Chicago – May 25, 2025
The Justice Department has made major cuts to anti-crime programs across the United States, leaving law enforcement and community groups struggling to replace the lost funds. These cuts, announced in late April, affected 373 grants, totaling about $500 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
The decision to reduce funding came as a shock to many public safety organizations. Kelsie McDaniel, the district attorney for Union County, Oregon, said they knew some federal cuts were coming, but they didn’t expect them to affect important programs that were previously supported by the Department of Justice.
McDaniel’s office had used a federal grant to fund an investigator who worked on serious crime cases, like those involving fentanyl dealers linked to fatal overdoses. But this grant was among those cancelled. While most of the money had already been spent, McDaniel is worried that Union County won’t be able to get this kind of funding in the future.
Many of the groups affected by these cuts believe that there wasn’t enough research or planning behind the decision. In some cities, people have raised concerns about how the money from federal grants is being used. For example, in Minneapolis, attorney Dean Thomson sued the city a few years ago to make sure local violence prevention groups were more transparent about their spending.
