Florida and ranks third in the nation in the total number of trials per year. 
 
The primary PSN program goal is to reduce gun and gang violence in EDVA through deterrence efforts aimed at potential offenders, the implementation of evidenced-based programs and proven enforcement strategies to prevent and reduce gun and gang crimes, and the prosecution of significant firearm, controlled substance, and violent crime offenses. The PSN program will harness the resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials throughout EDVA.  The PSN team will incorporate the five design features of PSN to reduce gun and gang violence throughout EDVA and the four PSN target enforcement areas. The PSN program will require intelligence-led approaches to identify the most violent offenders and neighborhoods in each division, and then deploy combined resources to prevent, interdict, and suppress violent criminal acts by targeted offenders in those areas. A significant part of the strategy will focus on investigating and prosecuting gang members, including members of transnational gangs, such as MS-13, as well as local neighborhood gangs. EDVA intends to continue with this approach beyond 2024.  Funding will enhance the ability of EDVA's federal, state, and local partners to implement anti-gang strategies through additional resources and equipment to investigate gang activity, over-time expenditures for already heavily worked task forces, and other useful expenditures.