Police Are Targeting Firearm Offenders

Law enforcement officials Wednesday announced Orange County’s involvement in a gun crime prevention program that targets repeat federal offenders.

Through the federally funded program, called Project FedUP, police departments work directly with the U.S. attorney and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives to investigate gun offenses. The goal is to prosecute suspects in federal court, which would mean longer sentences than if they were prosecuted in state court.

What may have been a one- to five-year sentence in state prison could easily be a 10- or 15-year sentence in federal prison, said Debra W. Yang, U.S. attorney for the Central District, which includes Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Project FedUP started in Orange County in 2002, but officials decided not to go public with the county’s participation until now. Los Angeles County started its version in 2002.

During Wednesday’s news conference in Santa Ana, Yang described Project FedUP as “the right hand and the left hand” working together.

Through the ATF’s gun tracing and crime analysis technology, police can trace where a gun used in a crime originated. If the gun traveled outside the state or on interstate highways, it becomes part of a federal crime.

The program has been successful in Orange County in part due to the support of community members, Yang said. The success is also attributed to the 21 police departments in the county.

Since Project FedUP began, authorities said, convictions have led to more than 200 years in federal prison for convicted criminals.

“This project is doing better than our L.A. project,” Yang said. Police departments in Orange County “already had a good working relationship and we fed on that.”

The other part of the program is educating people through public service announcements on TV, buses and billboards, and contact with the public through community groups. Among those groups is Suspect Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based acting and production company started by former gang member Manuel Jimenez to help people who have been in trouble with the law find a way out of their at-risk lifestyles.

Jimenez, who was at Wednesday’s news conference, said having former gang members advocating a safer lifestyle would encourage suspects and repeat offenders who want to change their lives, as he did. Several of the actors from his company will be in the public service ads.

“Hearing from people like themselves, showing them every step of the way out of it, they might listen,” said Jimenez, who spent several stints in jail before 1997.