FY 2008 Project Safe Neighborhoods - Southern District of Indiana

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 Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, serving as the fiscal agent for the Southern District of Indiana, will use the grant to fund law enforcement initiatives, community outreach programs, prevention programs, and media campaigns. The target area for focused PSN efforts will include Indianapolis-Marion County (IMC) and additional efforts will focus on high crime areas outside of IMC.

Grant funds will be used to support: 1) law enforcement initiatives that allow officers to focus on the most violent gun and gang crimes. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) will fund overtime for officers in the Violent Crime Unit; 2) the implementation of a new DNA retrieval program for firearms, which utilizes state-of-the-art technology to attain a higher offender identification rate. The IMPD will acquire TriggerPro ID® kits and offer training to the officers who will use the kits for DNA collection; 3) community outreach programs, including the hiring of a PSN neighborhood coordinator to raise awareness and educate the communities and schools on gun crime and gun violence; 4) prevention programs, including Watch Club, Indy Stop Watch, and Peace Schools. All of these are school-based educational programs designed to educate youths on the dangers of gang and gun crime, bullying, harassment, substance abuse, conflict resolution, character education, and diversity; 5) media and marketing campaigns, including distributing the PSN message in a variety of media formats, such as TV promotions, radio messages, and print advertisements; and 6) a research coordinator to review statistics, monitor, and evaluate the performance of current programs and to help determine where additional efforts are needed.

NCA/NCF