c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more. including buckeye broadband. >> ♪ buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. today former olympic champion swimmer's michael phelps and allison schmidt testify on anti-doping efforts ahead of the summer paris olympics. watch this subcommittee hearing live starting at 7:00 eastern on c-span2. or online at c-span.org.

up next, attorney general merrick garland on efforts to commit violent crime. the chiefs of police executive form on crime guns hosted by the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms and explosives in washington, d.c. >> please be seated. all right. good morning, everybody. one more time. good please inbe seated. all right, good morning everybody, one more time. good morning everybody! all right. welcome back to atf for day two

of our third annual chiefs and police executive forum on crime guns. i hope you all enjoyed yesterday, the first day i know i learned a lot from you. and as i said, yesterday we have chiefs hear from oliver, vermont, to vegas, florida to fargo and all over the country. yesterday was a jampacked agenda. covering one of atf's greatest assets, crime gun intelligence or cgi which means nothing more than we all know and discussed yesterday, squeezing every last bit of evidence out of a crime gun and then making that data into actionable leads. leads that are shared with you and the people you lead to clear homicide cases, leads that show how killers get their firearms illegally. leads the bring justice to survivors and victims. i love this summit.

and i was mentioning to our special keynote speaker who really is a unique event, it really is a lot of people but it's not a massive conference. it is a meeting that is of the size that has the right people in the room, you, or leading the fight against violent crime and one where atf and you can have an actual dialogue and talk about the things on our minds. and yesterday, of course, really drove the point home. we shared, from the atf side, some of the key advances we are making using each race, are pillars of crime intelligence to identify and catch these trigger pullers. the people driving the gun violence in your communities. we discussed the results of the latest firearms trafficking assessment, talking about the data that shows some of the recent trends. for instance, the growth in illegal dealing of firearms without a license which is now the leading method of trafficking cases that fuels

firearms on the black market. we also shared with you from the atf side, the launch of our new firearms trafficking center as well is our crime gun center of excellence in wichita, kansas and how exciting it is that the work we are doing to expand our support for partners, for you. and, we heard from you. we heard from you about the issues we are facing, just a few about the dangerous proliferation that you are seeing of machine can conversion devices that are posing extreme risks. amenities and your officers. and personally, i really liked being here and hearing you talk with each other about the efforts and strategies you are going through to try to promote secure storage because of the rising threat of firearm theft from cars and other places in your communities.

and, we also heard, and i think we will take this back with us, a desire to talk about the nuts and bolts of crime gun intelligence centers springing up all over the country. and questions you had about whether we can talk about what a chief needs to do with the nuts and bolts in terms of working with the atf to set up. so in all, it was incredibly productive on the first day and atf is very proud to play host to the important discussion. one of the topics we did spend some time yesterday talking about was the developments that have been made in one of the newest pillars of crime gun intelligence, ballistic based dna. our lab in maryland has led the way. developing this investigative technique. as a result we have seen the hit rate for dna and shooting cases skyrocket. and has provided key leads in hundreds of murders and mass shootings. and these are important cases, as we heard yesterday from the deputy attorney general this tool played a key role in catching the suspect alleged to

have murdered a chicago police officer just last month. there was good news. on the other side, of course, we touched on the disturbing and upsetting topic in all of our minds, the increased danger the both atf and federal agents and your officers face every day as a go to work. and these days, as we know, there are too many dark days for the men and women who carry a badge and risk so much to protect others. our keynote speaker, understands this reality. he is unwavering in his lifelong support for the brave officers and agents on the good days and also on the tough days. recently i went to a funeral in charlotte to honor a member four heroes were gunned down during a search warrant. unsurprisingly attorney general merrick garland was there. he always shows a. he was there to help the community in its time of pain. but more than that, to spend personal time away from cameras with a family in pain.

and with an agency going through a crisis. that is who this attorney general is to this poor. is support for all of us in the courageous people who work with you and me, not just words, deeply felt and backed by action. we are very lucky to have the tremendous leadership in the department of justice of attorney general garland. he is a fierce advocate for justice with the capital j. but also for justice with a small g that applies to everybody. and the things we need to do to achieve it. sacrifices made by all of you, by law enforcement, to get justice for the victims of crime. i am deeply honored to have him here this morning. and proud to introduce our keynote speaker, please join me in welcoming the 86 attorney

general of the united states of america, the honorable merrick garland. >> [ applause ] but also for justice with a small j >> you have to sit down. >> [ laughter ] >> i think steve is taller than me. good morning. thank you, steve. grateful for your leadership and for the dedication of extraordinary professionals of the atf. i am also grateful to all of the police chiefs who joined us at atf headquarters this week as i have said before and i will say again, the justice department could not do its work without you and the officers you lead.

when i became attorney general, i knew the grappling with the violent crime the had surged during the pandemic would be one of the most urgent challenges the justice department would face. i knew well the scourge of violent crime. i was a drugs and guns lines prosecutor during the crack wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s and then i was a supervisor of prosecutors and agents in the criminal division at the justice department. i knew that among the most powerful tools the department has to confront violent crime would be our partnerships. our partnerships among federal law enforcement agencies assisting in the fight against violent crime. our partnerships with the state and local law enforcement agencies the protect their local communities every day. and our partnerships with the communities that we all serve. so, we have spent the last three years pouring every available resource into strengthening those partnerships.

we have expanded access to the range of advanced technological tools here at atf, including ballistics analysis, firearms tracing, and crime gun intelligence centers, as steve just recounted. we have worked in joint task forces with our state and local law enforcement partners to zero in on the individuals and gangs that have repeatedly committed violent offenses. and we have put our grantmaking powers into work as well. this has included investing in essential programs through our cops office, office of justice programs, to allow police departments to hire more officers. it includes investing in community policing efforts. to build public trust. and includes investing in evidence-based community violence intervention initiatives aimed at preventing violence at the community level.

as we have worked to reduce violent crime, the department has found committed partners on the state and local level at every turn. our shared commitment to deepening our partnerships into the public we serve has already begun to show results. fbi data shows a decrease in violent crime in communities across the country in 2023 compared to the previous year, including an over 13% reduction in homicides. that is the steepest decline, yearly decline in homicides in over 50 years. and last year's trend appears to be continuing into this year. based on data from police departments in 90 cities across the country, we saw an 18% year- over-year decline in murders in the first quarter of 2024.

that program, that progress is reflected in some of the communities represented here today. in atlanta, there was a 21% drop in homicides in 2023. in san antonio, there was a nearly 29% drop in homicides and a 10% decrease in overall violent crime. and in philadelphia, there was a 20% decline in homicides. this progress is thanks first and foremost to the brave men and women in your departments who put their lives on the line to protect their communities every day. we know that there are families that did not lose a loved one because of the brave efforts of your officers. we also know that our work is far from over. there is no acceptable level of violent crime.

violent crime not only threatens people safety, it threatens their ability to go about their daily lives. and needless to say, in this room, violent crime endangers the law enforcement officers who risk their lives every single day to protect their communities. it has been a particularly tough year for law enforcement. according to the fbi, 2023 marked a 10 year high for the number of officers assaulted or injured by firearms. 60 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. i know that none of us will give up until that number is zero. just upstairs in this building we recently rededicated a memorial to those who have lost their lives to the tragic epidemic of gun violence.

of the 118 people honored in the memorial today, 39 our heroic law enforcement officers who were killed by gun violence in the line of duty. they include a loving husband and father who served for over two decades as a police officer. and whose heroism, even after he was shot, saved the lives of countless more officers. they include a wife and mother who was a trail blazer in her police department and who died in the line of duty will protecting others. they include two fbi agents who put their lives on the line to combat insidious crimes against vulnerable children. and made the ultimate sacrifice. the justice department is committed to honoring the

memories of the fallen and their families through our continuing work to help keep our communities and the officers who protect them safe. that is why we are continuing our efforts to fight gun violence on every front. from cracking down on criminal gun trafficking pipelines, to updating regulations, to deepening our partnerships with state and local law enforcement. in cleveland, for example, a three month crime reduction initiative brought together atf, the cleveland division of police, and almost a dozen other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. that operation resulted in charges against 59 individuals in connection with drug and firearms offenses. thanks to etfs system we know that a significant number of the guns seized during that investigation were connected to violent criminal activity.

we have also surged resources to other cities that experienced a record rise in violent crime. in houston, memphis, st. louis, jackson and hartford, we launched a violent crime initiative the brought prosecutors from the justice department criminal division in washington to work closely with prosecutors already on the ground to target those responsible for the greatest violence. as a deputy attorney general discussed yesterday, we are also using crime gun centers to trace crime guns, link ballistic evidence to connect shootings and i do -- identify purchasers who arm violent criminals. these centers use cutting-edge technologies including etfs e trace systems to rapidly develop and pursue investigative leads in order to find those who are responsible for violent crime. i know that our bureau of

justice assistance is going to be speaking with you later today about grants that can be used to build new ones or expand existing ones. i encourage you to look into whether these grants can be used in your own work. we are also using the tools created by the bipartisan safer communities act. it expanded our authority to prosecute firearms traffickers as well as purchasers who buy guns for those barred by law from possessing them. i am pleased to announce we have now charged a substantial number of defendants under that authority. at the same time, bisca expanded background checks, have already kept more than 700 firearms out of the hands of young people who are legally prohibited from obtaining them.

the act also gave us new tools to combat the flood of illegal guns in our communities. a recent atf report found legal gun -- illegal gun trafficking has been increasingly driven by firearms dealers who sell guns without a license and did not conduct background checks on their sales. those black-market guns are often found at crime scenes. that is why, pursuant to bisca, the justice department has published a new rule to update the definition of being "engaged in the business of dealing firearms. under this regulation, it does not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or any brick and mortar store. if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed and you must conduct background checks. this regulation is had historic step in the justice department fight against violence. it will make law enforcement

officers safer. it will make communities safer. it will save lives. right now we are seeing the clear impact that our partnerships, technological advances, and regulatory tools can have on gun violence. as we recognize the progress we have made, i want to underlined two points. first, our work is far from over. progress is only progress. our work is not done until all americans feel safe in their communities. second, none of this progress would have been possible without the enormous sacrifices made by your state and local law enforcement officers. to the leaders from across the country who are joining us today, thank you. please extend my deepest gratitude to the officers and

troopers who serve your communities. we ask so much of you. never hesitate to ask us what you need from us. thank you for being here today. >> [ applause ] >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. provided by these television companies and more. including cox. >> when connection is needed most, cox is there to help bringing affordable internet to families in need. new tech to boys and girls clubs and support to veterans. whenever and wherever it matters most. we will be there. cox, support c-span as a public

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