Project Safe Neighborhoods for the Northern District of Oklahoma

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a nationwide commitment to reducing gun crime, links existing local programs together and provides them with necessary tools. PSN 1) takes a hard line against gun criminals, using every available means to create safer neighborhoods; 2) seeks to achieve heightened coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement; and 3) 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 Oklahoma District Attorney's Office, serving as the fiscal agent for the Northern District of Oklahoma, will use the grant to target gang and gun crime in the city of Tulsa, with an emphasis on North Tulsa, where there is a chronic gang problem, and East Tulsa, where there is an emerging gang problem. Funds will be used by the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, Tulsa County District Attorney's Office, and the Tulsa Police Department. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office will work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to increase successful investigations and prosecutions of gun crimes in Tulsa County. The sheriff's office will assist in the investigation of 50 gun crime cases, maintain charges declined by prosecutor rate of less than 10, conduct six presentations on gun crimes to the public, and conduct two training programs for law enforcement. The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office will redirect efforts towards the prosecution of crimes related to gun and gang activity. An experienced assistant district attorney will be dedicated to prosecuting gun crimes, gang members and associates, educating the public in order to build a partnership, and increasing the number of witnesses who are willing to testify in gang-related cases. The goal of the project is to significantly reduce gang-related crime in Tulsa County by aggressively prosecuting gang members for all crimes they commit. The Tulsa Police Department will support a gang analyst position within the Tulsa Police Department's Gang Unit. The mission of the Gang Unit is to reduce the participation in criminal street gangs and organized crime groups while reducing the violence associated with these groups through identification, investigation, suppression, intervention, prevention, and apprehension. The gang analyst will gather and maintain criminal intelligence files on active criminal street gang members, outlaw motorcycle gang members, hate groups, and any other detected organized crime group and distribute this information to appropriate local, state, and federal law enforcement.

NCA/NCF