Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI): Detroit, Michigan

• NCJ Number: 220487
• Author(s): Timothy S. Bynum Ph.D.; John D. McCluskey Ph.D.
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 59 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2001-IJ-CX-K006
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Award: Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) Research Partnership

Annotation

This report documents the process by which one Detroit precinct implemented the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI), which involved a team of Federal, State, and local agencies systematically addressing gun violence.

Abstract

SASCI focused on the eighth precinct, which had large numbers of nonfamily gun homicides and gun robberies in 1999-2000. Understanding the dimensions of gun violence and the factors underlying it became the first step in providing technical assistance to the working group for the design of an intervention. The first intervention agreed upon by the working group was "Operation 8-ball," which was planned during the summer of 2001. This operation used a warrant enforcement team in order to identify and apprehend warrant violators who were likely to have guns because of the type of crimes they had committed. The effort was unique in its focus on offenders likely to carry guns. This focus was aided by enhanced Federal penalties for felons in possession of a firearm. Increased attention to offenders likely to carry guns also included greater coordination of the processing of these cases in the criminal justice system, so as to make sanctions more certain. One of the challenges that faced the SASCI initiative was difficulty in maintaining momentum within the working group over the life of the project. This was due largely to the transfer of personnel across the police department, which led to turnover in working-group members from the Detroit Police Department. This challenge, among others, however, did not prevent significant achievements by the SACSI initiative. For the first time in this precinct, a data-driven strategy was established to address gun violence. The working group continues its work in forging an interagency effort to identify, apprehend, and effectively sanction those offenders who carry and use guns. 6 tables, 18 figures, 34 references, and appended list of agencies participating in Detroit's SACSI