Justice Department Awards $75 Million to Fight Violent Crime

The US Department of Justice announced that it is awarding $75 million in grants to law enforcement agencies across the country to aid in fighting violent crime in the US. The grants are part of the Justice Department's Violent Crime Reduction Partnership and the grant monies will be used to develop strategies to fight crime on the local level.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford announced the grants and issued the following statement in the Department of Justice press release, "For too many Americans, violent crime has a grip on the communities where they live, work and go to school." He continued, "The Violent Crime Reduction Partnership will speed relief to those cities experiencing some of the highest levels of violent crime. These funds will allow communities to develop effective, custom solutions to solve the unique issues facing their communities."

Over one hundred groups including state police, county sheriffs, and cities will be receiving funds from the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership grants. Grants range anywhere from $44,857 for the Cimarron County Sheriffs Department in Oklahoma to over $3 million for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations. Both California and Florida are the states with the largest number of grants awarded to individual cities and departments.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has recently shown that although the overall crime rate in 2006 has dropped to its lowest point in thirty years, violent crime numbers are increasing. The UCR's figures come from agencies reporting crimes that include murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults. The agencies are from the state and local level, and even include law enforcement agencies you don't normally think of, like college and university campus police forces. The UCR also shows that crime varies by regions and by populations.