US Attorney Mac Schneider (Paul Jurgens/KFGO)
FARGO (KFGO) – The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is adding resources to assist Fargo and West Fargo Police and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office target violent crime. US Attorney Mac Schneider says the program, called SAFFER, will add more federal aid in the Fargo area.
“Our office, we seek to be a force multiplier when it comes to helping those who are on the front lines of public safety address violent crime,” Schneider says. “So we tend to do that with targeted federal prosecutions and use of federal resources.”
Schneider says one important aspect of the initiative will be the placement of special high-tech equipment in Fargo to analyze shell casings to compare ballistic evidence from crime scenes and guns that may have been used in crimes in other states.
As part of the program, the ATF will locate other special equipment to Fargo to help identify the small number of people who engage in violent crime.
“The city at large, there’s not a lot of folks that are committing violent crimes out there,” Schneider says. “But this office working together with our local partners we want to build a federal prosecution strategy around those individuals and we’re in a good position to do that.”
Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner says while there is no outward gang activity locally, gangs do exist.
“There are different ways that gangs now through, believe it or not, though social media initiate their activity, initiate their drug trade, human trafficking trades, anything of that nature,” Jahner says. “And so I think we’re always looking for ways through technology and working together to get a handle on those as soon as they start.”
Schneider says the addition of another federal prosecutor will help fight crime throughout the region.
“The department of justice has given us additional resources in the form of another prosecutor to focus in on violent crime in the Fargo area and in eastern North Dakota,” Schneider says. “We have a partnership with main justice (DOJ) in their criminal division. So we’ve gotten a trial attorney there.”
The latest FBI statistics showed that violent crime in Fargo rose by 45% since 2019, but dropped last year.
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