Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) have reintroduced the Gang Activity Reporting Act. This bipartisan bill aims to address violent crime by requiring the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Bureau of Investigation to resume annual reports to Congress on trends in local, national, and transnational criminal gang activity. These reports were previously discontinued in 2009 and 2012.
Grassley emphasized the importance of data in combating gang violence. "Criminal gangs have been responsible for nearly half of all violent crime. To address this longstanding issue, Congress must have access to accurate, consistent and reliable data on gang activity and membership trends," Grassley said. "This commonsense, bipartisan bill would revive information-sharing between the executive branch and Congress, allowing lawmakers to make more informed and timely decisions to end the scourge of gang violence in America."
Rosen highlighted the impact of gangs on communities across the country. "We know that gangs are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime in the United States. As communities across the country grapple with devastating gang violence, we must ensure they have access to the resources and support to combat it," Rosen said. "With this bipartisan bill’s required comprehensive federal report on gang membership data and trends, we can better understand how gangs are contributing to violent crime and take the right steps to support law enforcement and strengthen public safety."
The legislation comes after a decade-long lapse in federal reporting on gang activity. The FBI’s National Gang Threat Assessment stopped providing updates to Congress after 2009, while the DOJ’s National Gang Center ended its reporting on gang quantity and growth in 2012. The last report from an Attorney General on violent street gangs in suburban areas was issued in 2008.
