Building on successful proof of concepts in other cities since 2022, the United States Justice Department announced this week that it will add the cities of St. Louis; Jackson, Mississippi; and Hartford, Connecticut to its Criminal Division’s Violent Crime Initiative (VCI).
“The Justice Department will not rest until every person, in every neighborhood, in every community is safe from violent crime,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The FBI reports that last year we saw a significant decrease in overall violent crime across the country compared to the previous year—including an over 13% decline in homicides. That is the largest one-year decline in homicides in 50 years. The Justice Department is not easing up on our efforts to reduce violent crime. In fact, today, we are doubling down. In Houston and Memphis, we launched a Violent Crime Initiative that brought prosecutors from the Department’s Criminal Division to work closely with prosecutors already on the ground to target those responsible for the greatest violence.”
Speaking from Chicago, Garland added that the Justice Department and communities have pushed hard in recent years to drive down crime rates that spiked during the pandemic. Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Chicago all benefited from these efforts in 2023, with Detroit, as an example, having experienced its fewest homicides in 57 years, and all saw at least double-digit percentage declines in homicide rates that year.
VCI is a model by which the DOJ surges law enforcement support and resources to help communities target gangs and other violent groups operating in their area. Prosecutors from the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section work with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, investigators, analysts, forensic experts and other law enforcement agencies to address locals’ concerns and crack down on crimes like murders, robberies and assaults.
“As a resident of Jackson, I know it is a great place to live and work, but it also suffers from violent crime that is largely driven by a small number of violent individuals and gangs,” U.S. Attorney Todd Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi said. “I am excited to have experts from the Justice Department join with federal, state, and local law enforcement here in Jackson to help us investigate and prosecute these sources of violent crime.”
As noted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), this approach helps federal agents to map threats nationwide and shift resources accordingly. It also allows agencies to hit multiple targets at once, with the DEA going after criminal drug networks at the same time agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (ATF), for example, go after shooters, their suppliers and other dangerous offenders.