KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The country's top law enforcement official visited Kansas City Thursday, pledging to help communities reduce crime.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker was the keynote speaker Thursday at the annual meeting for Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a Department of Justice initiative connecting prosecutors, police and community leaders with federal agencies.
The initiative's goal is to customize crime reduction plans to target the most violent criminals in the most violent areas to prevent and deter crimes before they happen.
"Our goal is not to fill up the jails or the courts, our goal is to reduce crime," Whitaker said. "PSN is helping us do that by ensuring we are prosecuting the right people and maximizing our impact."
Among the programs highlighted was the Midwest Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC), a collaboration between the Kansas City Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Whitaker is now speaking about the Midwest Gun Crime Intelligence Center here in KCMO. He says it’s making investigating crimes more effective. @41actionnews pic.twitter.com/NDPrF1gYe7
— Ariel Rothfield KSHB (@arothfield) December 6, 2018
The CGIC works to identify bullets left on the ground of crime scenes and connect them to guns or people responsible for shooting them.
"It's almost like a fingerprint for a particular firearm," U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said. "It helps us identify where guns, especially, that have been used in one location might be correlated to guns that are used in another location."
On Friday, President Donald Trump is expected to address PSN to wrap up the conference.
