Remarks by
Director Carl J. Truscott
Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference
Kansas City, Missouri
June 17, 2004

Thank you, Bill [Mercer], for that introduction, and for your leadership as chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Group.

I’m happy to be representing the men and women of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and to speak with you about Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program that is so important to ATF, and to our nation as a whole. It’s great to have the opportunity to talk about ATF’s contributions to PSN, and about the successes that we’ve achieved, together. This is my first PSN conference – I personally am one of the newer members of the Justice family. I’m happy to be part of this honorable group, and to share in these important PSN responsibilities.

Programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, and conferences like this one, indicate our seriousness about the threat that violent crime poses to America’s cities, and our commitment to work hard and work together against this threat. And all this work is paying off. Thanks to the efforts of law enforcement personnel and prosecutors, working through PSN, violent crime rates are falling nationwide. But seeing this success reminds us that there is much more left to do. It reminds us that for every neighborhood reclaimed from the elements of disorder and fear, another is still threatened by them, and unable to thrive. And we strengthen our efforts, because everyone has a right to live in a community that is safe and sound.

We at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are committed to our mission, as the Attorney General expressed it last month: “preventing terrorism, reducing violent crime and protecting the public.” ATF’s expertise and resources are vital to the interagency effort to protect Americans from terrorism. Our investigative and inspection programs work to detect and deter terrorists’ use of firearms and explosives, and our alcohol and tobacco diversion activities eliminate one source of funding for terrorist organizations. ATF is providing robust support for interagency counterterrorism efforts, and we are eager to work with other agencies against this common enemy.

But there are more enemies on our streets: violent criminals still use firearms to threaten American cities. ATF is working to protect the public against firearms crime. We identify, investigate and recommend the prosecution of a wide range of firearms offenders: career criminals who use firearms, individuals and gangs who are actively involved in armed criminal activities, and other categories of prohibited persons in possession of firearms.

We know, though, that collaboration with the rest of the law enforcement community is the best force multiplier. This is why ATF is committed to working through Project Safe Neighborhoods. PSN allows ATF to bring its unique expertise and technology to the table to benefit law enforcement as a whole. And it ensures the best use of resources at every level: we coordinate our information and our effort into common investigations, rather than pursuing separate strategies and meeting only isolated successes. ATF has long been committed to working in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, and PSN has given us a valuable opportunity to coordinate our efforts more closely than ever before. We’re not doing each other’s jobs—we’re doing our own jobs better with each other’s help. And when we work together effectively, everybody benefits, most of all the law-abiding citizens who will not become victims of violent crime thanks to our work.

But our partnerships aren’t just in the public sector. ATF has worked with the National Shooting Sports Foundation on a successful joint venture, “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy.” With this campaign, funded and promoted by the NSSF, Federal firearms licensees, or FFLs, get information and tools to help them identify and prevent straw purchases, or purchases of firearms with the intent of concealing the intended possessors. This is another strategy to address the problem of illicit firearms trafficking from the retail perspective. We recognize the value in partnering with private organizations and gun enthusiasts because we share a common interest in a safe society. And even though there is a regulatory relationship with FFLs, the shared goal of public safety draws us together in this unique partnership. The interests of the American people are best served when we work cooperatively to help keep firearms from coming into the possession of those with criminal intent.

ATF’s unique expertise and technology are crucial to the fight against armed criminals. We are the government’s firearms experts, and we bring vital assets to bear in the PSN effort. We treat the crime gun like an informant, and want every possible piece of information about its history, its users, and its possible links to other crimes. So ATF has created systems that enable all agencies—Federal, State and local—to share information, perfecting cases at every level. ATF provides information and experience to help local police officers identify firearms traffickers, and our analysis helps them recognize trafficking patterns and trends in their areas.

ATF also operates the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, and has equipped 230 Federal, State and local forensic laboratories with ballistic imaging and comparison equipment. Partner law enforcement agencies use instantaneous comparison of crime gun evidence to catch career criminals, linking violent crimes within a jurisdiction or across the country. Since its inception, the system has logged over 9,200 “hits,” or links between crimes. Our Crime Gun Analysis Branch analyzes crime gun data to identify national trafficking patterns and provide actionable leads for ATF or other law enforcement agencies. And our four regional crime gun centers, located in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, offer invaluable intelligence and analysis to area agencies, helping them to work together to stop criminals active in wider areas.

To make sure that State and local agencies get the best benefit from these tools, ATF also provides PSN Enforcement Training. Regional teams consist of U.S. Attorneys, State and local prosecutors, State and local police officers and sheriffs, and ATF special agents. The teams train together, then develop strategies on how they will work together against violent crime in their area. ATF trainers teach firearms trafficking and investigation techniques, and help trainees use these ATF resources to maximum strategic advantage. Since the beginning of PSN, ATF has trained over 10,000 Federal, State and local law enforcement officers. In the last eight months alone, we’ve equipped 3,600 key people to increase the effectiveness of the fight against violent crime in their communities. This training will benefit communities for many years to come, as the officers we train spread the knowledge further, teaching the innovative skills and methods they’ve learned to their colleagues. The resources we provide, and the expertise we share, can help partner agencies make permanent changes to protect the citizenry against violent criminals using firearms.

ATF’s investigation and enforcement operations help remove violent offenders from our streets. ATF special agents work with law enforcement agencies to investigate firearm-related violations and evaluate crimes for the most effective prosecution. They also investigate firearms trafficking and straw purchasing cases. Because Outlaw Motorcycle Organizations and other gangs are associated with large numbers of firearms violations and other criminal acts, ATF has focused attention on them. One ATF investigation discovered a plot by the leader of a Chicago street gang to use the profits from crack cocaine sales to buy 83 firearms in Mississippi. The gang members, all unable to possess guns legally, recruited others to buy the guns for them. 28 of the firearms purchased by the gang were recovered at crime scenes in Chicago, including drive-by shootings, robberies, and aggravated assaults, and one firearm was traced to a murder in Florida. Four defendants were convicted in the case.

Last night at the awards ceremony, you heard about another great example of effective collaboration between ATF and local law enforcement. A two-year investigation in Arizona resulted in the arrests of 18 members of the Hell’s Angels who were indicted on over 100 federal charges. 560 firearms were confiscated on related warrants, along with pipe bombs, narcotics and currency. In this operation, two ATF agents and a Phoenix Police Department officer infiltrated the groups to investigate alleged firearms and narcotics trafficking, assaults, murders, and other crimes. This operation used the best assets and information of Federal, State and local law enforcement, and this is just the sort of partnership that PSN helps create.

ATF’s move to the Department of Justice has made us even more effective. Attorney General Ashcroft and Deputy Attorney General Comey have been tremendously welcoming and supportive as we have completed the details of the transition. I appreciate their support for ATF, and their recognition of ATF’s significant contributions – to PSN and to the law enforcement community. ATF and DOJ have worked together to address the problems presented by unlawful firearms trafficking and armed criminals. From investigation through prosecution, we are now planning the entire effort to have the maximum effect in safeguarding the public. Initiatives and guidance to the field are closely coordinated between agencies. And we’re working to follow up these policy and investigative integrations with technological ones: ATF and DOJ are holding discussions aimed at linking ATF’s case management system with the Justice booking and referral systems. This will make it possible to manage cases between agencies electronically.

As the Attorney General has said, “Project Safe Neighborhoods shows what can be achieved with teamwork.” I want to give you just one of the many examples of how this teamwork, through our Regional Crime Gun Centers, has made one neighborhood safer than before.

The New York/New Jersey Crime Gun Center serves as a central source for intelligence on firearms used or obtained illegally. The Center consolidates all information gleaned from traces of firearms to identify armed criminals, organized violent gangs, and narcotics traffickers in the State of New York and the 11 northern counties of New Jersey. The Crime Gun Center works with State and local law enforcement agencies throughout the region, and uses state-of-the-art tracing capabilities and mapping systems to identify firearm recovery patterns and trends. Through ATF field offices, the Center forwards investigative leads to a cadre of ATF agents working urgently with their State and local counterparts, so these leads are quickly acted upon, and the cases are developed, before the intelligence becomes obsolete.

The Crime Gun Center’s products are vital to crimefighting in New York—which is at the receiving end of a gun trafficking route from southern states into the northeast. The center’s ability to run rapid traces on firearms back to their states of origin is a dramatic advantage to prosecutors, revealing the connections in an interstate trafficking conspiracy in real time.

One such investigation ended in the dissolution of an organization responsible for illegally trafficking over 250 firearms, supplying handguns, rifles and assault weapons to criminals and other prohibited persons. The investigation began when the New York Police Department received information about individuals supplying illegal firearms to gang members in a housing development in Bronx, New York. After the traffickers were identified as Virginia residents, ATF began working with Virginia law enforcement agencies to investigate the source of the firearms. The investigation later expanded to include numerous straw purchasers and a corrupt gun dealer who was a source of firearms for the group. To date, the investigation has resulted in the arrest and conviction of four gun traffickers in New York, and over 30 straw purchasers and a corrupt FFL employee in Virginia. According to a New York City Police statement, the housing development experienced a 700% decrease in shooting incidents and a 200% decrease in homicides after the dismantling of this organization, which represents an extraordinary improvement in the quality of life there.

As I continue my work as the Director of this great agency, I am committed to leading ATF’s efforts to safeguard Americans from the threats of violent crime and terrorism. We’re attacking the violent crime problem from every angle, and using every possible source of information. Our collaboration through PSN means that all of us in this room, and across the country, are working together as never before. We’re making real progress, as expressed in lower crime rates, fewer incidents, fewer victims. But the most important progress we can make is this: we’re giving another chance to neighborhoods that were living with crime and living in fear. Until all armed violent criminals are held accountable for their crimes, until all American cities are safe, our work is not finished. And until that day comes, we will keep our sleeves rolled up, we will keep working, we will keep innovating, to make progress toward that goal.

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