The conference was attended by 650 leading Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials and representatives from community organizations. Some of the major topic areas addressed were innovations in policing, drug demand-reduction programs, the victim's role in the criminal justice system, violent street gangs, new law enforcement technologies, targeting the armed violent offender, and management of the expanding prison and jail populations. An address by President Bush outlined strategies to increase security in America's neighborhoods. His themes were the importance of crime-control coordination across all governmental levels; enhanced penalties for weapons offenders; more resources for police, prosecutors, and prisons; and expanded use of the death penalty for offenders convicted of heinous crimes. Some topics considered in the small-group sessions include the community's role in crime control, violence against children, the criminal justice system's response to the victim of violent crime, determinate and mandatory sentencing, hate crimes, violent street gangs, and organized crime groups.