PROVIDENCE — With 14 blue-shirted officers from the state and city police providing the backdrop, three of Rhode Island’s top law enforcement officials held a news conference at the Public Safety Complex yesterday to call attention to a joint effort by the FBI, state police and Providence police to curb violence in the city’s neighborhoods.

Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said that while the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force has existed for many years, members of the joint task force have been more visible in the Providence neighborhoods this year — despite not wearing regular uniforms and riding in unmarked cars.

He said the presence is felt when people see the men hopping out of their cars with the words “State Police” and “Providence Police” emblazoned on their blue shirts. One police official noted that there is also more emphasis this year on going after illegal guns.

Joining with the chief in the news conference were Col. Brendan P. Doherty, superintendent of the state police, and Jeffrey Sallet, supervisory special agent for the FBI.

Doherty said he believes the task force has become necessary now more than ever because “crime in the Northeast is out of control.”

He said the state police were happy to help Providence in their crime-fighting efforts and that the endeavor has led to criminals being arrested and guns seized. “It sends out a message that we are serious.”

The FBI’s Sallet said his agency was also happy to take part in what he described as a “seamless integrated effort … to deter criminal activity before it starts.”

However, when asked how many gun seizures and arrests have been made since the teams began patrolling on June 27, Esserman said he did not have those figures immediately available “but I can get those numbers for you if you call me tomorrow at the office.”

Esserman also would not provide a breakdown on the number of law enforcement officers who have been involved from each agency, but said later there are generally six or seven teams patrolling the city’s neighborhoods three nights a week.

Doherty said that while the emphasis has been on Providence, “we have been able to move personnel around,” but he would not say what other areas of the state are being neglected.

rdujardi@projo.com