By Associated Press - Friday, May 16, 2014

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Lincoln officials have decided to enlist federal aid in surmounting a rising wave of gang violence.

The Lincoln Police Department will apply for a $250,000 grant that would pay up to $125,000 for two officers over three years, officials said at a news conference Thursday. The city would have to pay the rest of the estimated total cost of $420,000.

The two officers’ mission would be simple: Stop gang violence before it starts.

“We will be able to devote more resources to ensuring gangs do not prosper in Lincoln,” Mayor Chris Beutler said.

Four gangs have been battling in the capital over the past two years, Public Safety Director Tom Casady said, and the violence has reached previously unseen levels.

“They’re aggressive: shooting at each other, hacking each other with machetes, committing armed robberies,” Casady said.

There were three gang-related homicides in Lincoln last year, and police have documented an 18 percent increase in gang membership over the past seven months.

Deploying two more officers will help police prevent crimes rather than investigate them afterward, Casady said. For example, he said, the officers could get more involved with high school students and steer them away from gangs.

The violence so far has been limited to gang members, Casady said, but at some point it will spill over to bystanders.

In September the police union cited gang violence in calling on city leaders to hire more officers. Officials have said the national average for cities the size of Lincoln is 1.96 officers per 1,000 people. Nebraska’s average is 1.80, while Lincoln has 1.21 officers per 1,000 people.

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