SEATTLE — U.S. Attorney Nick Brown’s office announced Thursday $268,000 dollars from the Department of Justice is coming to western Washington to combat gun violence.
The funds will go to expand its Project Safe Neighborhood Program to Pierce, Snohomish, and Clark Counties.
The funding comes as those counties are nearing a record number of homicides.
Pierce County and Tacoma are seeing a spike in violent crime. Tacoma's homicide rate continues to rise after a weekend of deadly violence. Two shootings on Sunday left two people dead and a woman injured.
“Tacoma police had a record number of homicides last year, at the halfway point of this year, they were almost back up to that,” said Sgt. Darren Moss with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Last year, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office investigated 24 homicides, the highest it's been in years. To date in 2022, there have been 20 homicides.
“We want to make sure that people feel safe and secure in our community, so seeing those numbers go up gets really frustrating,” said Sgt. Moss.
That's why the Department of Justice is putting $268,000 into its Project Safe Neighborhood Program. That money goes to help community efforts to combat gun crime. The program is led by the US Attorney's office, local public safety, and community organizations.
“This year we are expanding the reach of our district’s PSN program by adding partnerships in Clark, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown for the Western District of Washington in a press release. “We will also partner with the state Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention and our state Attorney General’s Office to identify and fund community strategies that work to prevent gun violence in high-risk populations.”
The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said less gun crime would help them be able to catch other criminals.
“We don't have time to investigate petty theft or fraud. That's just the nature of the business, we have to prioritize what work we do with the limited resources that we have,” said Sgt. Moss.
The Pierce County Sheriff's office said the biggest issue it’s facing is staffing shortages.
“Serious crimes are getting way worse. How can we up our game, we're stretched really thin, and we're working as hard as we can. We just want to see better for our communities, which is why we put on the uniforms and go out there and do our job,” said Sgt. Moss.
To help with police staffing shortages, the Department of Justice also just announced $139 million to help local agencies hire more officers. The Lynnwood Police Department is getting $1.2 million dollars to hire 10 more officers.