---
kind: "section"
citation: "34 U.S.C. § 12146"
title: "34"
title_heading: "Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
number: "12146"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/34/12146"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Comprehensive Acts"
  - "Chapter 121 — Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
  - "Subchapter II — Crime Prevention"
  - "Part B — Model Intensive Grant Programs"
---

# §12146. Definitions


In this part—

“chief local elected official” means an official designated under regulations issued by the [Attorney General](/usc/34/10307.md?p=1). The criteria used by the [Attorney General](/usc/34/10307.md?p=1) in promulgating such regulations shall ensure administrative efficiency and accountability in the expenditure of funds and execution of funded projects under this part.

“chronic high intensity crime area” means an area meeting criteria adopted by the [Attorney General](/usc/34/10307.md?p=1) by regulation that, at a minimum, define areas with—

(A) consistently high rates of [violent crime](/usc/34/11103.md?p=27) as reported in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Uniform Crime Reports”, and

(B) chronically high rates of poverty as determined by the Bureau of the Census.

“[State](/usc/34/11103.md?p=7)” means a [State](/usc/34/11103.md?p=7), the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 103–322, title III, § 30306, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1846.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 13776 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.