US Attorney fed enforcement teams up with Detroit police to cut down summer surge

DETROIT (FOX 2) - It’s being called a summer surge - and this is the third time the feds have worked with agencies toward a goal of reducing violence over a three-month-period.

US attorney Dawn Ison discussed the summer surge and plans to mitigate it, on Thursday.

"We’re going after the drivers of violence," she said.

The idea is to use strategies that target crime at a time when historically in urban settings gun violence especially goes up.

One tool that law enforcement is pulling out - charging - by targeting who they believe are the most violent.

"If someone is there committing those crimes, they will be subjected to federal prosecution immediately," Ison said.

With this plan, violent felons arrested for illegally possessing firearms and those arrested with fully automatic firearms and guns with obliterated serial numbers in Detroit’s 8th and 9th precincts, or in parks in Detroit, will be subject to immediate federal prosecution – which often means more time behind bars, if convicted.

People who commit an armed carjacking or robbery of a business in these targeted areas could be prosecuted by the feds and anyone with a meaningful connection to the targeted area – who commits these types of crimes elsewhere, can end up facing federal charges.

"We’re not taking every felon in possession, but we are taking those that meet the criteria that we've set as identifying these individuals through the data as being the most violent offenders," Ison said.

The federal enforcement part of this runs between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

But the folks behind it say, this is combined with crime prevention - like letters sent to folks already in trouble with the law in those targeted areas.

"The Duggan administration has allocated over $40 million of American Rescue Plan dollars to our new and expanded recreation centers in the City of Detroit," said Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison.

The city is also investing millions of federal dollars in job training, employment, and scholarships.

"We believe in coming to the neighborhoods that you are in," Bettison said.