A Department of Justice update on federal efforts to combat violent crime in the Chicago area was released by the agency's Northern District of Illinois (NDI) last week.
John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Illinois district, released the update on Dec. 20. Initiatives including a community-based program to identify pressing problems and a federal strike force targeting gun crimes were focal points of the report.
“We are committed to investigating and prosecuting violent offenders," Lausch said in the update, "and bringing quality, impactful cases to disrupt the cycle of violent crime in Chicago.”
Community-based program Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) continues to be the "centerpiece" of DOJ efforts to reduce violent crime in Illinois' largest city and surrounding areas, according to the update. The program brings together "a broad spectrum of stakeholders" to identify the most serious problems, focus prosecution enforcement on the most violent offenders and develop strategies to achieve lasting reductions in violent crime, the report states.
The Chicago Firearms Trafficking Strike Force, one of five DOJ cross-jurisdictional forces focused on disrupting illegal gun trafficking and reducing gun violence, is led by U.S. Attorney's Chicago office. The office works with federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies in northern Illinois and nationwide "to stem the supply of illegally trafficked firearms and to identify patterns, leads, and potential suspects in violent gun crimes," the report states, while crediting the Chicago Police Department's Gun Investigations Team for "substantially" strengthening strike force efforts.
“Firearms traffickers and straw purchasers enable violence,” Lausch said in the report. “The Chicago Firearms Trafficking Strike Force has strengthened collaboration between our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners and enhanced our longstanding efforts to hold accountable individuals or groups who illegally traffic firearms into Chicago.”
Keeping the focus on prosecuting federal firearms crimes, pursuing pre-trial detention and appropriate prison sentences for dangerous individuals are instrumental strategies for disrupting violent crime in Chicago communities, the update states.
“A fundamental duty of our government is to keep people safe," Lausch said in the report, "and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is using every available law enforcement tool to do that."
