Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2009, $113,965)
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 Kansas Office of the Attorney General, serving as the fiscal agent for the District of Kansas, will use the grant to support the Wichita Area Gun Task Force (WAGTF). The WAGTF has the ability to provide expertise and support for smaller agencies that lack the resources needed to adequately deal with offenders who have become increasingly sophisticated and transient. Funding will allow local law enforcement agencies with an opportunity to partner with ATF and aggressively investigate gun crimes impacting their communities. The primary law enforcement agencies in these regions are small municipal and county enforcement agencies supported by the Federal agencies including the ATF, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Task Force, and the WAGTF. WAGTF's goals include the following: 1) proactively identify drug offenders, career criminals, and members of organized criminal street gangs who meet the criteria for Federal prosecution; 2) work cooperatively with law enforcement agencies to investigate violent crimes, focusing on gun-related criminal activities consistent with drug and gun trafficking related to career criminals and organized criminal street gangs; 3) provide personnel with resources to aggressively pursue identified investigations; 4) work closely with Federal prosecutors in the prosecution of violent offenders, and 5) disseminate intelligence on violent drug offenders, career criminals, and members of organized criminal street gangs to law enforcement and prosecutorial agents within the authority of the Wichita Area Gun Task Force. Funding will be used to pay for a full-time Sedgwick County Sheriff's Detective/Investigator to be assigned to the WAGTF to complete these goals.
NCA/NCF