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How do we fix communities besieged by gun violence? Intensive policing? Community-justice partnerships? Anti-poverty programs? Harsher punishments? Evidence-based human services? Philly is grappling w/all these questions. All cities should pay attention. @caterinagroman 1/n
Both progressive reformers and law + order advocates should note the energetic debate in the @phillynews opinion pages. An Inquirer editorial, an op-ed, and letters from city leaders w/strongly divergent opinions. @caterinagroman and I will summarize and offer our thoughts. 2/n
First, table-setting. Community-based gun violence reduction programs like @CureViolence and Focused Deterrence have a rapidly strengthening evidence-base, have worked in other cities, are culturally-sensitive, and leverage community strengths to interrupt shootings. 3/n
The challenge we’ve seen in Chicago, Philly and elsewhere, is that as soon as these programs start to show meaningful improvements in the most at-risk neighborhoods, the budgets for these [tiny] programs are chopped. Why? Let’s go the editorial pages. 4/n
In early Nov. @Floodthedrummer advocated in @phillynews for anti-poverty efforts to curb gun violence and sided w/Philly Mayor Kenney who has stated he’s no fan of focused deterrence (which began under the last mayor) and Kenney is now phasing out: www2.philly.com/philly/opinion… 5/n
Two weeks ago, @phillynews weighed in itself with an editorial praising focused deterrence, noting it reduced shootings by 35% in target neighborhoods. But, “[t]he problem is there aren't enough of them to keep up with the bloodshed“: www2.philly.com/philly/opinion… 6/n
Next, two practitioners, who developed and implemented focused deterrence, praised the initiative, reminding the city of the importance of carefully targeting those doing the most damage with guns and of effective multi-agency collaboration. www2.philly.com/philly/opinion… 7/n
Last week, @DALarryKrasner wrote a letter praising the police and suggesting employment and economic opportunity as the solution to gun violence, saying, “we cannot simply arrest our way out of this problem” and need instead peace through prosperity. medium.com/philadelphia-j… 8/n
Today, local FOP president @john_mcnesby argues that this whole debate misses the point, which is that @DALarryKrasner has failed to vigorously prosecute “over 4,000 violent offenders” and it is time to “stop blaming the police.” 9/n
Our take: this is not an either/or situation. This is not agency vs. agency. This is about investing in evidence-based prevention for everyone AND investing in interventions, including for those at high-risk, to stop today’s violence. @Caterinagroman 10/n
On prevention for everyone, Philadelphia needs investments to reduce poverty, deep poverty, and segregation and to increase our notoriously low life expectancy. There is no debating this point. 11/n
Intervention, then, is “targeted” prevention to reduce gun violence, which requires collaborative law enforcement strategies (such as focused deterrence), plus Cure Violence models that use credible messengers to turn around the lives of those likely to get shot next. 12/n
Philly has had successful public safety collaborations that could easily be replicated and scaled using a fraction of the budget. They would saturate high-risk disadvantaged neighborhoods, slow violence, keep the right residents out of jail, and stabilize the communities. 13/n
And let’s not be loose with our phrasing when we discuss Philly’s level of violence. OVERALL violence might be down, but HOMICIDES and SHOOTINGS are up in the city. Violence rose when @CureViolence and Focused Deterrence were defunded. Coincidence? Probably not. 14/n
Focused deterrence is a police and prosecutor-led initiative, so it is hard to see how ramping up this program somehow blames police for the violence. It doesn’t. It gives them a better tool to fight violence. And @CureViolence gives them an able partner. 15/n
@CureViolence, with its well-trained street outreach workers is also an evidence-based, scalable solution. And, the hospital-based component gives voice to the forgotten victims, provides access to services, and reduces retaliation. Let’s not forget the city cut this too. 16/n
Finally, while this debate rages in Philly, there is nothing about the debate or these programs that are unique to Philadelphia. Cities big and small could resolve the false choice between police and community investments by applying these lessons. @caterinagroman 17/n
Notes: The focused deterrence Philly study by @CaterinaGRoman and colleagues: pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1d77/a67057d27…. The Cure Violence evaluation is here: cureviolence.org/results/scient… and here’s a the story of the cuts to Chicago @CureViolence: chicagotribune.com/news/ct-ceasef…. FIN.
