BILLINGS — In the past six months, law enforcement officers have charged 105 persons in federal and state court, seized 160 pounds of methamphetamine and confiscated 52 firearms from the Yellowstone County community as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program to reduce violent crime through a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement effort.
On Tuesday, the Montana U.S. Attorney’s office held a press conference to explain the program and its success so far. PSN is a reinvigorated U.S. Department of Justice initiative that identifies the most violent criminals in high-crime areas and works with federal, state and local law enforcement and community partners to develop a crime-reduction and substance abuse prevention and treatment strategy. DOJ celebrated PSN’s one-year anniversary earlier this month.
PSN Yellowstone County has been working to arrest armed robbers, methamphetamine traffickers and violent felons possessing firearms. Law enforcement officials have identified methamphetamine as a primary cause for the increase in violent crime.
Violent crime in the community is a serious problem. Billings Police Department information shows the violent crime rate has increased 75 percent from 2010 to 2017. And violent crime in Montana has increased almost 35 percent from its low in 2010 through 2016, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.
More recently, the 2018 first quarter figures of murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in Yellowstone County were up more than 29 percent from the first quarter average of the prior two years.
Since PSN began in April, violent crime in the community has ... Read full article in print or by subscribing online here.
