'Got guns?': DC police announce new intitiative to get illegal firearms off the streets
WASHINGTON - The Metropolitan Police Department is launching a new initiative to get illegal guns off the streets of D.C.
The department is partnering with federal law enforcement to increase the gun tip reward program.
Until Oct. 1, any tip that leads to an arrest and seizure of an illegal gun will give a reward of up to $2,500. If an illegal ghost gun is seized, that reward goes all the way up to $7,500.
Ghost guns: What are they and why they are an issue nationwide
The circulation of ghost guns is an ongoing issue. These homemade guns are easy to obtain and untraceable. President Joe Biden has pressed his administration to regulate the guns.
The department has also created cards with the words "Got guns?" and is handing them out in communities struggling with gun violence .
Police say it’s just one more way of encouraging people to report the presence or possession of illegal guns.
"What we are trying to do is hone in our efforts with our federal partners to look at the guns that were bought within one year’s time or two years time and then are recovered within crimes here in the District and we’re also comparing that information to ballistics so if a gun is covered within a years time frame but was in a crime within days of its purchase then that gives us the intelligence to look at those trafficking indicators and work with the ATF to build cases that are now and in the moment," said Metropolitan Police Department’s Interim Chief Ashan Benedict.
MPD says it is also increasing outreach in communities experiencing high rates of violent crime in hopes of making the District safer.