Contact: Cecil Angel at 313-223-4531 or angel@freepress.com.

As Detroit residents cope with a sharp rise in homicides and shootings this year, city police are joining other law enforcement agencies in an effort to stem gun-related violence.

Operation TIDE, or Tactical Intelligence Driven Enforcement, involves 10 agencies from the federal level on down and is intended to identify and crack down on the city's worst criminals.

The program, scheduled to be announced to the public on July 18, has been quietly in operation since May 5 in Detroit's Northwestern police district. Police plan to expand its reach to other pockets of the city. A $600,000 grant from Project Safe Neighborhoods -- a U.S. Department of Justice program that targets gun violence -- is funding the project.

It is designed to use the expertise of each agency to better track and share intelligence on dangerous criminals. For instance, the state Department of Corrections conducts impromptu visits of parolees to check for weapons and other parole violations. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ride with police and offer expertise on detecting gun trafficking and illegal gun sales.

"We're not just sitting back for the numbers to decrease," said James Tate, spokesman for the Detroit Police Department. "We're taking a proactive role."

The job is daunting.

As of Wednesday, police recorded 203 homicides in Detroit this year, up from 174 at the same point in 2005. Nonfatal shootings also have soared, with 721 this year compared with 561 at this point in 2005.

The rise in homicides wasn't a surprise to Germaine Coats, 26, a father of three who lives on Warwick Street in northwest Detroit.

"A lot of people have gotten killed that I know," he said.

Coats lives next to the Northwestern district station, but he said that hasn't stopped criminal activity on his block and that he occasionally has heard gunfire. He said he believes the answer is allowing police officers to be tougher, because too many hoodlums don't fear or respect them.

"I think what we need are really hard-core cops just as bad as the criminals," he said.

In southwest Detroit on Dragoon, Timothy Summers, 36, said crime remained a problem in his neighborhood despite the highly touted Joshua Project, an anticrime effort begun in early 2005. It combines efforts of the state Department of Corrections, the Police Department and prosecutors from the state Attorney General's office. The prosecutors monitor and prosecute cases from start to finish.

"You still got dope-dealing," Summers said. "You still got killing. ... People still get away with their crimes."

He said unemployment is at the root of the violence.

"When you're losing jobs and can't find a job, you're either going to sell dope or steal," Summers said. "I can't knock the hustle, but it puts a strain on the neighborhood."

On Vernor near Morrell, Jorge Sanchez, 36, said he was frustrated with crime but he didn't want to blame the police.

"What can I say about crime here," said Sanchez, who owns Lifestyle Soccer, a sports clothing store. "It's ridiculous. I don't think the guys they have working in the field are enough for our needs."

Tate said police are tackling the root causes of gun-related crime, especially the drug trade. In 2005, he said, Detroit police confiscated cocaine, heroin and other drugs with a street value of $140,233,366. In 2004, police confiscated $85,334,849 in drugs, Tate said.

Tate said residents need to do their part to discourage young people from using guns as a way to settle disputes.

"As a community there needs to be an outcry," he said. "There needs to be a movement against this kind of activity."

Tate said Operation TIDE is one of several police efforts to reduce violence.

"We've had great results," he said of the TIDE program.

Since Operation TIDE began in early May, 114 arrests in the Northwestern police district can be directly linked to the program, said Peggy Goodwin, spokeswoman for Project Safe Neighborhoods.

The other agencies in the TIDE program are the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, Michigan State Police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The resources and collaboration are pretty unprecedented," Goodwin said.