Project BRAVE launched today to target crime in north B.R.

More than a dozen law enforcement and elected officials, criminologists and religious leaders unveiled a new crime-fighting initiative today that will target the highest-crime area in Baton Rouge—the 70805 ZIP code in the northern part of the city—which has just 13.5% of the city’s population but accounts for 30% of its homicides and 40% of its gun assaults. The initiative, called Project BRAVE, is an Operation Ceasefire¬–style program that zeroes in on a small number of chronic offenders—those whom EBR Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III calls “the baddest of the bad.” It “lets them know there is a new game in town,” Moore says. Last week, the Metro Council approved $150,000 to get the program started. But to be fully operational Project BRAVE will require a $1.5 million federal grant that will provide up to $500,000 a year for the next three years to pay for research and data that will help program leaders know where best to concentrate their efforts. Moore’s office submitted the grant application this week and should know by late September if the funding comes through. “But we will move forward without it,” he says. “The biggest difference [without it] is that we won’t have the money for the statistical component, but we will look for outside sources of funding.” —Stephanie Riegel