S.D. to Get $1 Million to Fight Inner-City Crime

San Diego will receive $1 million over the next two years from a Department of Justice pilot program to help combat inner-city crime, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday.

“Operation Weed and Seed” will award $500,000 to San Diego this year and the same amount in 1993 to help the city fight drug dealers, gangs and violent crime, said William Braniff, U.S. attorney in San Diego.

The program works by having federal, state and local law enforcement agencies work with community residents to rid a targeted crime-ridden neighborhood of violence and drug dealing, Braniff said. Details of the program will be released later.

San Diego City Council Districts 4 and 8, which include Southeast San Diego and Barrio Logan, have been selected to participate in the program, Braniff said.

“Working with the community, law enforcement ‘weeds out’ the violent offenders, gangs and drug dealers,” he said in a statement. “Then, as the streets are reclaimed from the criminals, intensive community policing is put into place so that the ground, once taken, is held.”

San Diego was selected as a site for the program after the city submitted an application for “Weed and Seed” in January, Braniff said.

The program will attempt to reclaim public housing from drug dealers, clear gangs out of schools and rebuild crime-ravaged neighborhoods, he said. In addition, San Diego may be eligible for a share of an additional $500 million in social programs if President Bush’s expanded “Weed and Seed” program is adopted by Congress, Braniff said.

In that case, the programs used to aid crime-ridden neighborhoods will include Job Corps and Head Start, as well as education funding and resources from the Women, Infants and Children program, Braniff said.

“San Diego is a great city for the ‘Weed and Seed’ program,” Braniff said. “Its good, hard-working people are trying to fight the encroachment of crime and drug abuse.”