Detroit gets share of $71M federal crime prevention program

Detroit is one of seven cities getting a share of a $71 million major crime prevention program, U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced Wednesday.

The program they're calling Operation Relentless Pursuit will put the money and manpower from the top federal agencies to help a handful of the country's most violent, crime-ridden cities -- including Detroit.

"Since the beginning of this administration, violent crime rates across the country on average have dropped," Barr said.

However, Detroit has been dubbed the number one crime-ridden city in the country. That's why the top federal leaders came to Detroit to kick off this program.

"This is completely unprecedented. This has never happened, as far as we know, that outside of Washington, D.C. The attorney general and the heads of the DEA, the ATF, the FBI, and marshall services are all together at one point," said Matthew Schneider, U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Michigan.

"Here in Detroit under the leadership of Chief Craig, there's been continuous progress," Barr said.

But in an Op-Ed piece for The Detroit News, Barr said that Detroit needs the money "to restore order in Detroit" because:

FOX 2: "He said there was an epidemic of violent crime in the city. Are those proper words?"

Detroit Police Chief James Craig: "I wouldn't use those words, I'm not being critical ... He also focused on the chief's leadership and the chief's team, the Detroit Police Department, and what we've done in this span of time."

"In the last year, there were significant drops in violent crime rates, robbery, aggravated assault, all in Detroit," Barr said.

It remains to be seen how much money Detroit will get but if it's divided evenly among seven cities, that's about $10 million. The money will predominately be used to focus on gangs and criminal enterprises through cooperative crime task forces. The attorney general said the money is available now.