The new head of the Birmingham’s FBI office said he and his team are committed to helping to fight violent crime in city and the Northern District of Alabama.

“It’s about establishing effective partnerships. We’re in this together,’’ said Northern District of Alabama Special Agent in Charge Carlton Peeples.

“We live in this community. We worship in this community. Our kids and families go to school in these communities so violent crime affects us all.”

Peeples was appointed earlier this year as the special agent in charge of the Birmingham Field Office, which covers 31 counties in northern Alabama and has more than 200 employees.

He joined the FBI in 1998 and has worked counterintelligence, public corruption, civil rights, violent crime, and gang investigations and served on the SWAT team.

Peeples has served as the chief of the FBI’s entire civil rights program, the senior supervisory special agent in the Atlanta Field Office, the assistant special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office in Florida, and most recently as an inspector in the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters.

Prior to joining the FBI, Peeples served in the U.S. Army and as an operations supervisor for a logistics and shipping company.

“In each of those stops, I’ve worked or managed every program we’ve had in the Bureau,’’ Peeples said. “I think I bring a lot of expertise in addressing criminal problems and national security problems.”

Peeples’ executive team includes James DeLoatch II, assistant special agent in charge of the criminal branch of the Birmingham division, which includes public corruption, violent crime, white collar crime and hate crimes, and Deen Abbott, assistant special agent in charge of the national security programs for the Birmingham Field Division, which includes counterintelligence and counterterrorism.

Asked his observations of crime in Birmingham, Peeples said, “I think it’s been painted nationally as Birmingham is one of the most violent cities in America. I don’t know if that’s true, I don’t know where that information came from and how it’s comparable to other cities.”

Birmingham is a violent city, he said, and it’s the job of law enforcement to come together to find ways to address the threat.

“Some of the barriers that we face are that a lot of these individuals that commit these violent crimes are juveniles,’’ he said. “It’s a hurdle that we face federally and from a local and state law enforcement perspective, not only from an investigated aspect but also from a prosecutorial perspective.”

While it’s a challenge, Peeples said, there are partnerships in place to address the ongoing crime problems.

“We’re looking to put the most violent offenders behind bars for longer periods of time,’’ he said, “so they don’t constantly get out and re-victimize the community again and again.”