WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) the co-Chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, questioned U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch about how to strengthen the Violence Reduction Network in Wilmington and across the country. He also asked about federal support for the Victims of Child Abuse program and Bulletproof Partnership program, as well as efforts to strengthen voting rights.
In 2014, Senator Coons pushed the DOJ to select Wilmington as a designated city in the new Violence Reduction Network, a federal network designed to bring all of the expertise and experience of the federal government to help cities make their streets safer, and for New Castle County to be named a high-intensity drug trafficking area so it can access federal resources.
Read a transcript of the conversation between U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Senator Coons below:
Senator Coons: Let me start by thanking you, Madam Attorney General, and all the men and women of the federal law enforcement for what you do to tackle very difficult issues facing our country from drug addiction and counter terrorism to healing the relationships between law enforcement and the community that they serve, and let me start with a couple of critical issues that relate to support for state and local law enforcement.
As you know, gun violence has been a significant problem for my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and the department's Violence Reduction Network has had a tremendous positive impact so far. The program is now in its second round of city partnerships, and I'm hopeful that the department intends to both continue to support it and extend it and that there is some likelihood that the annual conference will be held in Wilmington. I'd be interested in hearing what sort of improvements you see being implemented in the Violence Reduction Network this year, and how you see the program's future.
AG Loretta Lynch: Thank you, Senator, for that, and I thank you, and on behalf of the men and women of the Department of Justice, all the law enforcement agencies as well as the staff who work to support them and the lawyers who implement their cases, I think you for your comments about their service. And I greatly appreciate your recognition of them. I'm proud to represent them every day.
The Violence Reduction Network is an important tool, and we have found it to be one of the ways in which we have been able to bring focused law enforcement resources really at a very cost effective way to jurisdictions that have been struggling with historically high crime rates. And Wilmington, Delaware has been one of our success stories. We have asked for more money in the budget for it, for FY2017, and five million dollars is not a lot compared to other things that we ask for, but certainly the benefits will be great. We currently already have at least 10 or 12 cities, and we are planning on bringing five more cities on board. As you know, from your experience, to be a VRN city requires a certain level of crime that we don't want every city to aspire to. But the lessons from the VRN, we feel, could be very useful to other jurisdictions. So one of the things that we are going to be doing this summer, in the summer of 2016, is to convene some about 20 non VRN cities, those that are not in the network but have similar issues, to a conference with OJP to share the ideas and best practices that we have been able to glean from working with cities like Wilmington, Little Rock, Flint, and the others in the VRN. So not only do we find it to be a program that we hope has been helpful at the local level, we feel that as with so many efforts that are frankly anchored by our state and local partners, it will be a program that will provide leadership and guidance for other jurisdictions that are struggling with the same issues.
Sen. Coons: Thank you Madam Attorney General, and I intend to continue to support the VRN in the appropriations process as well. Let me turn briefly to two other programs that I think have shown some real positive impact for Delaware, and I think can and should be more fully supported federally. One is the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Delaware participated in it early; our General Assembly made a number of changes to our criminal justice system and have seen some real positive impacts as a result. I'd be interested in hearing how you see the future of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. And I'll also mention the Victims of Child Abuse Act, something Senator Sessions and I worked to get reauthorized -- I was somewhat disappointed the President's budget request was half of what we had hoped for, and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Act which provides appropriate bulletproof vests for local law enforcement around the country. I think all three of these are programs that provide real, meaningful assistance to local law enforcement and that help strengthen the criminal justice reform movement in the case of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Could you just briefly comment on how these programs fit into your overall objective to improve law enforcement in the country?
AG Loretta Lynch: Well thank you Senator for the chance to talk about them. And I thank you for raising these three programs together, because what they really highlight is that criminal justice reform will of course have an anchor that comes from this Committee and this body in the form of statutory changes, but it really also is going to be managed by how we interact and support our state and local partners. For example, the Bulletproof Vest Initiative. As we support officer safety, officer health and those important issues. And also as we test how we deal with the victims of child abuse. The Justice Reinvestment Act is something that is also extremely important to us because those funds are used to support changes both in local laws but also in the probation system, we have states that have been able to literally close prisons, that have seen significant drops in crime. So criminal justice reform for us is really a long-range view of the entire system. And these programs in particular focus on three specific elements of it, but they show how everything comes together, as it were. In a way to sort of support a holistic review of the criminal justice system. And that by supporting victims, by supporting local jurisdictions and their efforts, and by supporting local law enforcement, we will all have safer communities.
Sen. Coons: we have a lot of work to do together in improving public safety and in healing some of the rift between communities and law enforcement. I'm grateful for your leadership in that. Let me ask a last question, if I might. In the Shelby County decision, the Supreme Court significantly weakened, some would even say gutted, but I'll say significantly weakened at least the Voting Rights Act. And on a bipartisan basis, 42 of us are trying to advance the Voting Rights Advancement Act. Senator Murkowski is a cosponsor as well as Senator Leahy and a number of others of us. What difference do you think having this committee take up the Voting Rights Advancement Act might make in terms of voting rights enforcement?
AG Loretta Lynch: Thank you Senator for your question, and thank you for your leadership in this area. And I thank this committee as it takes up this important matter. Also, certainly consideration of this act and the department has been working with the group on this and is happy to continue, we think would restore, help restore an important part of the Department's arsenal in protecting the voting rights of all Americans. It's vital to us that we look at this from a way in which we protect everyone's rights to vote -- the citizen on the street, our service members, our elderly, people who have trouble getting to the polls -- all of those individuals are of concern to us. Certainly we thank you for your efforts in looking for a way to provide legislative support to those efforts and look forward to working with you and this committee as it considers this matter.
Sen. Coons: The right to vote has been described as the most foundational right in a democracy, a nearly sacred right. I hope that we can find a way to make progress on ensuring that all Americans have access to the ballot and the right to vote. Thank you for your service and your leadership as Attorney General.