Justice Department announces nearly $80 million to help communities fight violent crime

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Justice Department announces nearly $80 million to help communities ****** violent ******

Washington — The Justice Department is set to invest nearly $80 million in additional funding to support community ********* intervention programs across the country as part of the federal government’s multifaceted strategy to counter years of rising ****** rates, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday. 

At the same time, Garland said federal law enforcement officials are turning their attention to reducing ********* in St. Louis, Missouri; Jackson, Mississippi; and Hartford, Connecticut, as part of an ongoing initiative to surge resources to areas experiencing spikes in ******.

Homicides decreased nationwide by 13% in 2023, according to FBI statistics that Garland highlighted while speaking in Chicago. Overall, federal data indicate a 6% decrease in violent ****** in communities across the country in 2023 compared to 2022. 

Although he acknowledged that “there is still so much more to do,” the attorney general credited community ********* intervention programs with some of the decreases in ****** rates. These initiatives — funded by Justice Department grants — use evidence-based practices and data to work to end cycles of ********* in communities deemed most likely to either commit or be victimized by violent ******. 

US Attorney General Merrick Garland arrives to announce an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. 

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

According to Justice Department officials, populations throughout the country who are closest to the ********* are also likely to be the most well-equipped to work toward solutions, prevent escalations and stop violent acts before they occur. 

Over the last two years, the Justice Department has injected approximately $200 million into 76 initiatives including nonprofit organizations and states and local municipalities, from the city of Richmond, Virginia, to a California-based organization aimed at reducing retaliatory **** *********. 

An organization based in Newark — the Newark Community Street Team — received $2 million in grants from the Justice Department to aid its work to reduce ********* by “engaging in high-risk intervention” and providing support to survivors of violent *******. 

“The Justice Department is committed to continuing to make historic investments in community ********* intervention,” Garland said Wednesday to a group of more than 700 representing some of the grant recipients.

Still, **** ********* ******** the leading cause of ****** among young people, according to federal law enforcement officials who spoke about the community programs last week. That statistic, they said, demonstrates the need to bring targeted ****** reduction approaches to younger populations. 

Funding these local strategies can only do so much to tamp down violent ****** as ******** guns continue to flood into communities, however. Garland said the Justice Department was also working to ****** down on ******-market guns.

“Violent ****** isolates people and their communities. It deepens the fractures in our public life,” he warned Wednesday. “When it is not addressed, it can undermine people’s trust in government and in each other.”
 

Amid rising ****** rates in 2021, the Justice Department launched a violent ****** reduction strategy to issue grants to target the **** ********* epidemic, the rise of hate ******* and officer shortages in law enforcement agencies nationwide. In November, the department announced nearly $217 million in funding for hiring 1,730 entry-level officers at 394 agencies in 48 states through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services’ hiring program.

While violent ****** across some of the nation’s biggest cities decreased last year — Philadelphia and Baltimore each saw 20% reductions in homicides between 2022 and 2023, according to federal numbers — it ******** unclear what effect federal programs are having on perceptions across the U.S. A Gallup poll released in November 2023 found 77% of Americans believed there was more ****** in the country, compared to 2022. Nearly two-thirds polled felt there was either a “very” or “extremely” serious ****** problem. 

Robert Legare

Robert Legare is a CBS News multiplatform reporter and producer covering the Justice Department, federal courts and investigations. He was previously an associate producer for the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.”

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