ROCHESTER, N.Y. — U.S. Attorney James Kennedy will hold a community conversation at the Rochester Educational Opportunity Center on Tuesday.

He's coming to talk to community members about the recently announced Violence Prevention and Elimination Response (VIPER) Task Force.

It has been almost three weeks since Kennedy first announced the VIPER Task Force and its goal to remove violent gun offenders from the streets in both Rochester and Buffalo. The community had a lot to say during that initial announcement.

"We are using all of our federal resources to identify and apprehend the violence criminals in our community," said Kennedy.

"Who are these violent criminals?" asked one person attending the announcement. "Why don't we know who these violent criminals are?"

"We don't want to be over-policed," said another.

"We could be right next door. "Who are these violent people?" the crowd asked.

Tuesday will be an opportunity for the community to ask more questions and raise concerns. Kennedy has asked for the community's help too in tackling gun violence.

Last Friday Kennedy's office released the results of the first two weeks of the task force in Western New York. Between July 7 and July 22, there were 138 arrests, 45 of those were firearm-related, 45 involving narcotics and 38 violent felony arrests. Almost two dozen illegal firearms were seized.

So far this year, 40 people have died in Rochester in instances of violence. More than half of those involved guns. It's been more than 10 days since the city's last homicide.