PSN 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 District of Maryland will utilize their FY 2007 Anti-Gang Initiative grant to support law enforcement efforts to combat youth and gang violence throughout the state. Maryland law enforcement officials have reported more than 200 known gangs and estimated far more than 5,000 gang members in the District and violence attributed to gangs continues to rise. To combat this situation, the District will utilize the Anti-Gang grant funds to: 1) establish and/or enhance jurisdictional, multi-jurisdictional, or state-wide enforcement initiatives that are specifically focused upon minimizing illegal gang activity by making anti-gang funding available to state and local jurisdictions, for the purposes of implementing comprehensive gang enforcement strategies; and 2) assisting local and/or state corrections agencies in gathering and sharing gang intelligence information, via the GangNet system by making funding available to jails, detention centers, and state prisons to assist them with migrating their current gang intelligence database(s) into the state's GangNet system.

NCA/NCF