The city of Cincinnati is sharing two legal scholars with the U.S. Attorney's Office for Southern District of Ohio in an effort to crack down on gun crimes.

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The city of Cincinnati is sharing two legal scholars with the U.S. Attorney's Office for Southern District of Ohio in an effort to crack down on gun crimes.Ashley Brucato and Emily Woerner, two lawyers who work for the city, have been sworn in as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys.Watch this storyFor at least the next two years, Brucato and Woerner will help police build federal cases against repeat violent offenders."These additional resources are going to vastly increase our prosecution capacity," Ben Glassman, acting U.S. Attorney, said. "And I'm not talking just about volume, but also the speed with which we're able to move on these cases."Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley agreed."When we can get some of our lawyers to do, which we're paying for locally, to work side by side with them, it allows us to bring more of these cases. To get more of the repeat violent offenders off the streets," Cranley said. "So this has an enormous positive influence."The decision to share legal assistance is the latest move in a partnership in Greater Cincinnati involving local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.As part of that partnership, members of what's known as the Violent Crime Working Group meet monthly to share information about criminal activity in their particular jurisdiction.The goal is to get more gun crime cases into federal court."Illegal gun offenses, if brought under federal law, can get mandatory minimum sentences and get the worst repeat offenders off the street for a long period of time," Cranley said.Officials credit the new approach with the federal indictment of Rayshawn Herald.He was arrested after police say he fired shots at Great American Tower early last year.In another case, 15 people were indicted on federal gun charges in February.Cranley thinks those arrests are the reason the city is seeing fewer shootings."We have seen since then a very rapid decline in shootings in Cincinnati. We are now trending below where we (sic), any numbers we have seen in 10 years, in 2016."Glassman said Cincinnati is on the cutting edge."This level of collaboration and coordination, in my opinion, is a model," Glassman said. "I believe that lots of cities should be looking at what we're doing."In addition to embracing a collaborative approach, Glassman also cites the city's decision to purchase a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, machine.With NIBIN, officers can use shell casings and other evidence of a gun crime to link back to the person who pulled the trigger.Next week, Cranley said he will head to Denver with Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac and Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to take a look at what's called "ShotSpotter technology."The mayor said it's technology that can hear gunshots and pinpoint where bullets originate."If you engage in gun violence, or any violence, we want you put away for as long as we can put you away," Cranley said.But Glassman said enforcement is just one piece of the puzzle.He said locally-based initiatives like CIRV (Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence) are doing model work in terms of crime prevention, and he values efforts to help convicts re-enter society after they've paid their dues.More information:- U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Ohio- NIBIN- CIRV