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FORT WORTH -- When Priscilla Cruz was 10, stray bullets fired during a drive-by shooting severed the telephone wires in her family^s north side home. Yesterday, the 17-year-old junior at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School said she hopes that a new citywide initiative, designed to curb gun-related crime, will help make her neighborhood safer and quieter. "Hearing the sound of gunshots used to be a common occurrence in my neighborhood," Cruz said. "It^s better now, but it will be great to never hear that sound ever again." Cruz joined elected officials, business leaders and law enforcement representatives in Sundance Square yesterday for the official kickoff of Safe City USA, a crime-fighting program designed to send this message to would-be criminals: "Gun crime means hard time." The public-private partnership aims to make "a safe city safer" by prosecuting more gun-related cases in federal courts, where certain crimes are more likely to lead to longer, tougher sentences without the possibility of bail or probation. "Fort Worth is about to embark on a noble crusade," said Paul Coggins, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. "Most cities wait until there is a huge emergency, a huge crisis, before they take an action like this." Backers say the success of the initiative is also tied to a $750,000 public awareness campaign designed to get the "Hard Time" message to criminals. The privately funded media blitz means that the slogan will soon be popping up on billboards, bumper stickers and city buses, and in radio and TV advertisements. The initiative, which is being pushed by the Bass family, is supported by Coggins, Mayor Kenneth Barr, Police Chief Thomas Windham and state Attorney General John Cornyn, all of whom attended the pep-rally-style kickoff yesterday morning. Safe City USA has been in the works for many months and is not a response to this month^s multiple shooting at Wedgwood Baptist Church, officials said yesterday. The program will not even target homicide cases, which can usually be prosecuted with maximum penalties in state courts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Moore said. Instead, Safe City USA could be useful in locking up convicted felons who are carrying firearms in violation of the Gun Control Act of 1968. "The state is burdened with murders, with robbery, with rape," Moore said. "So some convict with a pistol is not as important to them. "But that is a big deal in federal court." However, officials said they also hope the program will further reduce the city^s already declining rate of violent crime. Homicides in the city have decreased 67 percent since the early 1990s, according to the FBI^s Uniform Crime Reports. In 1991, considered the city^s benchmark year for violent crime, there were 195 homicides. In 1998, there were 64. Safe City USA is patterned after a program in Richmond, Va., called Project Exile, which is credited with reducing homicides there from 139 in 1997 to 94 in 1998. Some have criticized the initiative, however, saying it has created a needless backlog in federal courts and has overworked prosecutors. For example, officials at the U.S. attorney^s office for the Eastern District of Virginia said their caseload has jumped from about 139 in 1996 to 404 last year. About two-thirds of the cases are attributed to Project Exile. But Moore said she isn^t worried about similar problems here. "We are all braced, all ready to take on more cases," she said. Officials also believe that a recently announced state initiative, called Texas Exile, will help alleviate some of the strain on federal prosecutors. That program, announced last week by Gov. George W. Bush, allocates $1.6 million for eight new federal prosecutors. One of those attorneys, Cornyn said yesterday, will be in Fort Worth and will help prosecute gun-related criminal cases. For information about Safe City USA, call the Crime Prevention Resource Center at (817) 314-7400. Ginger D. Richardson, (817) 390-7616 Send comments to grichardson@star-telegram.com Send this page to a friend From:To: For home delivery of the Star-Telegram, dial (817) DEL-IVER. © 1999 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas -- Terms and Conditions Serving the online community since 1982!

Uploaded: 10/1/1999