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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF 10 COMMUNITIES TO FORM "SAFECITIES NETWORK" TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE

Under the initiative, the ten communities will share successful strategies, work with federal law enforcement and other agencies, and have access to experts in gun violence reduction. Partners will share lessons learned via a SafeCities Web site. The initiative will also give national recognition to successful communities.

The announcement comes the day after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released preliminary figures showing an 8-percent decrease in violent crime during the first 6 months of 1999 when compared to figures reported by national law enforcement officials for the same time period of the previous year.

"The SafeCities partners that I am announcing today are committed to keep up the hard work of reducing gun violence and the Federal government is committed to help them." Vice President Gore said.

The SafeCities Network complements other Administration initiatives to reduce gun violence, such as President Clinton's directive on Deterring and Reducing Gun Crime. Pursuant to the President's directive, United States Attorneys and Special Agents in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are working with community leaders across the country to develop and implement integrated firearms violence reduction strategies. SafeCities was recommended by the Crime Mapping and Data Driven Management Task Force, a task force of the Department of Justice and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government.

Last July, the Vice President invited communities to apply to join the SafeCities Network. Successful communities developed clear plans to reduce gun violence that balanced prevention, intervention, and enforcement strategies; showed they were committed to measuring and achieving results; and demonstrated that they involved key stakeholders such as federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, education officials, faith community representatives, business leaders, and other key community members.

As the result of a national search, ten SafeCities Network partners were selected:

• Eastern District of Michigan Weed and Seed Sites, Detroit, Flint, Highland, Park, and Inkster, Michigan
• Operation Bull's-Eye, Fort Wayne, Indiana
• King County Violent Firearms Crime Coalition, Western District, Seattle, Washington
• Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, California
• Atlantic City Weed and Seed, Atlantic City, New Jersey
• City of Springfield's Violence Prevention Task Force, Springfield, Massachusetts
• Safe City USA, Fort Worth, Texas
• Centinela Valley Juvenile Diversion Project, Inglewood, California Louisville, Kentucky
• Miami Police Department, Miami, Florida