Fardon said in a September speech that his office and federal agencies including the FBI, DEA and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "have ramped up their resources to help tamp down this spike in violence." He also said federal agencies had launched new crime-fighting programs with city and state officials, though he didn't provide details. "Suffice it to say, all oars from those agencies, including the FBI, are in the water right now," Fardon said.



• GUN CHARGES



Then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder promised in 2014 that the Department of Justice would do what it could to fight gun violence in Chicago. That was easier said than done. A records review by the Chicago Sun-Times found numbers of federal gun cases out of Chicago declined from 2012 to 2015. It started trending back up in 2015, with 84 defendants charged under U.S. gun statutes from mid-2015 and mid-2016. Responding to the Sun-Times, Fardon wrote in October that the drop-off in gun charges in 2014 to less than 60 had at least something to do with a federal hiring freeze, when his office went from 172 prosecutors to below 130. The numbers are getting back up to where they need to be, he said. He said half of his prosecutors are focused on the types of cases linked to street-level violence.



• GANGS



Going back decades, a cornerstone of anti-violence measures by U.S. attorneys in Chicago has been to convict and imprison gang leaders. Federal prosecutors in Chicago have used racketeering and gun laws to go after gangs, who police blame for much of the deadly violence. One of the largest street-gang cases in recent Chicago history wrapped up this month, with jurors convicting the core leadership of the notorious Hobos street gang on trial for an alleged racketeering conspiracy that prosecutors say included at least nine killings. But many gang experts point to an unintended consequence of prosecuting gang leaders: Breaking up a gang's command structure can often lead to more inter-gang rivalry and, therefore, to even more violence