Cactus Village Community

New Avenue to Fight Violent Crimes ...by Councilman Dave Seibert

Jul 09, 2003

In May of 2000, the Assistant City Manager, Police Chief and I made a presentation to the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. recommending that a federal weapons enforcement program was needed to effectively address the increasing volume of violent crime in the City of Phoenix. The proposed program was tailored to the City of Phoenix after a similar program in Richmond Virginia, known as Project Exile. Our program was called Phoenix Exile and it was set up to work similar to the federal tax charges that brought down Al Capone in the 1930s.

Phoenix Exile required the cooperative effort of the Phoenix Police Department, A.T.F, U.S. Attorney?’s office and the Maricopa County Attorney?’s office. At the time of our request, the federal government had no money to help us, so we asked for the prosecution power at the local level. Under U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Department of Justice started the program ?“Operation Safe Neighborhoods?”, which is very similar to our Phoenix Exile program. Today we have two city prosecutors who are also certified to prosecute firearm violations at the federal level. . .☺