Southern District of Ohio - FY 2007 PSN Anti-Gang Project

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 Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services will use its grant award to fund sub-grants to its Anti-Gang Initiative partners to attack established local gangs or affiliations while seeking to prevent national gangs from building a meaningful presence in the Southern District of Ohio. The strategy will develop ways to track movement of known gang members in the district, focus gang prevention efforts in neighborhoods with high concentrations of offenders under supervision to prohibit the expansion of gangs, and focus the District's fugitive task force on apprehending individuals with known or suspected gang connections.

Sub-grants will be made to the City of Dayton to expand investigations into gang activity; the Columbus Division of Police to expand and continue 'Operation 645', a joint federal, state, and local investigation into criminal gang activity in the three precincts most affected by gang violence; the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to focus enforcement and re-entry services in a Columbus area with the highest concentration of released offenders; and the Ohio Attorney General's Office to expand the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team into the Dayton area and to add law enforcement agencies and officers as participants.

The goals of Southern District's Anti-Gang Initiative are to: 1) dismantle or disrupt criminal gangs committing violent crimes in the three most affected neighborhoods of Columbus through expansion of 'Operation 645'; 2) deter and support members of two main offender groups from engaging in gang activity; 3) increase Dayton police officers' understanding of how gangs operate; 4) develop a comprehensive database in Dayton with gang members' pictures and tattoos and make the information available to any officer or agency that requires it; and 5) reduce the number of gang and gun-related crimes committed by fugitives in the district.

NCA/CF