Community Outreach

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas is committed to public safety programming and crime prevention efforts to make our communities more secure. The Office’s Community Relations Coordinator and other USAO personnel work with many agencies and organizations to enhance public safety through community outreach and help make our cities and counties safer and more secure.

The United States Attorney and staff participate in or co-sponsor various crime prevention activities and events such as the DEA Red Ribbon Rally, National Night Out, Houston Youth Ranch Law Enforcement Day, the Corpus Christi Weed and Seed Festival and other national and local programs.

Operation Angel Tree is also a continued tradition of our office, in which employees voluntarily donate toys and other gifts to hundreds of disadvantaged children throughout the district. Each division brings joy to kids each year through partners such as Weed and Seed sites, the Houston and Brownsville Housing Authorities, the Rio Grande Children’s Home and the YMCA Victims of Human Trafficking program.

Department of Justice Crime Prevention strategies and programs such as Weed and Seed are often used by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a customized effort to find community-based solutions to crime problems. Law Enforcement and Community Relations Coordinators routinely assist local communities in partnering with federal agencies to address specific public safety needs and goals. Interested organizations are often encouraged or required to coordinate funding requests with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in order to better allocate limited resources for law enforcement and crime prevention initiatives in the District. 

Operation Weed & Seed Operation Weed and Seed is a strategy which aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods. Weed and Seed sites range in size from several neighborhood blocks to 15 square miles with a site population up to 50,000.

Weed and Seed is a strategy partially funded by the Department of Justice, administered by the Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO), and sponsored by the U.S. Attorney. Weed and Seed is a DOJ strategy which brings law enforcement agencies, community service providers and residents together using a two-pronged approach to crime reduction – to “weed” out the gangs, drugs and violent criminals and to “seed” the area with prevention, intervention, treatment and neighborhood revitalization programs. Partially funded with DOJ grants and sponsored by the U.S. Attorney, our district currently has three actively funded and two graduated sites. “Active” sites currently receive federal funding and include West Houston, Corpus Christi Southeast and Houston Near Northwest. Graduated sites continue programming and participation beyond the five-year DOJ funding span, and include Brownsville and Laredo for our district.

“Weeding” partners include the DEA, U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Guard Counter-Drug Task Force, Webb County Sheriff, Harris County Constable Pct. 1 and the Police Departments of Houston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville and Laredo.

As part of community relations efforts, we have also implemented a program in support of Project Safe Childhood, called "Internet Safety - It’s Not Just the Computer Anymore. For more information about this and other PSC efforts, go to PSC.

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