The acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Seth DuCharme, says his office will work with the NYPD to bring federal charges in the kinds of lower-level gun cases that previously had been handled by local prosecutors.

"The perception is the city and certain other pockets have become an environment which is too permissive for armed criminal offenders who walk the streets at the peril of the public and we are going to restore that balance,” said DuCharme.


What You Need To Know

  • Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme announced the expansion of the the Rapid and Strategic Prosecution Initiative Tuesday

  • Twelve senior assistant U.S. attorneys will be reassigned to lead gun prosecutions under federal, rather than state laws.

  • The Brooklyn office of the Federal Defenders called the initiative "deeply troubling"

The program is called RASP, the Rapid and Strategic Prosecution Initiative. 

A dozen senior assistant U.S. attorneys will be reassigned to lead gun prosecutions under federal, rather than state laws.

“We are moving very quickly when we identify someone where the evidence supports a local charge to bring that person into the federal justice system to disrupt that violent behavior,” explained DuCharme.

DuCharme and Police Commissioner Dermont Shea denied this was an effort to sidestep changes in bail laws and other state criminal justice reforms, which some have blamed for the spike in crime.

But gun suspects generally are treated more harshly under federal laws than state laws. Fewer federal suspects are released on bail and federal gun convictions generally lead to longer sentences than prosecutions under state laws.

DuCharme said 70 percent of federal gun suspects are detained, versus 22 percent of state suspects.

He said local district attorneys will be part of the new program, but they were notably absent from the news conference.

"This is not one or the other. This is all one team leaning in the same direction, working for New Yorkers to keep the streets of New York city safe,” said the police commissioner. 

DuCharme said the initiative will focus on hot spots where violent crime has surged.

The Brooklyn office of the Federal Defenders called the initiative "deeply troubling."

“This is one of several deeply troubling initiatives that reinforces the disparate federal prosecutions of primarily Black and Brown neighborhoods in New York City under the guise of promising to make those communities safer,” the office wrote in a statement. “The ongoing efforts to federalize local and state crimes accomplishes nothing more than using federal resources to secure the removal of individuals from their communities and further undermine the stability of those communities. The government should instead cast a critical eye on the already blatant inequities in prosecutorial decisions rather than continue down a path that has repeatedly proven ineffective and destructive to the same communities that it is their duty to protect.”