BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's one of the deadliest summers in the last decade here in the Queen City.

Federal authorities are stepping in to combat the carnage on city streets. They've successfully done it before, sending dozens of gang members to prison and revitalizing a Buffalo neighborhood. 

"There's pockets of Buffalo that are very, very treacherous," said John Evans, Buffalo Police Union President.

Despite the efforts of Buffalo police officers, there have been 36 homicides this year, most of them during the deadly summer months.

Now federal authorities are stepping up their efforts to address the bloodshed.

"Our strategy moving forward is going to be as it was on the west side with the 7th and 10th Street prosecution: take out all of them by simultaneously investigating and prosecuting all of them," said U.S. Attorney J.P. Kennedy.

The 7th and 10th Street gangs terrorized the west side, leaving bodies of both gang members and innocent bystanders in their wake. Many of those homicides weren't solved until years later, when a coordinated local and federal effort brought those gangs down.

"That took an immense amount of work. Our homicide detectives were integral with that, along with state police," said Evans.

Kennedy added, "It did take a long time, and I think there were lessons learned from that in terms of the number of resources we need to devote. The more resources we can devote, the more expeditiously, we can investigate and prosecute these people."

Gary Loeffert, the FBI Special Agent in Charge for the Buffalo field office, added, "There's no silver bullet but we have been very successful over the years. We've taken down a lot of gang members off the streets, Latin Kings, the Broadway Boys, also known as the Rounds Crew, Camp Street Gang and the Dodgetown Gang, literally hundreds of gang members to federal prison for a long time."

Officials say to those efforts are part of why the west side is seeing renewed investment and a rebirth in the community.

"That truly did change the character of that neighborhood. The hope is that we can replicate that effort on the east side too," said Kennedy.

But the vital component to the success is neighbors taking back control and saying enough is enough. And without that, law enforcement officials say nothing will change.

"At some point, you reach the tipping point, like we did on the west side, where sort of the people who are otherwise victimized aren't going to take it anymore. When they come forward, and they rise up together, then we can take back the community," said Kennedy.