PSN Sites/Grantees

• FY16 Sites
• FY17 Sites

• Baltimore, MD

  Program Description: targeted enforcement strategies – partnership between BPD, SAO, USAO – in the Tri-District area of Baltimore City.

  Evaluation/Research Plan:

  The research partner will conduct both process and outcome evaluation of PSN activities. The process evaluation will include tracking traditional law enforcement metrics (arrests, warrants, charges, P&P violations, and prosecution outcomes) and a summary of background characteristics and criminal histories to ensure the enforcement strategies are targeting priority violent offenders. The research partner will also track the number of investigative leads generated through IBIS hits and whether these leads result in arrests. The outcome evaluation will consist of two pieces: 1) evaluation of PSN activities effect on time to arrest for priority violent offenders (“trigger pullers”); and 2) evaluation of PSN activities on violent crime in the Tri-District.

   

  The evaluation will address whether the targeted enforcement strategies are more effective at removing priority violent offenders from the street than strategies used in other areas of the city. Individuals that are priority violent offenders in other geographic areas of the city will be used as a comparison group. We will use propensity score matching to generate a comparison group that most closely resembles the intervention group with respect to risk for involvement as a suspect or victim of gun violence. A survival analysis will be conducted to determine if priority violent offenders are arrested more quickly in the Tri-District than other areas of the city.

   

  The outcome evaluation will also address whether the PSN activities are affecting violent crime in the Tri-District. Data will be obtained on fatal and nonfatal shootings before and after implementation. We will estimate the effect of PSN in the context of existing law enforcement strategies: Transformation Zones, CeaseFire, arrests for drug possession or trafficking, and weapon possession, as well as the Safe Streets program that operates in different areas of the city. An interrupted time-series design will be used on monthly counts of outcome data.
• Baton Rouge, LA

  Program Description:
  The Louisiana State University Tiger Career, Leadership, and Wellness Program (LSU Tiger CLAW) is a holistic wellness program serving Baton Rouge Adolescents living in poverty. This program is being used as a delivery mechanism for bringing awareness and actionable knowledge to the prevention of gun accidents and gun homicide. In partnership with the U.S. State Attorney’s Office, CLAW is an 8-week summer program that aims to achieve five main goals. Below each goal is presented with three action items highlighting program strategies to be used to facilitate each goal. The overarching focus of the program is to provide meaningful and real life learning experiences that promote community safety through individual personal growth and civic responsibility awareness and action.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners:
  State of Louisiana Office of the U.S. Attorney General
  
  Evaluation/Research Plan:
  Pre/Post assessments of knowledge of content topics, applied skill mastered in action lessons, attitudinal self-efficacy, self-esteem, and health. Pre/Post frequencies of gun incidents in target areas relative to previous years.

• Bridgeport, CT & New Haven, CT

  Program Description – Primary Components

  The Justice Education Center’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program focuses on reducing juvenile gun and gang violence in inner cities and develops early intervention programs that promote emotional and academic success for youth.  Primary strategies include:

  Career Pathways Tech Collaborative

  Career Pathways  is a 100-to 200-hour vocational technical program at Eli Whitney Technical High School in New Haven and Bullard Havens Technical High School in Bridgeport that: (a) introduces youthful offenders and youth-at-risk to high-demand technical career options (i.e., Carpentry, Culinary Arts, Plumbing, Manufacturing and Masonry); (b) exposes youth to community college and other opportunities available in outside of a traditional college experience and (c) provides apprenticeship and job shadowing experiences to enable youth to further identify areas of career interest. Partnerships with local unions strengthen the skills youth learn and their potential for lifelong employment. In addition, all youth have education and career plans prepared and a case manager to assist them on a regular basis.

  VETTS

  Through a subcontract with the Integrated Wellness Group, the project offers highly-effective mentoring program titled Veterans Empowering Teens through Support (VETTS.) The program provides one-on-one mentoring to 2-4 at-risk youth for a total of 54 youth. VETTS pairs severely at-risk, often gang-involved youth with honorably-discharged veterans, who make themselves available 24-hours a day. (The recidivism rate of youth participating in VETTS is 14%, compared to the national average of 55). Additionally, veterans build civilian work experience and show reduced rates of homelessness, unemployment, and lack of health care.

  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) - Trauma Informed Intervention

  Specially-trained community-based mental health workers administer the evidence-based EMDR treatment coordinated through Fairfield University up to 40 youth participants.  Each participant receives 9 sessions; 3 to assess and discuss resources and 6 to deliver EMDR treatment to address trauma and develop resilience against future trauma. EMDR therapy shows promise as an effective PTSD treatment for young people. It appeals to adolescents because they can process trauma through a largely nonverbal procedure.  When compared to the more commonly used CBT therapy, EMDR studies report lower dropout rates, rapid effects, and lower ratings of distress after treatment. EMDR may help children in a situation of ongoing trauma to build persistent resilience.

  Evaluation/Research Plan

  The Charter Oak Group, LLC. and the University of New Haven Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, are the Research Partners, The partners will establish and implement performance measures and data collection protocols. UNH-HCLC will produce and distribute a final report that will include an in-depth look at both processes and outcomes.

• Brookhaven, GA

  Program Description: The Brookhaven PSN strategy is to reduce violent gun and gang activity in three target locations in DeKalb County, Georgia: Brookhaven, Chamblee (the Buford Highway Corridor running through both), and the South DeKalb Police Precinct. This will be accomplished by implementing the exchange of information among project agencies, increasing federal prosecution of the most violent and gang members within the communities, and ultimately providing a positive impact on the communities at large.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Brookhaven Police Department, Chamblee Police Department, DeKalb Police Department, DeKalb District Attorney

  Community Partner: Rehoboth Baptist Church

  Research & Evaluation Plan: The PSN research partner, ARS, will be involved in all phases of the project, to include problem identification, strategy development, assessing implementation, and evaluating outcomes. Our evaluation will assess the degree to which implementation of the program has met is stated objectives. A logic model describes our expected results: exchange of gun and gang activity information among PSN agencies; increased compilation of evidence for gang prosecutions; increased gun- and gang-offense federal prosecutions and convictions; increased sentencing (incapacitation) of violent gun and gang offenders; reduced violent gun and gang crime in target neighborhoods; increased participation in community outreach activities; increased community awareness of anti-gang strategies; and reduced gang attitudes and beliefs among community youth.

• Columbia, SC
  TBD
• Denver, CO

  Program Description: The Denver Police Department’s CGIC will produce timely, precise, and objective intelligence data (via NIBIN and crime gun tracing) to focus the efforts of federal and state law enforcement, forensic, and prosecutorial resources on the most violent offenders in Denver/Aurora/Lakewood. Investigators quickly follow-up on NIBIN hits to investigate recent shootings, determine the sources of crime guns, link otherwise unrelated crimes, and identify targets for proactive investigation. Prosecutors use scientific proof in the courtroom to link firearm evidence to additional crimes, enhancing sentences. The CGIC concept is based on the premise that every handgun taken into custody will be test fired and a shell casing entered into the NBIN database. In addition, where possible, CGIC traces every crime gun to an original purchaser.

  Goals and Objectives:

  1. Reduce the rate of homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies committed with a firearm in Denver, Aurora, and Lakewood.
  2. Reduce the rate of gang-related homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies within Denver, Aurora, and Lakewood.
  3. Increase the participation in and completion of gang abatement programs by at-risk youth identified through the intelligence activities of the CGIC.

  Partnerships: The selected strategy represents a historic collaboration of 14 key partners, including federal and local law enforcement, federal and state prosecutors, state and local forensic laboratories, state parole, and the Denver and Aurora GRID and AGRIP programs.

  Anticipated Outcomes:

  • Reduction in gun crime in the Denver Metro Area
  • Increases in prosecutions and convictions of gun crime offenders
  • Positive interventions for gang-related offenders
• Detroit, MI

  Program Description: The Detroit PSN task force seeks to significantly¹ reduce levels of fatal and non-fatal shootings in the 8^th precinct (as well as in the shared jurisdiction area of Redford) through highly focused enforcement, intervention, and prevention strategies.  Detroit PSN will leverage strategies being implemented in complementary Detroit Ceasefire, Greenlight, and Detroit One strategies and enhance the impact of those strategies through the focused enforcement, intervention, and prevention strategies implemented through PSN.

  The 8^th precinct was selected based on its current and historic high levels of violent crime.  It also is one of the city’s precincts actively involved in the Ceasefire focused deterrence initiative thus allowing for the leveraging of Ceasefire and PSN strategies. By focusing on one precinct, we seek to maximize impact and also support an evaluation strategy whereby we can contrast trends in the 8^th precinct with comparable areas in other parts of the city.

  The enforcement strategy benefits from the coordinated activities of the Community Violence Reduction Partnership (CVRP) task force that includes local, state and federal partners, the Gang Intelligence Unit, and precinct leaders and officers.  A combination of people- and place-based strategies will be used to focus on high impact players and groups.  CVRP and precinct enforcement is combined with smart prosecution (joint federal-local screening of gun cases), Ceasefire group focused deterrence and Project Greenlight (partnership with businesses).  These enforcement strategies are combined with Ceasefire outreach, community engagement, and school-based prevention. The prevention strategies include a Leadership Academy and Project Sentry.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners: DPD, RPD, USAO, ATF, MSP, MDOC, WCPO

  Evaluation/Research Plan: Ongoing problem analysis. Quasi-experimental evaluation design. Our overall outcome measure involves the trend in fatal and non-fatal shootings occurring in the 8^th precinct in comparison to other areas of the city. We will conduct micro-place analyses at targeted street segment locations where the outcome measures will include calls for police service and violent crimes.

  We will also track individual-level impacts for Ceasefire clients in terms of re-offending.

   

   

  
  

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  [1] We seek statistically and substantively significant reductions beyond reductions experienced in comparison areas of the city.

• Fort Worth, TX

  Program  Description:  Based  on  prior  successes,  the  PSN  program  focuses  on  gun,  gang  and  family  violence reduction strategies that include targeted enforcement, prevention, community outreach and reentry programs seeking to interrupt the cycle of violence and encourage communities to sustain the accomplished crime reduction. Output and findings from the research partner play a key role in directing placements of all efforts and resources. Outreach, community events, and trainings contribute to the sustainability of the PSN Project.

  Major Criminal Justice Partners: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Police  Department,  ATF,  Tarrant  County  DA’s  Office,  Tarrant  County  Juvenile  Services,  Tarrant  County  Community Supervision and Corrections Department, TCU, Safe City Commission (aka One Safe Place), City of Fort Worth, Center for Prevention of Child Maltreatment Led by Cook Children’s Hospital, Boys & Girls Club, Bass Enterprises/City Center Security, Bridging the Gap Baptist Church.

  Evaluation/Research Plan: The data collection and analysis efforts led by a strong, qualified, trusted, and embedded research partner (RP) ensure an intelligence and data‐driven PSN initiative. Specifically, the  RP will focus efforts  on providing ten primary functions.  The  RP  will  1)  provide  comprehensive  problem analysis aimed at understanding the underlying issues and problems beyond the information contained  in  police  reports  and  reports  issued  by  FWPD  crime  analysts;  2) examine specifically the  relative influence of spatial factors such as infrastructure characteristics or social behavior norms on the seriousness  of  the  existing  violent  crime  problems  through  Risk Terrain  Models; 3)  create project‐specific, weighed (according to severity of violent crime) hotspot maps that more accurately reflect densities of significant crimes; 4) collaborate with FWPD crime analysts and use GANGNET resources to create PSN area‐specific prolific violent offender lists and create similar lists for the most crime‐prone locations and places; 5) examine additional reports for these locations to identify location‐specific crime and offending patterns and use this information to inform highly focused deterrence and risk‐mitigating efforts;  6)  assist  mitigation  efforts  by  conducting  Crime  Prevention  through  Environmental  Design  (CPTED) analyses in the most crime‐prone locations; 7) inform all coalition members in PSN meetings about  results,  findings,  and  observed  crime  trends  through  presentations,  maps,  and  statistics  on  a  regular basis; 8) coordinate with tactical units on policing efforts specific to the highest‐crime locations; 9) coordinate  with  PSN  coalition  member  Cook  Children’s  Center  for  the  Prevention  of  Child Maltreatment in their efforts bring additional resources, social services, and positive social norming campaigns into the proposed PSN areas; and 10) evaluate the effectiveness of all deployed PSN strategies on an ongoing basis throughout the timespan of the project.

• Fresno, CA

  Program Description: The Fresno Police Department (FPD), is located in the Eastern District of California (EDC) with a city population of 509, 924 in 2013 (EDC population over 7 million.) Fresno County regularly leads the 34 counties in the EDC in homicides and shootings. Fresno is the birthplace of the Fresno Bulldogs, the largest gang in Central California. Between 2000 and 2010- the City grew at a “whopping rate” as Californians moved inland from the coast (Bay Area and Los Angeles area) which has appeared to underscore and trigger some additional gang conflicts and recent violence. Gang and gun violence clusters in several policing districts with primary drivers of violence including; gangs/violent street groups, geographic hotspots/crime clusters, prolific (chronic) violent offenders, and ongoing street disputes.
  The purpose of our PSN project is to address gun and gang violence through a variety of coordinated and comprehensive strategies:

  1. Utilization of an Integrated Ballistics System (IBIS) linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). This will enhance our capability greatly to investigate and prosecute gun crimes and enhance criminal intelligence. Furthermore, we look forward to integrating this technology and capability as yet another component to a comprehensive anti-gun and gang strategy locally.
  2. Additional strategies include utilization of “best practices” as related to creation of a gun crime task force, tracking of shooting and ballistics data, enhanced smart prosecution via the existing Fresno Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Task Force, training for law enforcement and prosecutors; community/neighborhood outreach and education efforts, and social media.

  Lead Agency: Fresno Police Department
  Research Partner: Fresno State University

• Greensboro, NC

  Program Description: The Greensboro Police Department strives to prevent and respond to violent crime in effective and innovative methods; however, violent crime rates are trending upward in certain city segments. The likelihood of being victimized increases significantly among both black males & females. Scanning & analysis of the city’s crime rate has identified 6 discrete areas of the city associated with increased densities of violent crime & victimization. The areas represent 2% (2.93 square miles) of the city’s land area & 5% of the city’s population (14,421). Detailed demographic analysis has identified the majority of residents in these areas are between the ages of 10 and 24, African American (78%), primarily renters (71%), with 55% of the populous at or below the poverty line, and 27.5% of the population. The 6 areas comprise the Greensboro Crescent for Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiative.
  Greensboro’s PSN Task Force is seeking $300,000 (Population 200,500 –Category 2) over two years to address this issue by: (1) Creating a PSN Task Force to coordinate firearm & gang crime investigations; (2) Implementing preventative & diversionary measures for young offenders (ages 12 to 18) currently committing misdemeanor crimes with a high rate of victimization; (3) Improving data-driven analysis & understanding of firearm & gang crime; &, (4) Supporting an innovative intervention strategy.
  The project will focus on three areas. A) The structure & operation of the PSN framework will be implemented. B) The identification & inclusion of necessary community partnerships into the PSN framework. An evaluation will be conducted (by the PSN task force and by the partners themselves) as to their role, resources provided, and effectiveness. C) The reduction of gun related violent crime, deterrence of violent offenders, & engagement of 13-17 year olds into the community partner programs in order to reduce involvements with law enforcement.

  The dedicated project team consists of the USAO & federal law enforcement, local law enforcement, prevention-oriented social service providers, juvenile detention, the media & fiscal partner, & the research partner.

  The successes and foundation of the PSN framework will carry beyond the duration of the grant, to wit: ongoing relationships with partners, networks created with businesses & community groups, and the project infrastructure which will be retained for future use in the organization. The GPD will partner with UNCG to conduct an impact evaluation to determine the results of the PSN program.

• Indiana- Northern District
  Program Description: We started PSN in three communities: Gary, East Chicago and South Bend, Indiana. In East Chicago, we spent two years collecting all shell casings from ShotSpotter alerts and submitted them to the firearms lab so we could get a handle on the results coming from NIBIN. This allowed us, in conjunction with HIDTA and the ATF, to map and connect all the gun crimes and crime guns in East Chicago, learning about the flow of guns to and from the city. We also worked with the new intelligence officer to map all known gang members, and overlay with Shotspotter and NIBIN connections. This led to the creation of a queriable database of all NIBIN hits connected to all other data in the city. In addition, East Chicago made their crime map public in October 2015 and has had over 75,000 views. In Gary, our PSN funds were used to make contact with gang members and we entered that data directly from the field (via smartphone) into the mapping system for analysis. This was used to connect known gang member activity with the crimes they were suspected of. We also used funds for publi12c outreach (billboard) and to help the city implement the Gary for Life Initiative which featured violence reduction tools such as offender call-ins and home visits to conduct direct crime message notifications. The Gary crime map also went public, and received well over 100,000 views. In South Bend, joint parole home visits were conducted for a year but were not as institutionalized as we had hoped, limiting their impact.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners: HIDTA, ATF, Lake County Crime Lab

  Evaluation/Research Plan: We evaluated the programs in East Chicago and Gary and refined them based upon what we learned in our subsequent PSN application. We garnered a significant amount of gun and gang offender intelligence that is being utilized in the investigative process. In Gary, we failed to fully implement the critical incident review due to internal issues at the department, meaning that intervention did not work as planned. We also had probation and parole fail to live up to their obligations in both Gary and South Bend, making our joint home visit strategy weak and not able to be fully implemented as we had designed. As a result, we did not include probation and parole in our subsequent application. Furthermore, the intelligence from Gary was used to determine that gang areas and member activity was far more fluid than it was based on localized geography, which was also found in East Chicago, meaning focusing on areas rather than offenders would be a weak strategy in these cities. We also learned that crime guns from East Chicago have direct connections to some local cities in far more volume than others, and that we can indeed map and index every shotspotter alert in conjunction with NIBIN data to understand the movement of crime guns in our region. We also learned that we were greatly hampered by the slowness of the county lab, so in or subsequent application we requested funds for a part-time employee to speed up the time from collection to intelligence and make the NIBIN data a more important investigative tool. Finally, we learned that South Bend had its greatest need in the in-house firearms lab as it served as a regional hub and was doing great work but was understaffed to handle the volume of shell case submissions. As a result of that analysis, we have spent subsequent applications focusing on increasing that lab's capacity to benefit the entire region. In all, we have reached over 200,000 viewers with our public crime maps and learned a great deal from our initial PSN efforts, including what worked and what did not, and have honed these programs in subsequent applications.

• Indiana- Southern District
  Program Description: Due to certain geographic locations within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) jurisdiction having a disproportionate amount of the crime, we are focusing on violent crimes of homicide and non-fatal shootings (NFS). We believe the behavior, people and places of both homicides and NFS are very similar if not the same and recent research done by our research partner confirms this belief. Our focus will be on individuals who are involved in multiple NFS and homicides as well as their behaviors. We will also focus on the places where these incidents occur. We will increase the Operations Division’s participation in the resolution of uncooperative witnesses and victims in our NFS. This increase will be done with both federal and local law enforcement cooperative efforts. Community influencers and resources will be important as we will strive to increase information sharing among all parties trying to resolve the community problem.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners:

  • Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
  • Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
  • Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency
  • US Attorney’s Office – Southern District of Indiana University
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
  • Marion County Sheriff’s Office
  • Drug Enforcement Administration
  • Metro Drug Task Force

  Evaluation and Research Plan: The research team will support the SD IN PSN efforts through the documentation of NFS and the people involved in NFS incidents with a special focus on geographic patterns. Additionally, the research team will be responsible for identifying repeat NFS actors and locations. We will monitor crime rates, especially NFS and homicides, although the project period will not be long enough for a robust outcome evaluation.

• Memphis, TN
  Program Description: The most critical component of GunStat is coordination and collaboration among law enforcement, prosecutors, and the research partner. GunStat is designed to 1) identify the worst violent gun offenders in areas with the worst violent gun crime based on firearms crime data, criminal history, gang affiliation, and officer intelligence; 2) monitor those individuals through prioritizing execution of warrants for these offenders and increasing directed task force operations in target areas; 3) dedicate Assistant District Attorneys (ADA) to each implementation area; 4) notify the relevant ADA(s) when a monitored individual in their area is arrested; 5) track all pending cases for monitored individuals; 6) facilitate information exchange between law enforcement and prosecutors through monthly GunStat meetings; 7) assist ADAs ability to argue the need for enhanced bond and/or sentencing by developing a more holistic view of the perpetrator’s criminal activities, including gang involvement; 8) serve as a catalyst to transform reactive law enforcement activities to a consistent, proactive strategy targeting chronic, violent gun offenders; and 9) utilize evaluator to collect and analyze data for program monitoring and evaluation of program impact on offender outcomes, violent gun crime, gang-related gun crime, as well as other relevant questions necessary to determine GunStat effectiveness. The PSN FY16 Strategic Action Plan (SAP) has been developed to focus GunStat efforts in more narrowly defined geographic areas and on more strategically selected individuals (i.e., high gun crime recidivists, recent violent gun crime arrests). The FY16 SAP plans for transferal of data to the Research Partner to determine attainment of desired outcomes, and proposes that rates of gun violence, proportions of violent crime using a gun, changes in rates and/or proportions over time, and distribution patterns of violent gun crime will be monitored throughout the program to determine program effectiveness.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners:

  • U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee
  • Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office
  • Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
  • Memphis-Shelby County Multi-Agency Gang Unit
  • Shelby County Office of Probation
  • Research Partner/Themis Center/University of Memphis Public Safety Institute & Memphis Police Department

  Evaluation/Research Plan: Data from the 3 GunStat Wards will be compared to data from similar non-GunStat Wards to determine program impact. Primarily, rates and proportions of gun violence (reported offenses, arrests) and number of gun crime recidivists will measure program effectiveness. Judicial processes such as time to trial, bond and sentencing decisions also will be monitored to determine whether GunStat resulted in enhanced bonds and/or sentences. Contact with law enforcement, court appearances, probation/parole violations, also will be monitored and reported at regular meetings. The research partner will conduct an outcome evaluation to determine whether the GunStat model significantly impacts the outcomes of gun violence and gun violence recidivism.

• Milwaukee, WI

  Program Description: Building off the 2015 PSN grant project, which ls law enforcement-centric, the Welcome Home Project is a community-led effort organized to complement law enforcement strategies targeting chronic offenders. The Project incorporates research based trauma-informed and healing-focused intervention with proven focused deterrence strategies. The Project is targeted to youthful offenders (16-26) returning to the community from local, state and federal correctional institutions; or enhanced community supervision for high risk of gun violence. The Project is further targeted to the Center Street Corridor, an inner city Milwaukee neighborhood with the highest concentration of homicides, non-fatal shootings and other gun violence.
  The trauma-informed intervention includes a one-on-one supportive relationship with a Peer Mentor Life Coach who will identify gifts and needs of participants, and work collaboratively to develop a plan for viable lifestyle alternatives. Participants will complete the Walk ofTruth Program, a brief trauma-informed cognitive behavioral intervention, to promote resolution of trauma adaptive values, perceptions and behaviors. The Welcome Home Ceremony will be a capstone to this program and is designed with evidence based strategies further to support trauma resolution. The Ceremony will be facilitated by a council of elders, and attended by neighborhood and community leaders, and partner agencies with services that meet the identified intervention, employment, education, housing, and other needs of participants. The Ceremony will include a fair warning to each offender of the consequences, and the likely prison sentence in state and federal court, if caught with a firearm. Notifications will include a letter from the District Attorney, the US Attorney, the WI DOC Regional Chief, and USPO chief outlining those likely consequences. The letters will then be used at any subsequent criminal or revocation proceeding to demonstrate the fair warning.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners:

  • Wisconsin Department of Justice
  • United States Attorney Office, Eastern District of Wisconsin
  • Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections, Milwaukee

  Evaluation/Research Plan: The evaluation of the Milwaukee PSN Welcome Home Initiative consists of: 1) a process evaluation and 2) an outcome evaluation. The study design used for the evaluation is quasi experimental with an intervention geography (Center Street Corridor) and control area.

  Process Evaluation--The principal objective of the process evaluation is to determine, through interviews with key personnel in both intervention and control areas, whether the enhanced notification session strategy improved public safety through sessions and associated services/employment lead to a reduction of gun crime and recidivism. Additionally, through the interview process, an assessment can be made of the following: identification and response to local gang problems, and Improved communication and coordination of activities. The process evaluation will rely on information gleaned through official agency reports, observations of project meetings, and interviews with key personnel. Researchers are actively involved in the development of the program model and are documenting implementation, as well as, providing feedback to the site so that they can make adjustments if needed. Data captured will include, but not limited to: attendance, engagement with providers (quantify "dose" of service), technical violations, new criminal activity, sanctions, and gang/group/crew affiliation.
  Outcome Evaluation -- We will collect monthly counts of homicide incidents, gun assault incidents, and general violent crime incidents for the City of Milwaukee for January 2010 to the end date of project and analyze the differences in violence trends in treatment areas relative to controls. Since the data are counts, we will use Poisson and negative binomial regression models to determine whether there were any measurable reductions associated with the implementation of violence prevention plans in treatment districts relative to traditional practices in the control districts.

• Ohio- Northern District
  TBD
• Omaha, NE

  Program Description: 

  1. Firearms Tracing and NIBIN Entries. Currently PSN Omaha traces all weapons that are taken into police custody. In 2016, the number of weapons traced were 1028. All weapons are test fired and entered into NIBIN, as well as shell casings recovered as evidence. This strategy focuses on the most violent offenders.
  2. Properly tracing weapons and utilizing NIBIN reports will draw correlations to chronic shooters and potentially gangs involved. This information may give insight into retaliatory events and give Gang Suppression Units the opportunity to preempt violence.
  3. Continuation of the Omaha Police Departments Firearm Unit and Gang Suppression Units, along with Omaha Police Detectives assigned as (TFO’s) Task Force Officers to the ATF office in Omaha to specifically focus on firearms crimes.
  4. Continue to enter all ballistic data (firearms and casings) from crime scenes as soon as possible.
  5. NIBIN “hits” will be documented and sent directly to the firearms sergeant for assignment and a focused investigation when deemed prudent.
  6. Academy training for recruit officers and in-service training as necessary regarding NIBIN, weapon identification, and proper crime scene collection of shell casings/bullets to prevent potential contamination.
  7. The Omaha Police Department has two dedicated prosecutors for these cases, one at the state level and one at the federal level. Initially all cases involving arrests are filed by the state’s attorney. Firearms Unit Sergeant reviews all cases and selects those involving guns, convicted felons, gang members, stolen guns, and drug involvement and/or a combination of the previous to send to the federal prosecutor. In novel cases, the PSN Coordinator contacts the federal prosecutor and runs the case by them to determine if there is federal interest. In 2017 the Omaha City Prosecutor’s Office has assigned an attorney to review gang and violent crime cases to insure appropriate charges are filed at the misdemeanor level.
  8. The United States Attorney in Nebraska has one designated prosecutor to delegate/assign the weapons cases. The process for handing a case off from state to federal prosecution has been streamlined to avoid a case from lingering at the state level. The federal prosecutor usually picks the case up within 21 days. This process keeps the state prosecutors from investing valuable time in cases they won’t prosecute. Refer to table 4 for cases sent to U.S. Attorney for review by year.
  9. Continuation of the (GGD’s)Guns, Gangs, and Drugs Monthly Meetings. The meetings are attended by multi-jurisdictional agencies/partners whose focus is on violent gang crime. Power Point presentations inform intelligence, arrests, problem issues, from the previous month and what to look for in the future. Chronic offenders are often the topic and networking with partners is the norm when targeting these individuals.

  Evaluation and Research Plan: The research partner coordinates collection of data and meets regularly with the research team. They will initiate hot spots analysis and other spatial analysis techniques in order to determine the effectiveness of the interventions (PSN operations) on gang and firearm-related crimes. Researchers will investigate the occurrence of deterrence of gang and firearm-related violence in targeted districts, as well as deterrence displacement and crime displacement in neighboring districts.

  Intermediate anticipated outcomes are deterrence and deterrence displacement effects for gang and firearm-related crime in targeted areas.
  A long-term anticipated outcome is a reduction in the culture of gangs and violence and acts of gang and fire-arm related crime across the Omaha metro area.

  Main Criminal Justice Partners:

  • University of Nebraska at Omaha-Research Partner
  • United States Attorney-Nebraska District
  • Nebraska State Patrol
  • State of Nebraska Probation
  • State of Nebraska Parole
  • Lincoln Nebraska Police Department
  • Bellevue Nebraska Police Department
  • Omaha Police Department
  • Nebraska States Attorney Douglas County
  • Omaha Nebraska City Attorney
  • P.A.C.E. –Police Athletics for Community Engagement
  • P.S.N. Director