Agenda

Return

C.27

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	Diana Becton, District Attorney
Date:	April 24, 2023

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Project Safe Neighborhood Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction Program Grant Application

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 04/24/2023

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Ken Carlson, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:

Monica Carlisle, 925-957-2234

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: April 24, 2023
Monica Nino, County Administrator

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the District Attorney, or designee, to apply for and accept the Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction Program grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance in an amount not to exceed $360,000 for funding a Crime Analyst – Project position to support the Community Violence Reduction and Gang Unit (CVRU) for the period October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2025.

FISCAL IMPACT:

County will receive up to $360,000 over the entire grant period. No match is required.

BACKGROUND:

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is designed to create and foster safer communities through a sustained reduction in violent crime. The program's effectiveness depends upon the ongoing coordination, cooperation, and partnerships of local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies and community organizations working together with the communities they serve — engaged in a unified approach coordinated by the U.S. Attorney Office (USAO) in all 94 districts.

BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)

The creation of a Crime Analyst position to support the Community Violence Reduction and Gang Unit (CVRU) within the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office is a critical component of the Northern District of California’s PSN Strategy and will drive intelligence-informed state and federal violent crime prosecutions. Such a program is an explicit action item in the PSN Pillar for focused and strategic enforcement, and the USAO’s ability to collaborate with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office would directly facilitate this goal.

The CVRU is currently composed of attorneys and investigators committed to the reduction of violent crime caused by guns, gangs, drugs, and human trafficking through intervention, prevention and education. However, the unit is not currently supported by an analyst. The creation and funding of an analyst position will assist the attorneys and investigators in evaluating crimes and linking them by identifying the prolific offenders, using firearms-related intelligence such as ballistics associations and tracing information, and uncovering linked crimes to build the most impactful cases that target violence drivers and disrupt the flow of illicit firearms.

The addition of an Analyst will allow the CVRU to analyze real-time intelligence from police reports, ballistics information, and other sources to identify trends associated to and the crime drivers perpetrating gun violence and gun trafficking in Contra Costa County. CVRU will also implement violence reduction, prevention, and intervention efforts targeting high risk gang members as well as evaluation and assessment of those focused efforts. The District Attorney aims to develop an intensive, ongoing collaboration between the ATF, FBI, local police departments, crime laboratories, probation and parole, local gang units, prosecuting attorneys, USAO, crime analysts and community groups to further these goals.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

The District Attorney will be unable to apply for the PSN Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction Program grant to fund an Analyst position to support the Community Violence Reduction and Gang Unit and to support the collaboration amongst federal, state and local public safety agencies.