Federal prosecutors are expanding Project Safe Neighborhoods in Chicago, announcing Wednesday that the city’s trains and downtown areas will now be covered by the anti-violence program for the first time.

Project Safe Neighborhoods was launched in 2001 under President George W. Bush to crack down on shootings. At the time, the program paid for the hiring of scores of new federal prosecutors and hundreds of state and local prosecutors to concentrate on gun cases across the country.

The idea was for federal and local prosecutors to work together to decide which court system could deliver a maximum prison sentence for gun offenders. Early on, they focused on parolees. Signs and TV spots promoted the program, with one billboard — on the Indiana tollway that leads to Chicago — warning: “Stop

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