U.S. attorney’s office to add new lawyer

The U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock will receive a new federal prosecutor under a federal initiative aimed at reducing violent crime, authorities announced this week.

Forty new federal prosecutors will be added to 27 districts across the country under the Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in October he would reinvigorate.

The federal program, introduced in 2001, “strives to identify the most violent locations in the district and the individuals who drive the gun and gang violence in our cities,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Cody Hiland, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, praised the decision to add a position to the office and said Sessions has made curbing violent crime a focus during his time in office.

“Violent crime, especially gun crimes, continues to be a plague on our communities,” Hiland said in a news release sent Thursday. The office hasn’t yet hired an attorney for the new position.

The news release said Hiland in the coming weeks will be announcing initiatives and programs aimed at addressing violent crime in the district, particularly in Little Rock. The district encompasses 41 counties, including Pulaski County.

Little Rock saw an upswing of violent crime in 2017. The city had 55 killings in 2017 — the highest yearly total in a decade and the third-highest since 1993, when the city had a record 76 homicides.

In July, Little Rock attracted national attention after a shooting injured 25 people in a downtown nightclub. Three additional people were injured as they fled that shooting. The shooting, which authorities said was gang-related, sparked creation of an FBIled task force to focus on gangs and violent crime in Little Rock.

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner credited the task force Wednesday with the arrests of several key individuals, and said support from state and federal partners helped police get a better handle on last summer’s crime in the city.

Buckner didn’t elaborate on any of the task force’s arrests.

“There’s still a number of ongoing investigations that we have that we hope to be able to bring to a closure sometime here in the early spring,” Buckner said. He said authorities expect some “significant indictments” as a result of the task force and the continued efforts with federal partners.

The investigation into the nightclub shooting is still open, but Buckner said officials are pleased with the progress and the arrests made.

Adding a position to the U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock is rare and underscores violent crime problems within the district and in Little Rock, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens. The position will be the 23rd criminal attorney in the office, he said.

Givens said the position must be advertised for a certain period of time.

Little Rock, along with West Memphis, also remain part of the Public Safety Partnership, a federal program supporting local law enforcement officials and prosecutors in investigating, prosecuting and deterring violent crime.

According to the Department of Justice, the Public Safety Partnership “builds on lessons” learned from the Violence Reduction Network, in which both cities also participated.