Grant funds sought to target crime in 70802

While the new city-parish crime-fighting initiative known as the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program, or BRAVE, targets violent criminals in the 70805 ZIP code, District Attorney Hillar Moore III and Mayor Kip Holden’s office have applied for three additional federal grants worth a total of nearly $1.7 million to focus on other trouble spots around Baton Rouge. Two of the grants in particular would be used to bring targeted policing and beefed-up patrols to the 70802 ZIP code, which is adjacent to 70805 in northwest Baton Rouge. The two ZIP codes collectively account for nearly half the city’s crime, Moore says, despite comprising just 3.5 square miles and having just 13,800 residents. The grant application notes that additional policing is needed in those areas, particularly as BRAVE cracks down on known drug gangs and repeat offenders in 70805. Data shows that “as crime goes up in 70805 it goes down in 70802 and vice versa,” the application reads. “GIS mapping clearly demonstrates that there are a number of active crime ‘groups’ that simply move across the artificial zip code barrier from the Istrouma neighborhood in 70805 to the bordering Eden Park, Greenville Extension and Midtown neighborhoods in 70802.” Moore hopes to know whether Baton Rouge will get the grant funds in the next couple of months. In the meantime, he says, law enforcement is preparing for BRAVE’s first “call in” of dozens of targeted offenders from 70805 who have been identified as key players in the area’s crime problem. —Stephanie Riegel