INDIANAPOLIS— The City of Indianapolis is now looking for attorneys to help with part of the city's plan to curb gun violence.
Monday night, the city-county council approvedfunding for three criminal attorneys. It's a partnership between the city and the U.S. Attorney's Office. They'll be Special Assistant United States Attorneys with the main focus of investigating and prosecuting gun crimes in Marion County.
"Working on investigations and prosecutions of spree robberies or fire arms trafficking or serious violent individuals who are illegally armed or illegally distributing fire arms," U.S. Attorney Zachary Myers for the Southern District of Indiana.
Myers says right now his violent crimes unit has seven attorneys and a supervisor to cover Indianapolis and 49 other counties. He says having three additional prosecutors will make a dramatic impact on the work they can do.
"One of the things we'll be able to do with our law enforcement partners is build more proactive investigations, look into historical cases as well, and build cases that don't yet exist," said Myers.
Myers says violent crime numbers are trending downward, but there's still plenty of work to be done.
"We're not going to arrest or prosecute our way out of this problem whatsoever. There's a lot of factors that contribute to gun violence, but law enforcement is a big part of the response. I think that we can use the resources that we have and the additional resources we're getting to find who are the people who need to be held accountable for the violent crimes," said Myers.
The applications for the positions are now open. They can be found on the city's website.
