BOOTS ON THE GROUND

DOJ Sends Prosecutors, Coordinators to Address Crime Problem in Chicago

After President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take action.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions added violent crime prosecutors to Chicago to create a Gun Crimes Prosecution Team at the local U.S. Attorney’s office, the Justice Department announced Friday. The move comes weeks after President Trump ordered Sessions to work with law enforcement and reduce crime, the DOJ sent additional resources to U.S. Attorney John Lausch for the new prosecution team to make sure “Chicago’s most dangerous criminals are charged quickly after arrest and prosecuted.” The department also announced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assigned five Violent Crime Coordinators to Lausch’s existing “Project Safe Neighborhoods” team so they can conduct a “daily review of firearm arrests and seizures… to ensure the most violent firearm offenders are promptly and effectively prosecuted in federal court.” The Justice Department previously called the Chicago Police Department’s agreement with the ACLU to fix the city’s crime problem unsuccessful after 2016 saw the “biggest single-year increase” in the murder rate. In recent rallies, the president has called for the stop-and-frisk policy to be implemented in Chicago to bring down crime. “At a fundamental level, there is a misperception that police are the problem and that their failures, their lack of training, and their abuses create crime,” Sessions wrote in the announcement. “But the truth is the police are the solution to crime, and criminals are the problem.”

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