This was emailed to me by reader JKB:

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I’ve been taking a look at this Syracuse University Clearinghouse on federal law enforcement data (http://trac.syr.edu/). I got to the clearinghouse via this post at instapundit. The ATF data is interesting. Seems the ATF enforcement is more active in rural areas than in the big cities. I looked up Philadelphia out of curiosity since it doesn’t appear on the list of low activity. I found some interesting details which I lay out below; #1 in referrals but low prosecutions, top reason for non-prosecution: No federal interest.

I hope you find this useful if you weren’t already aware of the clearinghouse. I enjoy both your blogs. Keep up the good work.

BTW, the Tennessee East (Knoxville) ATF district is an active area for ATF referrals (18th out of 90) and has a good prosecution and conviction rate with longer than average sentences.

JKB

From the summary of Regional Patterns in ATF Enforcement:

Big cities have a reputation for having more armed felons than rural areas. And the ATF, moving out of the drug and alcohol enforcement business, is now concentrating its energies on prosecuting previously convicted felons who have been discovered with weapons.

Why then, when considered in terms of the number of referrals in relation to population, are six of the nation’s “big city” districts among the least active? In FY 2002, for example, California South (San Diego), California Central (Los Angeles), Illinois North (Chicago), California North (San Francisco), Massachusetts (Boston), and the District of Columbia all fell in the bottom third of the 90 federal judicial districts in the United States in terms of this particular measure.

link

As for Philadelphia:

Seems Philadelphia was #1 for referrals for prosecutions (2004) (latest data available free online)

link

But is #2 is declinations of prosecution (2004) or 89th out of 90 in referrals actually prosecuted

District	City	#Prosecuted	# Declined	Percent	Rank
US		10,238	6,798	39.9
Mass	Boston	95	555	85.4	1
Penn, E.	Philadelphia	238	1,340	84.9	2
R.I.	Providence	35	152	81.3	3
Nevada	Las Vegas	158	358	69.4	4

link

Interestingly, in the Pennsylvania East (Philadelphia) district, the top reason for declining to prosecute for 2003 (81.5%) and 2004 (86.4%) is “Minimal federal interest or no deterrent value”. (Note-There is a separate categories for prosecuted by other authorities, insufficient evidence, etc.)

link

The US Attorney for Eastern PA lists Safe Neighborhoods on top of his initiatives

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a firearms initiative that aggressively targets violent and dangerous firearms offenders in the local court systems (Philadelphia County and the surrounding suburban counties) for prosecution in the federal system. By prosecuting these cases in the federal system, the local and federal authorities hope to take advantage of a more certain and severe sentencing scheme, the pre-trial detention of federal defendants pending trial, and the swifter disposition of these cases in federal court

link

However, he seems to not find a federal interest to prosecute 85% of the cases the ATF referred for prosecution with 86.4% being declined due to lack of federal interest or no deterrent value. I wonder if the US Attorney had prosecuted Sergeant Liczbinski’s killers for the multitude of gun charges they had prior that fateful day if there would have been a deterrent value?
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Interesting. A few notes:

So, what about enforcing the laws on the books. Why not try that first instead of clamoring with calls to do more, harder! Even though we’re not doing much with what we have, apparently.

As far as not prosecuting in the big cities, I wonder if that’s because ATF figure big cities with big PDs ought to do that on their own. It is, after all, not entirely uncommon for local PDs in small towns to generally look the other way when it comes to federal gun laws. If you don’t believe me, visit south Texas one day.

Here in Knoxville, our police are involved in Project Safe Neighborhoods. The signs are literally everywhere. I guess the prosecution rates relate to participation in that program.

I also found this bit interesting:

Are there not a fair number of armed felons in these six cities? Is it possible that these particular police departments are so proficient in the gun control business that ATF managers decided to deploy their troops in other parts of the country? Perhaps.

But the ten districts that come out on top in the listing of per capita ATF referrals raise other kinds of questions. This curious list includes Tennessee West (Memphis), Nevada (Las Vegas), Kentucky East (Lexington), Rhode Island (Providence), Louisiana Middle (Baton Rouge), Missouri West (Kansas City), Utah (Salt Lake City), Delaware (Wilmington), Oklahoma North (Tulsa) and North Dakota (Fargo).

So, no sign they’re out in South Texas either. Of course, that explains why drugs come in and guns go out.

More info here.

Interesting stuff, nonetheless.

Update: Ouch:

So if the feds aren’t using the laws to go after actual violent criminals, but are using the law to go after people like Wayne Fincher, David Olafson, and various other folks who are no threat to polite society, what use are they really in terms of public safety? What is the “federal interest” in sending hobbyists to federal prison, but not violent felons?

More ATF stuff here.

Posted in ATF on June 18th, 2008 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |