By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
CASSOPOLIS -- "I wish that I could have arrived today in a Brink's truck, bringing bags of money to the three counties because I know you really could use it."
Instead, U.S. Attorney for the 49-county Western District of Michigan Margaret M. Chiara brought from Grand Rapids "the equivalent of a packet of seeds."
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a combined state and federal law enforcement effort designed to address and combat gun violence.
The program is being implemented nationwide to provide a comprehensive and coordinated community-based approach to gun violence.
The program has successfully focused on gun crime throughout the United States, including the Grand Rapids area. It has proven to successfully aid in the reduction of gun crimes and violence. The program particularly focuses on gun crimes committed by previous felons and drug dealers.
The concept emphasizes partnership, strategic planning, outreach, training and accountability.
Membership includes prosecutors, sheriffs, police chiefs, Michigan State Police and federal law enforcement officials.
The group will meet periodically to coordinate aggressive state and federal prosecutions of drug and other felony offenders who use guns in commission of crimes.
The objective of this coordinated effort is to send a strong message to drug dealers and convicted felons that using a gun to assist in committing a crime will result in enhanced penalties at the state and federal level.
In addition to Chiara, Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of Project Safe Neighborhoods Tom Gezon and Cass County Prosecutor Victor A. Fitz, law enforcement officials from Cass, Berrien, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties took part in the news conference in the District Court hearing room, including Cass County Sheriff Joseph Underwood, Dowagiac Police Chief Tom Atkinson, Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey, Berrien County Prosecutor James Cherry, Van Buren County Sheriff Dale Gribler, Benton Harbor Police Chief Samuel Harris, Decatur Police Chief Harry Layman, Cassopolis Police Chief Frank Williams, Benton Township Police Chief Jim Coburn, Eau Claire Police Chief Juan Mata and representatives of the Michigan State Police posts in Niles and White Pigeon.
Edwardsburg-Ontwa Township Police Chief Ken Wray is still recuperating from a car accident.
Fitz said one advantage of PSN is its focus on felons -- "not on law-abiding citizens who have the right to own and possess guns. It lets criminals know that if they have a gun when they deal drugs or commit a felony, their penalty will be even more severe. When drug dealers and felons commit gun crime, they will do serious time."
Fitz said in Muskegon when he worked with PSN the program contributed to a 29-percent crime reduction.
Fitz said, "We find in law enforcement there are certain individuals who commit crimes again and again -- the convicted felons. This allows us to focus on those individuals -- particularly when they're involved in gun crime -- so that we get them off the streets. They're the repeat offenders who do the shooting and the killing."
Chiara, former Cass County prosecutor and past president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, said PSN cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan has increased federal prosecution of convicted felons committing gun crimes by 58 percent -- from 42 in 2000, 58 in 2001 and 80 in 2002 to 99 in 2003.
Previously, PSN focused primarily on urban centers -- Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon and Battle Creek.
In the UP an escaped parolee originally from Louisiana, driving a stolen van filled with illegal guns, received a sentence of 14 years.
Another individual from Muskegon who assaulted his girlfriend with a sawed-off shotgun landed 10 years in prison.
PSN is organized and administered through a law enforcement task force of federal, state, local and tribal agencies and corrections officials.
Fitz, who was involved in PSN in Muskegon, said the program gives prosecutors "a hammer."
Van Buren County Sheriff Dale Gribler said Detective Mark McCulfor has been assigned as gun detective based on his 16 years of experience in federal, state and local drug enforcement task forces.
PSN-SW will receive $50,000 in federal dollars to fund the detective dedicated to gun crimes, with Gribler picking up the $15,000 remainder of the cost of the officer who will work out of Bailey's office in St. Joseph beginning July 1.
Chief Atkinson said, "I think what this program does for local law enforcement -- particularly smaller agencies -- it gives an opportunity to go after gun violence. In small communities like Dowagiac, we don't have the resources to go after the guy who's dealing drugs and carrying firearms. What makes this unique is that Cass, Van Buren and Berrien have had a working relationship for many, many years. This gives us one point of contact to work all three counties."
Sheriff Underwood said, "These are the tools we need to take a pro-active approach to solving crimes in all three counties. I really want to thank the prosecutor for bringing this forward in such a quick manner. We got the information on April 21 and the application had to be put together very quickly. Through the cooperation of all the departments, it happened. Good things happen when people get together and talk."