A crackdown on violent crime in North Alabama has resulted in a record number of prosecutions in our area.
US Attorney Jay Town announced Wednesday morning that in 2019, 706 defendants were prosecuted in federal court by the Northern District of Alabama. He says this is the largest number of defendants prosecuted in a single year by the office. In 2018, the total number of defendants prosecuted was 575.
349 of the total number of defendants prosecuted in 2019 were for illegal firearms, which is a 22% increase from 2018.
Town says what we are seeing across the district is violent crime trending downward.
“What I expect the district to see– the citizens here– what they deserve and I expect they will see– is that their streets will be safer,” said Town. “Their children will be safer. Violent crime will hopefully continue to decrease because we are removing these alpha criminals from the streets.”
Town says out of large districts in the US, the Northern district of Alabama ranks 5th in federal prosecutions. It ranks 10th overall.
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