Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates called a meeting this October to discuss the growing number of violent crimes happening in some cities in the United States. The Justice Department took this initiative to gather over a dozen local authorities how to deal with continuous safety threats to the public which may include gang conflicts to domestic issues.
Yates identified five cities that would most likely receive federal help. These cities are Compton, Calif.; Little Rock, Ark.; West Memphis, Ark.; Newark, N.J.; and Flint, Mich., to help them cope with violence in their areas. These cities are included in the expansion of the Violence Reduction Network which started last year and included cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Camden, and Oakland-Richmond.
"Every community is different and every community has their own unique challenges,'' Yates said, according to USA Today. "For us to be most effective, we really need to be digging in at the local level... to fashion our response. This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of solution.'
Five new additional VRN sites are announced. #VRN2015 pic.twitter.com/UXGC9Nzy4e
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In the first half of 2015, murders were up by 33 percent in Baltimore, New Orleans, and St. Louis. Homicides in Chicago went up by 19 percent, and shooting crimes were up by 21 percent, USA Today added.
"Even with the strongest partnerships and best policing in the world, without better state and federal laws to help keep illegal guns off the streets, we will continue to face an uphill battle," Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy of Chicago said in April, USA Today reported.
According to Yates and the Justice Department, records show "no indication" that suggests the surge of crime now is similar to the era of violence during the 80s to the early 90s.
"It's too early to know if this is a long-term shift or a short-term cyclical change,'' she added, according to the First Coast News. "But it doesn't really matter from our perspective because our response is always going to be the same: that is to dig in to try to find out what the causes are.''
