The United States Attorney’s Office announced Friday that the Milwaukee Police Department has been awarded a Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program grant of $294,668 to support the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission (MHRC) efforts to reduce gun violence in the City of Milwaukee.

The PSN program, led by the United States Attorney, is a collaborative effort between federal, state, and local law enforcement and other community members to implement gang violence and gun crime enforcement, intervention and prevention initiatives within the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

As key component of the Milwaukee PSN effort, the MHRC regularly brings together police, prosecutors, corrections, probation and parole, ATF, FBI and community service providers to review homicides and non-fatal shootings to better understand the problem of gun violence in the City of Milwaukee and seek solutions based on proven prevention and enforcement efforts developed around the country.

The MHRC’s research-based, anti-violence program is being replicated in other major US cities. The grant announced Friday will be used to enhance the MHRC work with law enforcement and corrections to focus on those individuals repeatedly involved as victims, witnesses, or suspects in shootings and associated violent crimes.

The grant will be used to support research and intelligence efforts to identify the individuals and groups frequently involved in shootings, armed robberies, car-jackings and other violent crimes and coordinate the targeting of these individuals and their criminally involved associates for investigation and prosecution by joint federal, state, and local task forces.

In announcing the grant award Friday, Acting United States Attorney Greg Haanstad said,

“The Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission are essential partners in the United States Department of Justice’s efforts to combat gun crime in Milwaukee. The US Attorney’s Office and our federal law enforcement partners look forward to working even more closely with our state and local partners on this focused effort to target those most prone to gun violence in Milwaukee.”

“When the Milwaukee Police Department and I commenced the Homicide Review process a decade ago, we envisioned effective partnerships with federal, state and local agencies as anticipated under this Project Safe Neighborhood grant,” said Mayor Tom Barrett. “I am confident that our system-wide partners will join us as we redouble our efforts and continually refine our focus to reduce gun violence and apprehend those who choose to victimize their neighborhoods with guns.”

MHRC is led by Mallory O’Brien, an epidemiologist with the Medical College of Wisconsin who is working out of the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Research support under the new grant will be provided by researchers from Indiana University and the University of Missouri who have been working as PSN research partners for many years.