1993-033-RES WHEREAS, the Office of Texas, through its Criminal grant assistance in the amount of crime prevention;

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GJU.1Z Program Narrative 1, Problem Statement (See Instructions on pages 13a and 13b.) Beginning in the spring of 1991, The City of Paris began to experience some gang related activ.,it~ As a result of this,all' :,::c::o aspects of our local crime rate began to go up. This gang activity has been directly linked to many of the violent crimes.that our community has experienced. As with most communities, the thefts and the burglaries are directly attributed to the drug traffic and of course the gangs head up a large portion of that drug traffic. Therefore, the victims of these crimes and the citizens of our community are continually at a much higher risk of injury and have become extremely concerned and fearful of the growing possibility of becoming the victim of a violent crime in their own homes. The areas in which this crime prevention grant will apply are in the city of Paris as well as throughout Lamar County. The crime prevention unit at the Paris Police Department is the only on that addresses this area. We also get request to serve co~~unities in Red River County from time to time as well. Red River and Lamar Counties are directly between Texarkana to the east and the Sherman/Denison area to the west. Both Counties border Oklahoma. This fact also causes our community some problems in that Hugo and Idabel Oklahoma have an even worse gang problem than we do. However, we have experienced some overflow from these gangs to our community. There are several other programs that the City of Paris is committed to in order to address these problem areas. The Police Athletic League of Paris is one that provides young people that roam the streets an alternative by providing individual sport activities. We are also in our second year of our D.A.R.E. program. There is also the Boy Scout Explore Post th?z iSdw~tn in the police department. 2. Historical Data (See Instru.ctions on pages 13a an 130.) . The overall crime rate rose 22.2% in 1991. There was an increase of 742 class 1 offenses in 1991. Violent crimes were up 35.2% and the total combined thefts and burglaries were up 17.8% in 1991. In 1992, with the assistance of this grant and the dedication of the City of Paris officials, the overall crime rate in Paris dropped 17.4%. There were 713 fewer class 1 offenses in 1992 than in the previous year. Every major category had a minimum of a 12.7% decrease from the year before. This decrease put Paris back to the rate that we were in 1991 so there is still a lot of continued work to do. With the assistance of this grant and the progressive attitude of the chief of police and his support of the city officials, we can continue this downward trend. Use continuation page(s) as necessary for any section.