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SALT LAKE CITY — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to be in Salt Lake City on Wednesday to speak on a federal program aimed at reducing violent crime.
Specifically, Sessions will talk about Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide crime reduction effort involving federal and local police agencies that has existed since 2002 but was reignited in the Trump administration.
His speech to Utah law enforcement officers at the state Capitol will focus on the positive impact that the program has had to reduce violent crime in communities across the country, according to the Justice Department.
Sessions comes to Utah facing aggressive criticism from President Donald Trump, who appointed him to the position last year. Trump has accused Sessions of doing poorly in several facets of his job, fueling speculation that he might fire the former Alabama senator.
U.S. Attorney John Huber has emphasized Project Safe Neighborhoods since becoming the top federal law enforcer in Utah three years ago.
Huber said he believes Utah has turned the corner on reducing violent crime since seeing a 14 percent increase in 2015 and a 18 percent increase in 2016. The state saw an 8 percent decrease last year, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.
"If you do the math, we’re still not back to where we were several years ago, but that is a big turn of events," he said last month in a discussion with reporters.
Huber attributed the drop to aggressive law enforcement. Federal prosecutions of gun crimes in Utah increased 84 percent from 2014 to 2017, while criminal cases for drug trafficking were up 64 percent, he said.
Also in 2017, the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted 144 gang cases and is on track for 218 this year, he said.
"With the criminal element, you cannot take your foot off the gas," Huber said.
In April, Huber named Ogden as a Project Safe Neighborhoods target enforcement area, specifically several blocks downtown where violent crime is rampant.
"This was an area identified not by Big Brother feds coming in and saying we're going to help you there, but by local law enforcement," he said.
Huber said the DOJ is devoting $260,000 to the area that a local board decides how best to use. To date, he said, the program has resulted in 25 federal cases involving gun crimes and drug trafficking. Email: romboy@deseretnews.com Twitter: dennisromboy
