An area coalition of law enforcement agencies, crime prevention groups and academics has received a federal award for fighting local gun crime.

The Project Safe Neighborhoods/Project Ceasefire Team received the Outstanding Partnership or Task Force Award at a U.S. Justice Department conference last weekend in Philadelphia.

"It is truly an honor for our Ceasefire partnership to be recognized in this way with a national award that carries so much significance," U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said Monday.

The partnership includes federal prosecutors in Missouri and Kansas, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kansas City Crime Commission, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and police departments in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan.

Since the program's inception in 1999, federal prosecutors in Kansas City have convicted 321 gun criminals, most of them felons who were arrested for carrying firearms.

"We will continue to target gun violence impacting our communities," said Mark James, special agent in charge of the ATF's Kansas City office.

The crime commission also developed a media campaign that warns felons of the penalties of carrying firearms. The commission raised almost $1.4 million in private funds for the effort.

Two UMKC professors have been hired to evaluate the impact of the advertising project. According to a summary provided by prosecutors Monday, at least 73 percent of all felons surveyed at state probation offices had seen the project's television advertising and believed it was "very likely" that a felon caught with a gun would be prosecuted.

Those efforts all contributed to a 29 percent decrease in homicides in Kansas City, Graves said.

"The proof is in the numbers, and these cooperating partnerships work," Graves said.

To reach Mark Morris, federal court reporter, call (816) 234-4310 or send e-mail to mmorris@kcstar.com.