Project Safe Neighborhood Anti-Gang Initiative

The Anti-Gang Initiative provides funds to support new or expanded anti-gang enforcement and prevention efforts under the existing Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Initiative. These new funds may be used by the PSN task force to combat gangs by leveraging current strategies and partnerships developed under PSN initiatives or may be used to develop new anti-gang initiatives. The Anti-Gang initiative will be led by the United States Attorney in each of the 94 federal judicial districts across America. Grant funds will be awarded to a single fiscal agent in each of the 94 districts. The fiscal agent, in coordination with the PSN task force, will allocate the funds throughout the community to support the anti-gang initiative in that community.

The Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission serves as the fiscal agent for the Western District of Missouri's 2007 Anti-Gang Initiative Program. The goals of the Anti-Gang Initiative are to identify the most criminally active gangs and to coordinate the law enforcement and community anti-gang strategies. The objectives will be to develop a profile of each gang and to identify all of the law enforcement and community resources currently working on the gang problem. The additional funding will allow greater investigation and intelligence gathering by the Kansas City Police Department gang unit. After the identification of the gang and its members, the objective will be to utilize federal tools such as fast-track prosecution, the longer federal prison sentences, electronic surveillance, and possibly, grand jury subpoenas and the witness security program to attack the gangs along a broad front.

The Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission will use the 2007 award to fund other agencies and local police departments to dedicate anti-gang positions and formulate methods for information sharing. Over the proposed three-year period, the additional law enforcement funding will improve the intelligence and information systems of the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) Perpetrator Information Center (PIC) and the KCPD DNA lab unit. The facial recognition software will greatly enhance the ability of the PIC to identify individuals engaged in gang activity and provide evidence to support an enterprise theory of prosecution. The upgrade to the DNA lab will increase the efficiency in processing evidence from gang crime and other criminal activity.

The Crime Commission will contract with the Platte County Missouri Prosecutor's Office to provide one prosecutor position. The prosecutor will increase the capacity of the United States Attorney's Office to focus on gang related federal prosecutions within the County. Other projects funded by this award include Break N'Build Phase II, which is an after school/summer program for youth within the anti-gang target areas; and Old Northeast, Inc., which is a community development corporation that works closely with Northeast Kansas City neighborhoods and police to provide graffiti abatement services.

NCA/NCF