Project Safe Neighborhoods Cuts Montana Violent Crime Rate

Yellowstone County’s relentless surge in violent crime has nearly flatlined since the launch of Project Safe Neighborhoods in April 2018, a federal crackdown targeting armed traffickers, meth kingpins, and repeat offenders. Over the past year, law enforcement dismantled major meth rings, seized 245 pounds of methamphetamine — worth an estimated $11 million on the street — and took 212 firearms out of circulation, including 57 semi-automatic assault-style rifles.

U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, flanked by Attorney General Tim Fox and Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito, unveiled the results during a press briefing at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Billings. The numbers tell a stark story: before PSN, violent crime in the county rose 26 percent in one year and 16 percent the year before. Since April 2018, that growth has slowed to just 1.3 percent. “The increases have almost stopped because of the hard work of our committed law enforcement,” Alme said.

Federal prosecutors have charged 170 defendants with meth trafficking, armed robbery, and firearms offenses. The U.S. Marshals Service Violent Offender Task Force executed 652 federal and state warrants on violent offenders. At a table behind the podium sat rows of seized guns — ghost guns, extended magazines, and rifles stripped of serial numbers — a grim museum of Yellowstone’s street violence.

“The results are clear: when it comes to meth and violent crime, enforcement works,” Fox said. “This is not luck. This is strategy. This is federal, state, and local agencies working in tandem to target the worst offenders and bring them to justice.” State and local prosecutors have filed 12 robbery cases and 22 charges of assault with a weapon or aggravated assault.

But prosecutors warn the battle isn’t over. While arrests and seizures have surged, long-term success hinges on reducing demand. That’s where the Yellowstone Substance Abuse Connect coalition comes in — a network of 62 nonprofit and government agencies focused on treatment and prevention. “We need to get the most dangerous offenders off the street, yes,” Alme said. “But we also need to reduce the demand for meth.”

PSN Yellowstone County’s operation involves a sprawling coalition: the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office, Montana Department of Justice, Highway Patrol, Division of Criminal Investigation, Adult Probation and Parole, Billings and Laurel police, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The message is as blunt as the results: the reign of violent meth-fueled crime is being met with federal force.

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