Middle District of Alabama's Project Safe Neighborhoods and Anti-Gang Initiative

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a nationwide commitment to reducing gun crime, links existing local programs together and provides them with necessary tools. PSN takes a hard line against gun criminals, using every available means to create safer neighborhoods; seeks to achieve heightened coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement; and emphasizes tactical intelligence gathering, more aggressive prosecutions, and enhanced accountability through performance measures. The United States Attorney in each federal judicial district will lead the offensive. The fiscal agent, in coordination with the PSN task force, will allocate funds throughout the community.

The River Region United Way, serving as the fiscal agent for the Middle District of Alabama (MDA), will use the grant to maintain critical components of the Alabama ICE (Isolate the Criminal Element) initiative. This initiative gained district-wide popularity with the law enforcement community because of the swiftness with which violent firearms offenders are prosecuted and sentenced. MDA's strategies include prosecuting gang-related crimes that implicate federal laws and dismantling gang organizations through successful prosecution efforts; supporting policing divisions, primarily state and local, dedicated to preventing and detecting gangs and gang crime in areas where it is most prevalent; funding educational programs that educate communities regarding the effect of gangs and violent crime, while assisting in the development of skills needed to resist gangs and violence; and enforcing drug laws to target gang members.

Further, funding will be used to: 1) continue Crime Stoppers, which solicits local junior high school students to sign a pledge against violence in Montgomery Public Schools, as wells as Elmore County public schools. This program provides citizens a toll free telephone number to provide anonymous tips of illegal firearms crimes directly to law enforcement, and has developed a club called C.L.A.S.S. (Character, Leadership, Academics, Social Skills and Service), which addresses issues facing youth today, including gangs and gang-related crime; 2) expand Street SMART to Montgomery, Autauga, and Lowndes Counties to create an awareness of gangs and negative conflict and the adverse impact on communities; 3) utilize programs that target at-risk youth during the summer months in an intensive instructional environment with the primary goal of reducing incidences of firearm-related violence; and 4) develop male and female offender reentry programs with an emphasis on anger management, prohibition of firearm possession, and the reduction of recidivism for high-risk offenders.

NCA/NCF