Athens, Ga. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is delivering new Federal resources to help fight violent crime in Athens and Eastern Georgia.
Sen. Ossoff is delivering $133,917 through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program to coordinate Federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts and help reduce violent crime.
With the funding, Georgia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) and the Middle District of Georgia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) — whose district includes the regions of Athens, Macon, Columbus, Albany, and Valdosta — will bring law enforcement officials together to coordinate crime reduction efforts.
“Violent crime is impacting Athens and communities across Georgia,” Sen. Ossoff said. “Better coordination between law enforcement agencies at the Federal, state, and local levels can help us protect families from gun violence and gang activity.”
The Project Safe Neighborhoods local task forces will have local sites in Albany, Columbus, and Macon and evaluate data for violent crime incidents, gun crimes, gun confiscations, calls for police service, and incident reports to identify the areas of each community that are plagued by gun violence.
The CJCC and Middle District’s USAO intend to use task force meetings to review crime data as well as pretrial data from local prosecutors and Federal prosecutors, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, and other crime-related data.
Sen. Ossoff continues to advocate for public safety funding to combat violent crime in Georgia.
Last year, Sen. Ossoff pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing to address the violent crime crisis in Georgia and nationwide, calling on the FBI to ramp up their crime prevention and drug deterrence efforts in Georgia’s communities.
Sens. Ossoff and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) also introduced the bipartisan Justice for Murder Victims Act to help prosecute violent criminals and bring justice to homicide victims and their families.
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