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Richmond Police Dept.
200 W. Grace St.
Richmond, Va 23220
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Testimony before U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Youth Violence
March 22, 1999
Colonel Jerry A. Oliver
Chief of Police
(Introduction - Colonel Jerry A. Oliver, accompanied by Sergeant Michael J. Shamus and Officer John P. Hannah, both uniformed members of the Richmond Police Department involved in a number of Project Exile cases)
Conceived from a partnership developed in 1996, Project Exile
is the brainchild of the Richmond Police Department and the United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. It is the product of a desire to
explore innovative, alternative strategies to address the difficult urban
problem of guns, drugs, and violent crime.
When I arrived in May of 1995 to become police chief, Richmond
was reeling from intolerable levels of violent crime the previous year (1994).
During that year, a record 160 persons were murdered and a total of 3,594
violent crimes were reported. This in a city of just over 200,000 people. Like
so many other cities and metropolitan areas in our country, much of Richmond's
crime problem stemmed from the trafficking of illegal substances, particularly
crack cocaine, and the violent competitive behavior associated with this
commerce. Guns and drugs went hand in hand in many of our neighborhoods and on
our street corners. Richmond was widely known as an area with a very high "carry
rate" for guns, a problem that was recognized by the U. S. Attorney.
In 1996, Helen F. Fahey, United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia, joined me in developing this new approach we now know as
Project Exile. Through the tireless efforts and total commitment of James
B.Comey, Deputy Assistant United States Attorney for the Richmond area, and
David Schiller, Assistant United States Attorney and chief federal prosecutor
for Project Exile, we crafted a program to aggressively target, and prosecute,
those criminals who use firearms to threaten our neighborhoods and diminish the
excellent quality of life in Richmond.
From the project's inception, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (BATF) was brought on board, as the sponsoring federal agency, to
become the third member of this new team. Agents from the local office are
assigned, as part of the Project Exile Task Force, to aid our officers in their
investigations and to "adopt" cases that meet certain criteria for prosecution
within the federal courts system under 18 United States Code 922 and 924. Such
criteria include gun possession while possessing drugs; gun possession by a
convicted felon; gun possession if a person is a fugitive from another state;
gun possession if under a felony indictment; gun possession if a person is the
subject of a restraining order; gun possession by a drug user; gun possession if
a person has been involved in prior domestic violence; or gun possession if the
gun is known (by the possessor) to be stolen.
A "typical" Project Exile case would involve an officer, who
might be assigned to a precinct beat car or to any other uniformed or plain
clothes unit of our agency, encountering or arresting an individual who has
used, or is in possession of, a firearm. If, during the course of the
investigation of that incident, it is learned that the person meets any of the
previously listed criteria, the case is referred to the Project Exile Task Force
for review and possible adoption. State charges may or may not be placed against
the person at that time, depending upon the circumstances of the encounter.
This new prosecutorial strategy offers three advantages over
existing state statutes:
1) stiffer sentencing guidelines for those using
firearms in the commission of drug offenses or crimes of violence,
2) a "no
bail" provision prior to an offender's first court appearance, and
3) the
likelihood of serving a number of years in a prison far from home and
associates.
Other agencies soon joined our efforts. The Honorable Mark L.
Earley, Attorney General for The Commonwealth of Virginia, assigned members of
his staff to provide assistance. Our local Commonwealth's Attorney, David Hicks,
has assigned a full time prosecutor. Other law enforcement agencies, such as the
Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, quickly offered
support. The Project Exile Task Force is now staffed by federal, state, and
local law enforcement officers, along with federal and state prosecutors. The
Richmond Police Department has assigned three officers to help facilitate the
prosecution of these cases and has a staff member dedicated to the tracking and
researching of all firearms seized by the Richmond Police Department. These
efforts are also supported by the BATF National Tracing Center.
By early 1997, successes were realized. In a period of 4 months
(February - May), 92 persons were indicted for firearms related crimes. Over
half of these were held without bond for trial, and 55 persons had been
convicted and sentenced to terms in federal facilities. Project Exile
strategies, in conjunction with our Department's Residential Intensive Patrol
(RIP) initiatives such as "Street Heat" and similar enforcement efforts, soon
produced results. Aggressive prosecution by our Commonwealth's Attorney brought
an end to the violence by neighborhood-based drug groups known as the "Poison
Clan" and the "Dogg Pound". Richmond's City Manager, along with City Council and
its Public Safety Committee, were instrumental in helping to devise, and
support, not only policing strategies, but a number of initiatives across the
spectrum of City government services.
Word began to spread quickly, and not just "on the street".
With the leadership of Dave Schiller, Assistant U. S. Attorney, and Stan Joynes,
a prominent attorney, we launched an ambitious campaign to market our new
efforts, and educate the law-abiding public and criminal element, through the
support of corporate and private sector partners such as:
Greater Richmond Retail Merchants' Association,
The Martin
Agency,
Chamber of Commerce - Greater Richmond,
Greater Richmond
Partnership,
The law firm of LeClair Ryan,
National Rifle Association,
and
many other businesses and individuals.
We have purchased advertising time and space. We run public
service announcements on radio and television. We advertise in the print media.
One bus, owned by the Greater Richmond Transit Company, is painted black with
the message, "An illegal gun gets you 5 years in Federal Prison" in large white
letters, accompanied by the telephone number of our 24-hour hotline. The transit
company rotates that bus among all City routes in order to expose all of
Richmond's communities to the message that firearm violence in Richmond will not
be tolerated. Fifteen billboards, carrying the same message and number, can be
found around the metropolitan area warning those criminal minds of the
consequences of using a gun in the furtherance of their violent acts. We have
also distributed thousands of business cards with the same message and color
scheme.
Has it worked? As previously mentioned, there were 160 murders
and 3,594 violent crimes committed in Richmond in 1994. That murder figure gave
Richmond one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the United States. The
numbers in each of these categories have decreased, down to 94 murders (-41%)
and 2,804 violent crimes (-22%) in 1998. The first Project Exile indictment was
prosecuted in early 1997. Through March of 1999, in just two years, there have
been 438 people indicted under Project Exile guidelines. 74% of these were
detained without bond. To date there have been 228 defendants sentenced , with
the average offender being "exiled" to 53.8 months (4 ½ years). Perhaps of even
more critical importance is the fact that these indictments also resulted in the
removal of 512 guns from the streets of Richmond and out of the hands of street
thugs. Our officers have observed, supported by citizen accounts, that fewer
drug dealers and users are being found carrying firearms. Thus, we are realizing
a reduction in the previously high "carry rate" mentioned earlier. Consequently,
gun violence has been reduced.
Our efforts through Project Exile have garnered regional and
national recognition. Other law enforcement agencies in Virginia now pursue
similar avenues of prosecution. Cities such as Rochester, NY; Birmingham, AL;
Camden, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Oakland, CA; and Baton Rouge, LA are implementing
similar programs in their communities modeled after that in Richmond.
We, in the Richmond Police Department, view Project Exile as
one of our greatest success stories of the past few years. It has truly been a
highlight among partnerships that the Richmond Police Department has forged with
other agencies and members of the community.
Project Exile has provided an avenue of prosecution for
firearms related crimes not previously available under our state system.
However, the Virginia General Assembly, in the recently adjourned 1999 session,
passed legislation being referred to as "Virginia Exile". These new laws closely
mirror the sanctions and procedures found in 18 USC 922 and 924, and will
provide other Virginia localities with similarly aggressive policing tools to
combat gun violence in their communities. Our state legislators had only to
examine the success of Project Exile in their capital city to anticipate the
positive effect this new legislation would have throughout The Commonwealth. We
anticipate working closely with our state and local prosecutors in pursuing
aggressive prosecution in state courts, while building on our successful
partnership with the United States Attorney and other members of the Project
Exile team.
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