Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2007, $214,146)
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 Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice serves as the fiscal agent for the District of Nebraska's Fiscal Year 2007 Anti-Gang Initiative. The District's gang problem is largely concentrated in the Omaha metropolitan area. It is estimated that, in 2005, there were 28 gangs in the city with approximately 2,895 suspected gang members. In 2006, the Omaha Police Department showed 28 gangs in the city with approximately 3,301 suspected gang members which is a 14 percent increase over the 2005 figures. To address these concerns, the District developed a multi-pronged approach to combat the violent gang problem and will utilize the Anti-Gang Initiative to increase the effectiveness of gang and gun investigations and community supervision in Omaha and increase anti-gang enforcement efforts in Sarpy County and Bellevue City.
The primary emphasis will be to identify the worst offenders engaged in gun violence and narcotics trafficking in the state and then in conjunction with the United States Attorney's Office (USAO), the Omaha Police Department, and other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, initiate charges that will take offenders off the street. Specifically, funding will be used to support overtime services for night patrols, Cease-Fire and Night-Light programs, offender transportation to court, and police crime lab investigations. Funds will also go to support part-time services of a Project Safe Neighborhoods Coordinator that will be responsible for overseeing firearm case screening and for the 'Hard Time for Gun Crime' media outreach campaign that focuses on at-risk youth in the community.
NCA/NCF