Wanted for Gun Crimes

Courtroom Sentences

Criminals with guns face a bleak future.

Law enforcement officials across the spectrum – from the local to federal level – have agreed on a zero tolerance policy on gun crimes in Mobile. That means that gun crimes won’t be pleaded and individuals involved in gun crimes, including illegal possession, can expect the harshest prosecution and penalties allowed by law.

“If you get caught violating a gun law, you can expect no suspended sentence, no probation, and no leniency,” said Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran.

The threat is backed up by a strict system of checks and balances. All gun crime cases will be tracked from arrest to sentencing and outcomes reported to the public. A broad-based coalition of community leaders spanning the civic community and all the arms of law enforcement and prosecution in Mobile will be involved in implementation and oversight.

Started in April 2002, the collaborative project, called ICE or Isolating the Criminal Element, has three elements:

• Stepped up enforcement;
  
• Education and marketing of the program;
  
• And a community “report card” on outcomes.
  

The enforcement element assures that gun crimes will land a criminal behind bars.

Even at the municipal level, perpetrators will no longer get by with just a fine, or probation or a warning.

In addition, all crimes will be scrutinized to determine if they can be bumped up to federal violations, either because of the perpetrator’s criminal background, or circumstances of the arrest, or other pertinent information. If the suspect fits the criteria for federal prosecution, then both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Mobile Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will participate in the prosecution.

Education and marketing is directed as much at the criminal element as the larger community. “A big part of the program is informing the criminal element and would-be criminals that penalties for gun crime are going to be harsh,” Chief Cochran noted. Public service announcements and on-going public updates on results are intended to raise awareness community-wide. The Mobile Police Department will kick off the public awareness campaign with $50,000 from forfeited drug money – seizures that result from the prosecutions of illegal drug traffickers.

Accountability will be assured through case tracking, and a “report card” will be issued to the community on the outcomes of all gun cases. This provides a “track record” for each subject. The purpose of tracking is to identify any weakness in the procedure, including the arrest, the follow-up investigation, the prosecution and the judicial response.

Some of the stepped up prosecutions, investigations and outcomes measurements will be supported with federal dollars through the Project Safe Neighborhoods program. The $550 million initiative by President George W. Bush is a national strategy to beef up the staff of federal and local prosecutors, develop community partnerships and media campaigns and to improve criminal record-keeping. The federal funding provides for similar efforts throughout the state.

“Each U.S. Attorney’s Office has been ordered to maximize the resources,” said David York, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.

Participating agencies include the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation/Mobile Violent Crimes Joint Task Force, the Mobile District Attorney’s Office, the Police Departments and cities of Mobile, Prichard, Saraland, Chickasaw and Satsuma, and the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department. Each of these law enforcement agencies has committed personnel to focus on gun crimes within its department.

Statistics tell the stories about real results. In Boston and Richmond, VA., the results are notable. In Richmond, for example, law enforcement tallied a 40 percent decline in homicides and a 30 percent decline in robberies in one year.

“There’s been an escalation in violence, with guns being at the heart of the matter,” said Chief Cochran. ‘If we can reduce the use of firearms, we can reduce the number of extremely violent instances.”