Remarks as Prepared
Thank you, Laura, for that introduction, and good afternoon everyone. It’s great to be with you all today.
I want to begin by recognizing that this has been a
particularly difficult week for the law enforcement agencies of the
Department of Justice. This morning, I learned that an FBI agent was
shot and wounded while assisting on a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive
Task Force operation in Racine, Wisconsin. This comes on the heels of
the tragic loss on Monday of a DEA agent and the severe injuries
sustained by a second DEA agent as well as a task force officer during a
law enforcement operation in Tucson, Arizona. Yesterday, an ATF agent
was critically wounded in a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, in the
course of an investigation; and last Friday, a Deputy U.S. Marshal died
as a result of a vehicle accident while assisting with a law enforcement
operation in Louisiana. Their sacrifices remind all of us of the risk
that all of you and law enforcement officers across this country take
every day to protect the communities you serve. We owe them, and you, a
debt of gratitude.
These tragedies are yet another painful reminder of
what everyone in this audience knows firsthand: violent crime —
particularly gun violence — has reached epidemic levels. Last week, the
FBI released its final crime data for 2020, and it confirmed what those
of you on the front lines see every day: that the increases in murder
and aggravated assault rates between 2019 and 2020 were simply
staggering: In 2020, the United States witnessed a nearly 30% increase
in the murder rate – which is the largest increase in the 60 years that
the FBI has been keeping records. And 77% of those homicides were
committed with a firearm.
We in the Department of Justice and all of you share
the same mission — keeping the people in our communities safe, and the
department is committed to doing all it can to curb violent crime. But
we also recognize that the lion’s share of this work falls to you and
your departments, day in and day out, often laboring under difficult
conditions — especially during the pandemic. It is our responsibility on
the federal side to do what we can to support you. In the five months
that I have been Deputy Attorney General, I have been fortunate to
benefit from several conversations with you and many of your law
enforcement counterparts. What I have heard time and again is that none
of us will stop this rise in violent crime alone. We must work together –
not only law enforcement to law enforcement – but also in partnership
with the communities bearing the brunt of the violence.
In furtherance of those partnerships, I’m pleased to
announce that we are expanding our National Public Safety Partnership
program to help 10 additional jurisdictions facing particularly high
levels of violent crime implement data-driven, evidence-based strategies
based on the unique needs of their communities. This expansion builds
on PSP’s work with 40 other jurisdictions since the program’s inception —
providing coordinated training, focused technical assistance, and other
intensive assistance. Four of the additional sites are members of MCCA —
Phoenix, Louisville, Philadelphia and Aurora — and I’m glad to see you
all here today either in New Orleans or by Zoom.
Our targeted enforcement efforts reflect our
commitment to partnerships. Every U.S. Attorney’s Office, for example,
is revamping its Project Safe Neighborhoods program to bring together
law enforcement and community leaders to identify and address the most
pressing violent crime problems in their jurisdiction. In July, we
launched five firearms trafficking strike forces to help disrupt illegal
firearms trafficking networks that too often fuel violence in our
communities across the country—an effort that depends on close law
enforcement coordination across state and local boundaries. Led by the
ATF and designated U.S. Attorney’s Offices, those strike forces have
already opened more than 100 investigations, and we are committed to
continuing this joint effort until we have shut down these well-worn
paths of illegal gun trafficking.
Those partnerships — and your tireless work — are
already making a difference. Our joint efforts this year — and
especially during the summer months — demonstrate a tremendous amount of
hard work and dedication to tackling this nationwide crisis: This year,
the U.S. Marshals Service has partnered with over 1,700 state and local
agencies through district and regional task forces, and from Memorial
Day to Labor Day, some 600 of those partners participated in a USMS
targeted initiative resulting in the apprehension of more than 3,400
fugitives, including more than 1,500 wanted for murder, in addition to
seizing more than 2,000 illegal firearms and nearly $10 million
connected to illegal activity. The ATF embedded with homicide and
shooting investigation units in police and sheriff’s departments in more
than 60 communities across the country, and expanded the reach of its
National NIBIN Correlation and Training Center to an additional 25
jurisdictions. ATF now provides ballistic matching services and
generates leads for more than 1,400 local police departments
nationwide. The FBI has partnered with nearly 2,000 state and local
officers as part of its Violent Crime Task Forces and Safe Streets Task
Forces, which together have confiscated more than 5,000 illegal firearms
this year. Finally, the DEA has strong partnerships with state and
local law enforcement – 4,600 of whom serve as DEA task force officers
disrupting the activity of some of the most violent drug trafficking
organizations in the country. During the summer months alone, DEA
initiated more than 840 investigations with a nexus to violent crime.
Of course, the numbers tell only part of the story —
and are not an end in themselves — the fundamental goal of this work is
to reduce the level of violence in our communities — and we know we have
more work to do on that front. Many of you have raised particular
concerns about addressing youth violence and the root causes behind it.
We have heard your message that, particularly during the pandemic, young
people have increasingly been involved in violent criminal activity.
Later this month, the department will convene experts in the field to
help create a “tool kit” that will provide guidance and resources for
jurisdictions seeking to implement comprehensive, community-based
strategies for preventing youth violence. Starting this month, we also
expect to award nearly $100 million in grants to implement intervention-
and deterrence-focused strategies — through the Comprehensive Youth
Violence Prevention and Reduction program, the Strategies to Support
Children Exposed to Violence program, the Hospital-Based Victim Services
program, and the STOP School Violence program.
More broadly, we’ve heard from you about the immense
strain that surging violent crime has placed on your departments — both
in terms of resources and on officer health and wellness. The department
recognizes this toll and is committed to making sure you have the
resources needed to do your jobs safely and effectively. That’s why the
Bureau of Justice Assistance will award $13 million in officer wellness
initiatives, and the department’s COPS Office will also award more than
$7 million in funding for law enforcement mental health and wellness by
the end of the year — nearly doubling our investment from the previous
year.
We also know that to lessen the burden on law
enforcement, many of you are launching new efforts to respond to
emergency calls for those with mental health or substance use crises.
Later this month, we look forward to seeing many of you at the Bureau of
Justice Assistance’s national conference, Taking the Call, to explore
these innovative community responder models. We’re particularly excited
that one of your regional representatives and the Chief of the Wichita
Police Department, Gordon Ramsay, will serve as a panelist.
In the many conversations I’ve had over the last few
months with law enforcement leaders – another theme that comes up over
and over again is the importance of trust and accountability with our
communities. As you know, creating strong, positive ties between law
enforcement and communities is critical to making us safer. Last Friday,
the President issued a proclamation announcing this week as National
Community Policing Week; and just this morning, the department announced
that the COPS Office is awarding $33 million in grants to advance
community policing efforts across the country.
Our commitment to trust and accountability is why the
very first principle in our strategy to reduce violent crime is to
foster trust and legitimacy in the communities we serve. We all know
that trust is built on a culture of transparency and accountability, and
underscored by a broader commitment to procedural justice and community
policing.
Here again, our practices have been informed by what
we’ve heard from our state and local partners. The department issues
guidance and does training, we fund best practices – but we have a
responsibility to and are at our best when we learn as well. That’s
why, in June, I directed each of the department’s federal law
enforcement components to develop plans specific to their unique
missions to expand the use of Body Worn Cameras to their federal agents.
Today, I am pleased to announce that ATF, DEA, FBI and the USMS are all
now wearing Body Worn Cameras in select cities during Phase I of our
implementation program.
It’s an announcement that I credit to many in this
group and to many of your law enforcement colleagues who repeatedly
urged the department to lead by example on BWCs. We owe you a debt of
gratitude for keeping us accountable when it came to Body Worn Cameras,
and keeping the department focused as we went through the policymaking
process. I also want to highlight the leadership of your executive
director, Laura Cooper, who polled and surveyed MCC members to help us
get to a policy that met everyone’s needs. Her work and support are a
big reason the policy was implemented at warp speed for the federal
government.
That is not the only concrete change the department
has made to our policies to reflect your feedback. Early last month, I
issued the first ever department-wide directive on the use of chokeholds
and no-knock warrants. This brings the department in line with what
many of your departments have already done.
And of course, the department will continue to work
with you to promote trust and accountability in your departments, as was
the case in the recent monitor reviews that we conducted with over 50
stakeholders. Following that review, the Associate Attorney General made
— and the Attorney General adopted — recommendations that incorporated
many of the exact principles and concerns that your departments have
been raising for years, such as making sure that monitors are
independent, free from conflicts, and not a cottage industry.
The department is committed to listening to you, and
strengthening our partnership, because we know our goals are the same:
to promote mutual trust in law enforcement as we keep our communities
safe. I hope I have made clear today that the department cannot succeed
in that effort without each of you and your departments.
Finally, before I take a few questions and ask some
of you, I want to end with a heartfelt thank you for your continued
service to our country throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and despite the
additional risks the virus posed to your health and safety. The Attorney
General and I recognize the tremendous sacrifices that you and your
departments have made — and will continue to make — throughout this
pandemic. Many of you got sick or saw family members get sick, and too
many of your colleagues succumbed to COVID-19 as a result of exposure in
the line of duty. This virus has had a tremendous impact on mental
health and wellness, and throughout all of this, you and your colleagues
have continued to answer the call of service, day in and day out. For
that, I am truly grateful.
With that, I would be glad to answer any questions you all might have for me.
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