Project Safe Neighborhoods Expands to Downtown, CTA Trains – ryan

Federal Prosecutors Are Expanding Project Safe NeighBorhoods in Chicago, Announificing Wednesday that the City’s Trains and Downtown Areas Will Be Covered by the Anti-Violence Program for the First Time.

Project Safe NeighBorhoods was launched in 2001 Under President George W. Bush to Crack Down on Shootings. At the time, the program paid for the hire of Scores of New Federal Prosecutors and the Hundreds of State and Local Prosecutors to Concentrate on Gun Cases Across the Country.

The idea was for federal and local prosecutors to work to the decide which Couul Could Deliver A Maximum Prison Sentions for Gun Offenders. Early on, they focused on parolees. Signs and TV Spots Promoted the program, with one billboard – on the indiana tollway that leads to chicago – warning: “Stop teaching guns to chicago or go to jail.”

The program has remained in place Since 2001 – Not Always with the Same Level of Publicity or Vigor. But on wednesday, the US attorney’s Office in Chicago Announched It Wold Enlarge The Program Beyond Seven High-Crime Neighborhods on the West and South.

The program Will Now Also Be in “Parts of Three Police Districts in Downtown Financial Areas Represents the Engnes of the City, as well as on the cta trains that bring residents and visitors to say areas? Airports, “US Attorney Andrew Boutros Said in a Statement.

“Downtown Chicago is the Capital of the Region’s Economy and the Cultural and Civic Heart of the Midwest, where interstate commerce runs strong,” Boutros Said. “MANY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF REVENUE, Taxes, and Investments are anchored in Our City’s Financial Districts, and wen Violence and Criminal Activity Cause Our Residents, Businessses, and Tourists Not to Feel to Live, Invest, and Shop in Chicago, Everyone Sufers, Wheaton, Wheat. Federal, State, Or Local Level. ”

Chicago Police SUPT. Larry Sneising and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart Said they Support the Expansion, with Dart Saying in a Statement that more federal resources are Needed to organized retail theft, Carjacking and Armed Robberies, whic posing a threat “to the heart of chicago.”

Project Safe Neighborhoods Involves Enforcement as Well As Crime Prevention and Community Engagement, Accounting to Boutros. Money from the program can be spent on overtime for cops who work downtown and on cta trains; Along with task force that combat gun crime and advertising for the program, he said.

Boutros did not say Say How MUCH MONEY IS Budeted for the expansion.

The Focus by Federal Prosecututors in Chicago on Gun Prosecutations has Risen and will over the years. A Decade Ago, Chicago Ranked 82nd out of 90 Districts Nationwide in Gun Prosecutations, The Sun-Times Reported. And Last Year, The Newspers and WBEZ Reported That Federal Prosecutors in Chicago Ranked in the Bottom Eight of the Country’s 94 Federal Court Districts in the Percentage of Gun They Approved.

Yet the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Performed More Ownership Traces of “Crime Guns” in Chicago than anywhere except Houston from 2017 Through 2021.

The new push to prosasecute gun offenses at a time a time critics have pointed to crime on cta trains as one of the Biggest Reasons for Ridership Remaining at a Low Level the Covid-19 Pandemic. It also coma at a time when crime is down, but still at a world level. Killings Fell Last Year Across the City, but there were far fewer slayings in other years over the past decade. And the Pandemic, Downtown Violence Has Remained a Concern for Residents and Alike Commuters.

On wednesday, COOK COUTE STATE’S ATTORNE Eileen O’Neill Burke Explained Her Own Strategy in Reducing Shootings in a Report on Her Office’s Transition from for former State of Kim Foxx’s Administration. Burke Says She will continue to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies to prosasecute Violent Gun offensses, but Also a need to divert People charged with first-time, nonviolent gun offenses from the justice system, and do a better jab communications.