WASHINGTON — With violent crime numbers down year-over-year in D.C., U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and other law enforcement officials gathered Wednesday to tout the success of the “Project Safe Neighborhoods” initiative aimed at bringing more federal firearm cases in the District.
Graves said Project Safe Neighborhoods was launched in D.C. in April 2022 to pool resources from his office, DC Police, ATF and the DEA to ensure potential federal cases weren’t being missed when individuals were arrested with illegal guns.
“What this effort is designed to do is to make sure when we do happen to arrest a high-value target during an unplanned traffic stop, or law enforcement happens to find a firearm on an individual they patted down because they had a reasonable suspicion the person was carrying a weapon, we know the value of the arrest and maximally prosecute it,” Graves said.
In the two years since the project launched, Graves said it has resulted in the recovery of more than 170 firearms and 127 cases accepted for federal prosecution. He said many of those arrested were repeat offenders, including 53% who had been suspects in previous shootings.
“The work we have done between this Project Safe Neighborhood initiative and our other efforts have collectively taken hundreds of drivers of violence out of our community over the last couple of years. Removing this many drivers of violence has an impact on community safety.”
According to DC Police crime stats, violent crime is down 22% year-over-year in the District. Homicides are down 26% this year and shooting incidents are down nearly 30% -- a significant change from 2023, which saw the highest number of homicides in D.C. in more than two decades.