PSN Northern District

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs will serve as the fiscal agent for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama.  Violent crime in Jefferson County and its major municipalities has steadily increased in recent years. In 2022, Birmingham the epicenter of Jefferson County's violence had more homicides than any previous year. In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigations ranked Birmingham as the third most violent city in the United States. For the last seven years, it has remained in the top ten of this list. Homicides in Jefferson County increased 41% between 2018 and 2021 (from 168 to 237). In 2022, homicide rates in Birmingham, Jefferson County's largest city, reached an all-time high at 152 deaths. Birmingham's homicide rate per capita is three times the national average. In 2020-2023, Birmingham had an additional 405 attempted murder cases, as well as more than 3,000 crimes of violence involving the use of firearms. In 2023, Jefferson County law enforcement agencies seized over 3,000 firearms from prohibited persons or criminal suspects. Since 2020, the Birmingham Police Department's ShotSpotter has registered over 70,000 gunfire incidents that account for more than a quarter-million rounds fired, with 17,370 incidents and 72,372 shots fired in 2023 alone. 

The NDAL will work with local law enforcement, federal partners, and community-based organizations to enhance the safety in the communities of Anniston, Bessemer, Birmingham, Huntsville, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama by implementing evidence-based enforcement and crime prevention strategies that disrupt and deter community violence through focusing upon the most violent offenders and gangs in the most violent areas of the NDAL. Due to the increase in violent gun crimes, domestic violence, and drug trafficking in the prioritized hotspots, the USAO NDAL will implement a comprehensive, collaborative, and locally directed Project Safe Neighborhoods strategy to make each city safer, which will build upon the foundation laid over preexisting PSN and Public Safety Partnership initiatives.