Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas

Remarks as Delivered

Thanks, Kate.

I mostly came here to thank the people who are sitting around this table who are really responsible, and the law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Kansas safe.

They also represent the collaborative approach the Justice Department is using as its method of fighting violent crime as the best possible strategy.

When I became Attorney General about three and a half years ago, I realized that the partnerships like those represented around this table are the ones that will help us bring down the violent crime rate. I learned this when I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney myself in the early 1990s and then later when I became a supervisor of U.S. Attorneys in the violent crime fight later in the 1990s. I picked up guns and drug cases myself, and I supervised those cases. And what I very soon learned was that it was the collaboration with state, local, and federal law enforcement that was the key to resolving the issues of violent crime.

So, our strategy, that we initiated at the beginning of my term at the Justice Department, was to build on those collaborations, to make sure they work as smoothly as possible, and then to fortify them with the latest technological advances that we now have for finding the biggest drivers of violent crime and taking those people off the streets.

Now we have seen results. Here in Kansas, violent crime was down 3.7% last year, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

And nationwide, we saw one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years and the largest drop in homicides in 50 years.

That progress appears to be continuing again in 2024. Just last week, the Major City Chiefs Association reported violent crime was down an additional 6% across 70 major cities over the same six months of [2024], and that included a 17% drop in homicides.

But we know that progress in uneven, and that in many communities, violent crime has not fallen. We also know that there is no level of violent crime that is acceptable.

So, the Justice Department is working here in Kansas and across the country to arrest violent felons, to seize and trace guns used in crimes, and to disrupt violent drug trafficking.

Just yesterday, the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women awarded Kansas $846,000 in grant funding under the Sexual Assault Services [Formula] Program. Those funds will be distributed to support the establishment, maintenance, and expansion of rape crisis centers and other nongovernmental or Tribal programs that assist those who have been victimized by sexual assault.

Last month, this U.S. Attorney's Office worked with the FBI, ATF, DEA, and other federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to charge eight defendants in a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of meth and cocaine in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

This office has also worked with partners like the DEA and the Valley Center Police Department to prosecute fentanyl trafficking. In February, it secured a 25-year prison sentence for a person who knowingly gave a pill laced with fentanyl to an individual who died from an overdose.

In May, this office again partnered with the DEA and a number of local law enforcement agencies to secure a 10-year sentence for a former physician in Kansas who operated a pill mill.

The Justice Department has made clear that it does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a medical professional - if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable.

In April, this office secured 15-year prison sentences for two brothers who ambushed a team of federal law enforcement officers who were executing a search warrant. One of the officers and a bystander were struck with gunfire during the attack.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas, and the entire Department of Justice, are committed to doing everything in our power to keep our communities safe from violent crime, and to support the officers that routinely risk their lives to protect the people of Kansas.

The examples I have shared today are just a snapshot of the work that this office is doing every single day to uphold the Justice Department's priorities: keeping our communities safe, protecting civil rights, and upholding the rule of law.

I am very proud of the work of U.S. Attorney Brubacher and of all the men and women of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas for what they do every day.

And I am equally proud of the partnerships that they have nurtured with the people and the agencies around this table because these are the people, whose agents put their lives on the line every single day to protect all of us. I am grateful.

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