TACOMA, Wash. A year-long campaign to make Tacoma's streets safer has led to nearly three dozen convictions involving the Crips gang in the Hilltop neighborhood.
The Safe Streets campaign led to the arrests and convictions of 34 members of the gang and their associates. Their sentences totaled 328 years in prison.
In addition, since 2005, Tacoma has seen an 11.7 percent drop in robberies; a 4.8 percent dip in crimes against society, and; drive-by shootings are down 56 percent.
So while our OGs are in jail, we have to step in and make difference in lives of the younger kids who are connected to many of those OGs, but also to other kids who think it's really cool to be involved in a gang, said Priscilla Lisicich with Safe Streets.
Federal grant money helped pay for the program.
Prosecutors say it's the first time in Washington state that they've used the conspiracy statute to prosecute street gangs.
