The Safe Streets initiative, part of the FBI's Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Program, was created in 1992 to encourage coordinated crime fighting efforts among FBI field offices and our local law enforcement partners. The mission of Safe Streets is to effectively utilize task forces to investigate, locate, arrest, and prosecute subjects for serious federal and state crimes. These would include drug and weapons violations, armed robbery, bank robbery, kidnapping, and gang and drug-related violence. The successful blending of local and federal law enforcement resources and manpower have resulted in a well-coordinated investigative and prosecutive approach to convict and incarcerate dangerous offenders. Nationally, over 140 Safe Streets Task Forces are currently in existence.

There are currently two Safe Streets task forces operating out of the FBI Norfolk Division. The Tidewater Violent Crime Task Force, which includes one FBI Special Agent, two Detectives from the Portsmouth Police Department, and one Detective from the Chesapeake Police Department, and the Peninsula Safe Streets Task Force, which is comprised of FBI Special Agents and Detectives from the Newport News Police Department. The mission of these Task Forces is to combat homicides and other acts of violence which are drug or gang-related. Detectives assigned to each task force undergo a full background investigation, are granted Department of Justice TOP SECRET clearances, and are sworn in as Deputy United States Marshals in order to facilitate multi-jurisdictional investigations.

The Tidewater Violent Crime Task Force was initially created in the Norfolk Division in August 1995 to address the violent crime plaguing the city of Portsmouth, Virginia. The Task Force has enjoyed great success in dismantling numerous violent drug gang organizations in the Tidewater area through tough federal prosecution and the forfeiture of their assets. Tidewater Violent Crime Task Force investigations have led to more than 55 convictions of the area's most violent criminals -- most of whom operated as members and/or leaders of fierce drug gangs -- resulting in lengthy federal prison sentences, many for terms of 30 years or more In February 1999, the first death penalty sentence in the Eastern District of Virginia since 1927 was imposed by a federal jury as a result of a task force investigation. Additionally, at least six homicides were solved either directly or indirectly from information developed during the course of task force investigations. Members anticipate this trend to continue.

The Peninsula Safe Streets Task Force was established informally in 2001 to address a significant rise in violent crime related to local organized gangs engaged in drug trafficking, primarily in Newport News. Due to the successful investigation and prosecution of some of the most violent members of these organizations, the Peninsula Safe Streets Task Force was formalized as a permanent crime fighting partnership in 2003. In the short time this task force has been in existence, its efforts have resulted in the dismantlement of the most violent gang operating in the City of Newport News, the forfeiture of all of the gang's assets, the indictments of 17 individuals, of which 13 have already pled guilty.