Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Thank you, Mayor Lightfoot and Mayor Lucas, for your introductions and insightful remarks. I also want to congratulate Mayor Suarez on his recent inauguration as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
I am delighted to join you all here this evening. I have often said that being a mayor is one of the hardest jobs in the country. You are on the front lines of our nation’s most complex problems, and the work you do has immediate impact on people’s lives. Over the past two years, you have faced unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale demonstrations for racial justice and a rise in hate crimes and gun violence.
Public safety is a top priority for the Department of Justice, and we have dedicated substantial resources to supporting our state and local partners as they investigate and prosecute violent crime. But, experience and research have taught us that enforcement alone is not enough to prevent crime. In May, the Attorney General announced a comprehensive strategy to reduce violent crime, and the department has deployed all of its tools — vigorous law enforcement; training and technical assistance; and financial support to state and local jurisdictions — to fight violent crime, strengthen communities and build community trust. Last year, the department awarded approximately $4 billion in grants, including $1.6 billion awarded just last month, to support a wide range of programs, and President Biden has requested more than $7 billion for the department’s grantmaking components in Fiscal Year 2022.
I’d like first to talk to you about two of the department’s highest priorities — combatting hate crimes and reducing gun violence.
Hate crimes are insidious — they instill fear across entire communities and undermine the principles upon which our democracy stands. You all know — all too well — that instances of hate crimes have surged over the past few years. The department has responded by increasing its own capacities to investigate hate crimes and incidents and by enhancing the efforts of local and state governments. The FBI elevated hate crimes and criminal civil rights violations to its highest-level national threat priority, which increases the resources for and focus on hate crimes prevention and investigations across all 56 of the bureau’s field offices. And just last month, the department awarded over $21 million to jurisdictions to combat hate crimes and to provide assistance to hate crime victims.
In the wake of last weekend’s attack in Colleyville, Texas, I want to emphasize the department’s deep commitment to combatting antisemitic hate crimes and to protecting people of all faiths and their houses of worship. The department vigorously enforces hate crime statutes that prohibit bias-motivated crimes, as well as using other federal laws (such as those prohibiting interstate threats, arson and the use of weapons of mass destruction), and provides trainings and consultation services to faith organizations and communities about how to strengthen community relations and enhance security at their houses of worship. And the department’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program provide grants that can be used to combat hate crimes, including religion-motivated crimes, and to bolster security at places of worship.
One of the department’s top law enforcement priorities is preventing firearms traffickers from providing weapons to people who were previously convicted of felony offenses and other prohibited purchasers. Last spring, the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General announced five strike forces — consisting of teams of U.S. Attorneys, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and state and local law enforcement partners — to disrupt illegal gun trafficking networks that channel guns into Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C.
The department is also using its rulemaking authority to strengthen our responses to gun violence. The department has proposed new rules that will close loopholes on “ghost guns” and the use of accessories to convert pistols into short-barreled rifles so that we can keep guns out of the hands of those seeking to evade background checks.
The department is committed to addressing violent crime in all of its forms. The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country have worked with federal, state, local and community partners to identify and address the most pressing violent crime issues in their respective districts.
And the department’s grants programs, including the JAG Program, the COPS Hiring Program and the Smart Policing Initiative, increase state and local enforcement capacity by helping jurisdictions hire personnel, buy equipment, update technology, protect schools, reduce youth gang violence and implement innovative and evidence-based solutions to efficiently tackle chronic crime problems. As part of our commitment to providing police departments with the resources they need, we awarded $139 million through the COPS Hiring program to enable 183 departments to hire over 1,000 additional officers. We know that the lion’s share of violent crime reduction is shouldered by our state, local, Tribal and territorial partners, and the Justice Department is committed to partnering with leaders in cities and towns across the country to build on your local expertise and help scale up successful crime prevention strategies.
That’s why one of the department’s priorities for reducing violent crime is investing in community-based violence intervention programs. As many of you know and have seen firsthand, community-based violence intervention focuses on reducing violent crime by establishing relationships between community leaders, service providers and people at the center of gun violence in local communities, and relies on credible messengers to intervene in the lives of those at the highest risk of perpetrating and/or becoming victims of violence. Cities and towns across the country have deployed innovative community-based violence intervention strategies as highly effective complements to the enforcement of criminal laws.
Another cornerstone of effective crime prevention is the legitimacy of law enforcement in the eyes of the communities they serve. When residents trust the police, they are more likely to report crimes, serve as witnesses and cooperate with investigators. Such trust and legitimacy are not only necessary for public safety, they also honor this nation’s core values of fairness and dignity for all. The department’s commitment to protecting civil rights and ensuring public safety is reflected in our many tools geared toward building police-community trust.
To take one example, the department supports evidence-based programs that better respond to the needs of people with mental illness and co-occurring substance use. We have heard repeatedly from law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, the civil rights community, health professionals and government officials that we must support behavioral health programs so that we can treat — not jail — those in crisis whenever possible.
To promote these efforts, the department announced a new initiative, Connect and Protect, that supports law enforcement-health system collaborations for justice-involved people with mental illness and/or co-occurring substance use. By providing community-based treatment, we can break the cycle of arrest and incarceration for the most vulnerable members of our society and refocus scarce criminal justice resources. We may also save lives.
The success of these programs depends on sustained support from the top — from mayors like you — and that is one reason I am so heartened by the reforms that many of you are taking on in your communities.
The department also provides no-cost technical assistance to jurisdictions implementing different types of law enforcement reforms and community-based programs — regardless of whether they receive grants from the department. The department’s Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center, or CRI-TAC, provides a wide-range of technical assistance services to law enforcement agencies to increase accountability and build trust between police and the communities they serve.
An essential part of the department’s technical assistance addresses law enforcement mental health and wellness. We cannot address effective crime prevention and community trust without also ensuring that law enforcement officers have the services they need. Officers have difficult — and frankly dangerous — jobs, the stress and trauma of which has been particularly acute during the pandemic.
This year, the department awarded over $7 million to improving law enforcement’s access to mental health and wellness services, thereby doubling the number of agencies that received such funding. Working with our law enforcement partners, the department has developed a rich set of resources, webinars and best practices for law enforcement agencies. We know there is often stigma attached to receiving much needed services, and I hope you encourage your police officers to tap into these resources.
The department uses its civil enforcement authority to remedy patterns and practices of unlawful conduct by police, including excessive use of force, discriminatory or otherwise unlawful stops and seizures and practices that discriminate against people with disabilities. In September, I issued a memo establishing a set of principles to make the use of monitors in consent decrees involving state and local governmental entities more efficient, cost-effective and transparent to the court, jurisdictions and the public.
The department is drawing on its expertise from past consent decrees, as well as years of research and engagement with law enforcement, advocates and other subject matter experts, to develop and consolidate resources on the best practices in policing. This initiative will give state and local governments, law enforcement leadership and community advocates ready access to resources that can inform training and policies independent of any engagement with the department.
Finally, the department is developing resources and best practices on addressing mass demonstrations and civil unrest. Effectively managed protests show the best of the policing profession, allowing communities to exercise their constitutional rights and for officers to demonstrate what tactics can build public trust. We have started convenings with elected officials, community advocates and police leaders, to understand the practical lessons from those with significant experiences with these issues, and we plan to issue a best practices publication that will assist law enforcement agencies with protest management.
In addition, communities, including mayors, can request assistance from the department’s Community Relations Service (CRS). CRS provides facilitation, mediation, consultation and training services in the wake of high-profile incidents that cause tension and social unrest. CRS also helps jurisdictions address issues causing tension in the community, including police practices and hate-motivated incidents.
These are just some of the ways that the department is partnering with you to prevent violent crime and strengthen community trust. I look forward to our discussion now and thank you for your public service.