I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4231 

To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 

to reduce the rate of occurrence of homicides and violent crimes in 

violent and drug crime zones. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 8, 2009 

Mr. CAO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement 

Act of 1994 to reduce the rate of occurrence of homicides 

and violent crimes in violent and drug crime zones. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Cities Act of 

5 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CREATION OF AND ASSISTANCE FOR VIOLENT AND 

2 DRUG CRIME ZONES. 

3 Title XXI of the Violent Crime Control and Law En4 forcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14061 et seq.) is 

5 amended by adding at the end the following new subtitle: 

6 ‘‘Subtitle E—Coordination With 

7 Federal Agencies to Curb Vio8 lent Crime 

9 ‘‘SEC. 21501. CREATION OF AND ASSISTANCE FOR VIOLENT 

10 AND DRUG CRIME ZONES. 

11 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section the following 

12 definitions shall apply: 

13 ‘‘(1) GOVERNOR.—The term ‘Governor’ means 

14 a Governor or other chief executive officer of a State 

15 or the Mayor of the District of Columbia. 

16 ‘‘(2) VIOLENT AND DRUG CRIME ZONE.—The 

17 term ‘Violent and Drug Crime Zone’ means a metro18 politan area within a State or multiple States that 

19 is designated as having rates of homicides, violent 

20 felonies, sex offenses, drug and gang-related crimes 

21 that are high in proportion to the national average 

22 rates of such crimes, as determined by the most re23 cent available data of the Federal Bureau of Inves24 tigation and the National Incident Based Reporting 

25 System maintained by the uniform crime reporting 

26 program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For 


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1 purposes of the previous sentence, rates of a crime 

2 for an area shall be treated as high in proportion to 

3 the national average rates of such crime if such 

4 rates for the area are greater than 5 times the na5 tional average rates. 

6 ‘‘(3) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means a State 

7 of the United States, the District of Columbia, and 

8 any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 

9 United States. 

10 ‘‘(b) VIOLENT AND DRUG CRIME ZONES.— 

11 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATION.—The Attorney General, 

12 after consultation with the Governor of each appro13 priate State and with relevant Federal agencies, may 

14 designate as a Violent and Drug Crime Zone, any 

15 specified area that is located within 1 or more 

16 States, based on the criteria for designation under 

17 paragraph (4). 

18 ‘‘(2) ASSISTANCE AND COORDINATION.—In 

19 order to provide Federal assistance to Violent and 

20 Drug Crime Zones, the Attorney General shall, upon 

21 consultation with appropriate State and relevant 

22 local and Federal law enforcement agencies— 

23 ‘‘(A) establish a drug and violent crime 

24 intervention team in each Violent and Drug 

25 Crime Zone, which will consist of local, State, 


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1 and relevant Federal law enforcement authori2 ties, for the coordinated investigation, appre3 hension, and prosecution of criminal activity in 

4 such zone; 

5 ‘‘(B) ensure the establishment of a Safe 

6 Cities Task Force described in subsection (c) 

7 for each Violent and Drug Crime Zone; 

8 ‘‘(C) coordinate with appropriate Federal 

9 agencies the temporary reassignment of per10 sonnel to the intervention team established 

11 under subparagraph (A); 

12 ‘‘(D) provide funding or create funding 

13 partnership opportunities with one or more 

14 States for the operation of such intervention 

15 teams; and 

16 ‘‘(E) require reporting from such interven17 tion teams to share intelligence and best prac18 tices. 

19 ‘‘(3) COMPOSITION OF DRUG AND VIOLENT

20 CRIME INTERVENTION TEAMS.—Each drug and vio21 lent crime intervention team established pursuant to 

22 paragraph (2)(A) shall consist of agents and offi23 cers, where feasible, from— 

24 ‘‘(A) the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 


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1 ‘‘(B) the Drug Enforcement Administra2 tion; 

3 ‘‘(C) the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire4 arms, and Explosives; and 

5 ‘‘(D) other relevant Federal agencies, as 

6 determined by the Attorney General in con7 sultation with local law enforcement agencies in 

8 the relevant area designated under paragraph 

9 (1). 

10 ‘‘(4) CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION.—In consid11 ering an area for designation as a Drug and Violent 

12 Crime Zone under this section, the Attorney General 

13 shall consider— 

14 ‘‘(A) the current levels of homicides, vio15 lent crimes, sex crimes, and drug-related and 

16 gang-related crimes in the zone; 

17 ‘‘(B) the extent to which State and local 

18 law enforcement agencies have committed and 

19 need additional resources to respond to the 

20 crimes described in subparagraph (A); 

21 ‘‘(C) the extent to which a significant in22 crease in the allocation of Federal resources 

23 would enhance local response to the crimes de24 scribed in subparagraph (A); and 


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1 ‘‘(D) any other criteria deemed appropriate 

2 by the Attorney General. 

3 ‘‘(5) TRAINING AND TRANSFER OF BEST PRAC4 TICES.—Federal agency personnel who participate in 

5 a drug and violent crime intervention team under 

6 this subsection shall, as a condition of such partici7 pation, develop and submit to the Attorney General 

8 best practice reports. The Attorney General shall 

9 provide for such best practice reports, as well as 

10 other intelligence and knowledge-transfer opportuni11 ties, to be shared with State and local law enforce12 ment agencies to enable such agencies to replicate 

13 the best practices of the intervention teams. 

14 ‘‘(c) SAFE CITIES TASK FORCES.— 

15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There shall be established, 

16 for each Violent and Drug Crimes Zone, a Safe Cit17 ies Task Force. 

18 ‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—Each Safe Cities Task 

19 Force, with respect to a Violent and Drug Crimes 

20 Zone, shall consist of not more than 8 members, in21 cluding the Mayor involved, Chief of Police or equiv22 alent, Governor of the applicable State, the city at23 torney (or equivalent) involved, and representatives 

24 from Federal law enforcement agencies as deter25 mined appropriate by the Attorney General. 


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1 ‘‘(3) DUTIES.—The duties of each Safe Cities 

2 Task Force shall include the following: 

3 ‘‘(A) Oversight of funding expenditures re4 lated to the creation and work of the drug and 

5 violent crime intervention team for the zone in6 volved. 

7 ‘‘(B) Assistance with coordination of such 

8 intervention team. 

9 ‘‘(C) Outreach to affected communities 

10 within the zone served by such intervention 

11 team, as needed. 

12 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

13 are authorized to be appropriated from the Violent Crime 

14 Reduction Trust Fund such sums as may be necessary to 

15 carry out this section.’’. 

16 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR COM17 MUNITY-BASED JUSTICE GRANTS FOR PROS18 ECUTORS. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 31707 of the Violent 

20 Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 

21 U.S.C. 13867) is amended to read as follows: 

22 ‘‘SEC. 31707. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

23 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

24 this subtitle $15,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 

25 through 2013 .’’. 


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1 (b) INCREASE IN PROSECUTORS FOR INTERVENTION

2 TEAM EFFORTS.—Section 31702 of the Violent Crime 

3 Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 

4 14211) is amended— 

5 (1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 

6 end; 

7 (2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period at 

8 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

9 (3) adding at the end the following new para10 graph: 

11 ‘‘(6) to fund programs that would increase the 

12 number of prosecutors available to work with efforts 

13 of drug and violent crime intervention teams under 

14 section 21501, as determined necessary by the At15 torney General in consultation with appropriate Fed16 eral agencies and local law enforcement.’’. 

17 SEC. 4. GRANTS TO STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT 

18 TO ESTABLISH STATE-WIDE CRIME PREVEN19 TION DATABASES. 

20 Subtitle I of title XXXII of the Violent Crime Control 

21 and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is amended by adding 

22 at the end the following new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 320936. GRANTS TO STATE AND LOCAL LAW EN2 FORCEMENT TO ESTABLISH STATE-WIDE 

3 CRIME PREVENTION DATABASES. 

4 ‘‘(a) AUTHORITY TO MAKE GRANTS.—The Office of 

5 Justice Programs of the Department of Justice shall 

6 award grants, in accordance with such regulations as the 

7 Attorney General may prescribe, to State and local pro8 grams designed to establish and maintain a State-wide 

9 database to track criminals, arrests, prosecutions, and 

10 convictions. 

11 ‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

12 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 

13 necessary to carry out this section.’’. 

Æ 


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