Project Safe Neighborhoods - Northern District of Mississippi

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 Mississippi Department of Public Safety, serving as the fiscal agent for the Northern District of Mississippi, will use the grant to attack gun and gang crime through prevention and enforcement in the cities of Clarksdale and Greenville. Specifically, the northern district will: 1) continue the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program in the Clarksdale Public Schools to prevent school children from being recruited into violent street gangs; 2) enhance the investigative efforts of the Greeneville Police Department's Criminal Investigative Division through the purchase of needed equipment; and 3) increase investigative activities of the Greenville Police Department through overtime operations, which will assist in more effective prosecutions of violent crime in the target area.

NCA/NCF