Having had the honor of serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana for the past 4 years, I have participated on a very personal level in—and have seen the many benefits of—both Project Safe Neighborhoods and the Weed and Seed initiative in our communities. As the top domestic enforcement initiative of the Bush Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice, Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) prioritizes federally led law enforcement efforts to significantly reduce violent gun crime in our communities. PSN continues to have a profound effect on our law enforcement strategies, methods, and goals in the Eastern District of Louisiana. As a result of increased drug use, poverty, poor education, and other factors, the city of New Orleans and its environs have for many years suffered sometimes staggering violent crime and homicide statistics. Partnerships are the cornerstone of PSN. They are the most significant facet of PSN and one that has driven both our overall strategy and me personally. As recognized by the police superintendent of New Orleans and other federal, state, and local agencies (e.g., Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office), our office and these agencies operate in partnerships that are unprecedented in their depth, scope, and effectiveness. Moreover, I am proud that the U.S. Attorney's Office in this district has been one of the driving forces in forging, maintaining, and further enhancing these remarkable partnerships. The results have been encouraging. While homicides among young drug dealers remain high and continue to command our attention, federal prosecutions of dangerous, gun-wielding criminals, drug dealers, convicted felons, and others who illegally possess firearms is on the increase, just as violent crime as a whole has decreased. Moreover, through PSN's numerous funding mechanisms, federal monetary grants to our partner agencies on the state and local levels have helped fund and thus foster new, more effective law enforcement antiviolent crime task forces and investigative anticrime strategies designed to address the persistent violent crime problem. In Operation Scarecrow, which consists of both aggressive enforcement and a public awareness campaign, those persons not permitted under law to purchase firearms have been increasingly identified, investigated, arrested, and prosecuted, as have the straw purchasers who attempt to acquire firearms for them. Most recently, with the full partnership of the New Orleans Police Department, bolstered by a strong ATF, FBI, and DEA presence, we have begun to effectively coordinate the targeting of a "hot zone" in the city of New Orleans, encompassing more than 7 square miles, in which more than 50 percent of the city's homicides have been committed in recent times. According to the plan, federal and local task force agents and officers design targeted strategies for apprehending known drug traffickers and violent offenders, as well as anyone involved and participating in violent or firearms-related crimes. In fact, in a recent funding initiative, $600,000 of the U.S. Attorney's Office's discretionary funds were channeled to finance both enforcement and outreach efforts focused on public housing developments located in this high-crime zone. A pilot program from which we have derived both success and encouragement is our partnership with the residents of the B.W. Cooper Housing Development in inner-city New Orleans. During the past year, members of my staff, together with dedicated New Orleans police officers and ATF special agents, have worked closely with the Resident Management Council and community members to help improve their quality of living. Initially sponsored through a community engagement by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) staff in the U.S. Department of Justice, we initially sought—and continue to seek—input from the residents about ways to improve quality of life in the housing development. Our initial successes were born from cooperative efforts improving interior and exterior lighting, removing abandoned vehicles, and eradicating gang-related graffiti throughout the development. In fact, we were most successful in enlisting the assistance of the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office to replace a mural on a local tavern bearing the image of a deceased drug dealer. At our request, the sheriff's office sent representatives from their prisoner's art group to the development and replaced it with a beautiful mural depicting a classic New Orleans "second line" scene of marching jazz musicians. We are presently establishing a Boy Scouts' Explorers Group. In addition, we have recently partnered with a local nonprofit organization to both replenish and rebuild existing playgrounds and to design and build new playgrounds in the housing development. We have also begun working with other housing developments in our city to reestablish ATF's gun hotline, which citizens can use to report illegal gun trafficking or any conspicuous stockpiling or use of firearms. Our well-established Weed and Seed initiative continues to anchor a critical part of our enforcement and outreach. Weed and Seed has successfully operated in the Eastern District of Louisiana since 1995. We currently have six active, viable Weed and Seed sites, five of which are within the urban area of greater New Orleans; an additional two sites are in the application stages. In fact, our Weed and Seed initiative is presently in a critical transition phase. In an effort to dramatically increase the percentage of Weed and Seed dollars that reach citizens and reduce wasteful and duplicative administrative costs, the program will obtain a new fiscal agent, the New Orleans Police Foundation. As the U.S. Attorney, a career prosecutor, and an active participant in our communities through PSN and Weed and Seed, I have become a true believer in such critical, powerful, and effective priorities and initiatives. I urge you—as you participate in the CCDO National Conference in Los Angeles—to take full advantage of the priorities, strategies, methods, and assets that both Weed and Seed and PSN offer with the singular goal of saving lives and increasing the quality of life of our citizens. Jim Letten |
