This report describes the implementation of Project Safe Neighborhoods.
This report on Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) presents findings related to key elements of PSN: leadership by the USAOs; PSN target areas and focal crimes; key elements, strategies, and approaches; and perceived challenges and accomplishments. The report discusses implications of the findings for key PSN stakeholder groups. Additional reports will describe findings from other aspects of the national evaluation. A variety of crimes, mostly violent, are the focus of district PSN efforts; cases of a felon in possession of a firearm are a common focus. PSN strategies and activities vary significantly across the districts. Coordinated by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices (USAOs) in the 94 federal judicial districts, PSN is a nationwide initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that brings together federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, community-based partners, and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. Under a grant from the National Institute of Justice to conduct a national evaluation of PSN (Award No. 2019-75-CX-0008), RTI International and the Justice Research and Statistics Association interviewed PSN Coordinators, the people in the USAO responsible for leading PSN efforts, to gain insights into the design and implementation of PSN.