WASHINGTON, D.C. – North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr sent a letter to Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys Jim Crowell to express support for additional funding for the Middle District of North Carolina’s United States Attorney’s Office for the remainder of fiscal year 2019 and for all of fiscal year 2020.

“As you are likely aware, organized crime has dramatically increased in the State of North Carolina and in the Middle District in particular,” wrote the senators. “This dramatic increase in criminal activity more than warrants additional resources for the Middle District, and we hope you will consider our request and make the allocation of additional resources a top priority.”

“We recognize the pressures your office faces in allocating resources to all United States Attorneys, and we are committed to working with you to secure increased congressional appropriations for the requested resources,” the senators continued. “However, in the interim, we believe the unique challenges in the Middle District more than warrant an increased administrative allocation for fiscal years 2019 and 2020."

In recent years, violent crime rates and trends in the Middle District have increased significantly. In addition to the general increase in violent crime, the Department of Justice has identified that several of the priority transnational criminal organizations are actively engaged in criminal activity in the Middle District.

These dangerous criminal enterprises represent a real safety threat to the people of the Middle District and requires a strong, concerted federal effort to eradicate the threat they pose. With only approximately 59 full time staff and a population of almost 3 million people, the Middle District has only one staff member per 47,000 people. This makes the Middle District one of the least resourced United States Attorney’s Office in the country, per capita.

Read the letter here.

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