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< Previous10 TOWARDS A NEW AGE FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUENORTHEAST • With these new awards, the state has awarded a total of $8.2 million in grants so 31 nonprofit organizations and hospitals can hire 129 new gun violence intervention staff, $5.8 million for youth engagement programs, and $16 million for workforce training and placement. Mayor’s Office to Prevent Gun Violence: OPGV works to coordinate the city’s various anti- gun violence initiatives, amplify community-based intervention and prevention services, and introduce technological solutions to prevent gun violence to create safe, empowered, and interconnected communities in New York City. New York City’s Crisis Management System network deploys teams of credible messengers who mediate conflicts on the street and connect high-risk individuals to services that can reduce the long-term risk of violence. • From 2010 to 2019, data shows the Crisis Management System has contributed to an average 40% reduction in shootings across program areas compared to 31% decline in shootings in the 17 highest violence precincts in New York City. • Services offered include school conflict mediation, employment program, mental health services, legal services, and anti-gun violence employment program. • The work of NYC CMS is carried out through prominent community organization partners including Save Our Streets, Stand Against Violence East Harlem, Life Camp, Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, Man Up, Brownsville In Violence Out, True 2 Life, and many others. The Peer Leadership Committee consists of New Yorkers ages 16 to 24 who have -been impacted by gun violence and are looking to affect change in New York City. OPGV Peer Leadership Committee travels to all five boroughs, hosting anti-violence events and facilitating discussion on how to promote peace. United Way’s Atlas Program: an initiative focused on enhancing community safety, increasing economic mobility, and strengthening the capacity of trusted local services. • Atlas was established in direct response to New York City’s dramatic reevaluation of its criminal justice system aimed at fulfilling the need for supportive, strength-based offerings to ensure that court-involved individuals can succeed. • Atlas will work in collaboration with UWNYC’s list of Community Based Organizations to provide a suite of services including mentorships family therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, opportunities for employment and education, and additional resources and supports to individuals awaiting trial who choose to participate in the program. Community Violence Intervention Act: The 2021–22 budget establishes funding for gun violence prevention. • Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie (D-Central Brooklyn) announced that the Community Violence Intervention Act was adopted. The act establishes a fund for violence intervention and interruption programs that serve our communities. “Violence intervention and interruption programs have a research-based, proven model for breaking the cycle of handgun violence that plagues our streets and takes the life of an estimated one in forty Black boys in America.”11 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST • This year’s budget commits $10 million to hospital-based violence intervention programs and community-based violence interruption programs and dedicates ten percent of New York’s federally funded Victims of Crime Act funding to these groups in future years. • These programs provide a credible, non-police response to gun violence, and have a remarkable track record of success in the communities most vulnerable to gun violence. Stand Up to Violence (SUV) began in 2014 by Jacobi Medical Center to address the needs of victims of violence in the Bronx. • When it began, SUV was the first hospital-based Cure Violence model program in the nation. The program operates using outreach workers and hospital responders to limit the chances of initial violence, retaliatory violence, and reinjury. • In the years since implementation, SUV has seen a 59% decrease in violence in the areas of the Bronx that it serves. • Due to its success, the program has received recognition and calls for increased funding from elected officials like Sen. Schumer and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. State and Municipal Gun Regulations Gun Safety Laws: New York is a national leader in gun violence prevention. From background checks on all gun sales, to a strong Extreme Risk law, to laws to disarm domestic abusers, to police reform laws and strong permit systems for the purchase and carry of handguns, New York has enacted some of the strongest gun laws in the country. • On June 6, 2022, Governor Hochul signed into law a package of gun control measures that raised the age for purchasing an assault rifle from 18 to 21, prohibited body armor purchases, closed loopholes, mandated microstamping, strengthened “reg flag” laws, established a “Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism” in coordination with the NYS Attorney General’s Office, strengthened SAFE Act (2013) provisions by eliminating grandfathered large-capacity feeding devices, required police reporting in coordination with federal authorities, and required gun dealer inspections. SAFE Act was signed into law in 2013, prevents criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from buying guns, cracks down on illegal guns and bans only the most dangerous assault weapons. The legislation includes provisions that protect and preserve law-abiding citizens’ right to bear arms and does not restrict New Yorkers’ ability to buy, sell, keep, or use guns. SCOTUS case on concealed carry: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the National Urban League filed an amicus brief in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which asks whether a New York gun safety law that requires a person to show “proper cause,” or a special need for self-protection, to carry a concealed firearm outside their home violates the Second Amendment. • The amicus brief argues that states’ authority to limit the public carrying of firearms is well-established and has resulted in reduced handgun violence and deaths. The brief highlights how historically, concealed carry restrictions have been implemented and enforced to protect Black people, and how today, concealed carry restrictions continue to play a significant role in reducing handgun violence and its effect on Black communities.12 TOWARDS A NEW AGE FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUENORTHEAST NYS Sen. Thomas Introduces S8173, New Legislation to Clamp Down on the ‘Iron Pipeline’ and Fight Gun Trafficking • Senator Thomas and Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) announced the introduction of new state legislation in 2022 to crack down on criminal gun traffickers and eliminate the steady flow of illegal guns into New York. • The bill would have strengthened existing laws that prevent the unauthorized sale and possession of firearms. The legislation would have lowered the number of illegal firearms needed to qualify for a first or second-degree felony offense, which may carry multi-year prison sentences and substantial fines. The bill would have also lowered the number of illegal firearms an individual can possess that could be considered presumptive evidence of intent to sell. • The bill stalled and eventually died in the New York State Senate. Similar legislation has not yet been reintroduced. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Alternatives to Policing Cure the Streets is a pilot public safety program launched by OAG aimed at reducing gun violence. It operates in discrete high violence neighborhoods using a data-driven, public- health approach to gun violence by treating it as a disease that can be interrupted, treated, and stopped from spreading. • D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced an expansion to his office’s program. Cure the Streets is based on the Cure Violence Global model, which employs local, credible individuals who have deep ties to the neighborhood in which they work. • Early data indicates this public health approach to treating violence is working in these neighborhoods. • Keep in mind: The sample size is small but targeted. Cure the Streets selected neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence and is targeted to address reciprocal violence, specifically Assault with a Deadly Weapon and gun homicides. This model does not address intimate partner violence or “random” or sporadic street crime. Building Blocks DC: the district’s gun violence reduction strategy. Using research-based models and lived experiences, Building Blocks DC aims to create long-term reductions in gun violence by helping people most at-risk of being involved with gun violence get connected to the services, supports and opportunities they need to succeed, engaging residents in co-creating solutions for communities most impacted by gun violence, and creating linkages of support between communities, government, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. • In two years, the program has distributed more than $1.6 million in funding to 162 grantees to support gun violence prevention work in local communities. • Last year’s funding included programs like the successful Jobs Not Guns employment fairs that connected more than 250 people to companies and organizations willing to hire and help people with criminal backgrounds. 13 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST Gun Violence Prevention Emergency Operations Center has identified more than 67 person-based service and support resources from DC agencies that address employment, housing, substance use, mental health, and family challenges, completed Environmental Assessments of 151 Blocks and 49 Communities and offered 120 people employment opportunities through government and business partners. Mental Health Pilot Program: 911 operators will instead send unarmed teams of behavioral health experts and peers to mental health call scenes. • The D.C. program, which had been in the works since February 2020, first emerged from a recommendation by the city’s Police Reform Commission part of local and national efforts in the wake of George Floyd’s killing to reduce violent contact between the public and law enforcement. • In November 2021, the program was expanded. The city hired more social workers, with a goal of having a third of all mental health calls directed to a dedicated mental health team by the third phase. • From June to September, approximately 315 calls were routed to the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health. Gun Trafficking Prevention and Collaboration with ATF on the Iron Pipeline Firearms Trafficking Strike Force: The DOJ launched five cross-jurisdictional strike forces to help reduce gun violence by disrupting illegal firearms trafficking in key regions across the country in 2021. Leveraging existing resources, the regional strike forces will better ensure sustained and focused coordination across jurisdictions and help stem the supply of illegally trafficked firearms from source cities, through other communities, and into five key market regions: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area/Sacramento Region, and Washington, D.C. • In March 2022, five people were arrested in firearms trafficking conspiracy involving 500+ firearms shipped from Georgia to California, sold on black market in California • The President’s proposed budget for FY23 includes $1.73 billion for the ATF to expand the multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces to include additional personnel. Community Violence Intervention Community-Based Violence Interrupters: Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C.’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) will more than double the number of community-based violence interrupters and expand into three new neighborhoods. • The program aims to prevent and reduce violence by sending violence interrupters into communities, where they build relationships, engage with residents at risk of being involved in gun or violent crime, and mediate disputes before they escalate to violence. • Last year, communities that the ONSE engaged with experienced a decrease in gun crimes and gun homicides, a trend that has remained consistent in 2021.14 TOWARDS A NEW AGE FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUENORTHEAST Pathways Program: The city will also use $4.5 million in federal funds to expand the office’s program to 130 participants. The transitional employment program aims to keep residents out of the criminal justice system and away from violent crime through education and building job skills. • The first phase is an intensive, nine-week classroom-based training that focuses on life and job skills. Phase two offers six months of subsidized employment, which helps participants gain real work experience, build positive work habits, and establish a record of employment. The third phase offers long-term retention and support services aimed at ensuring participants successfully transition to permanent unsubsidized employment, retain said employment, and continue to pursue their other self-identified personal and professional goals. • Individuals referred to this program are ages 20–35. Pathways participants are offered a host of wraparound services including transportation benefits, nutritional services, mental health services, housing assistance referrals, clothing and/or uniform assistance, access to a variety of pro-social extracurricular activities, and more. • Data on ONSE official site says more than 90 percent of Pathways Program graduates have avoided criminal involvement. Mayor’s Funding: the city will award $1.1 million in grants to community-based and nonprofit organizations working to reduce gun violence. • The grants will require partnerships between entities or organizations working on gun violence reduction efforts. This grant cycle builds on the more than $750,000 in grants awarded earlier this year to more than 60 individuals and community-based organizations that are supporting residents and neighborhoods impacted by gun violence. State and Municipal Gun Regulations Gun Safety Laws: The District of Columbia has some of the strongest gun laws in the country and leads the nation with a strong background check law. The district has enacted new gun safety legislation like an Extreme Risk law and emergency ghost gun legislation. • Generally, no person or organization may possess or control any firearm in the District of Columbia unless the person or organization holds a valid registration certificate NEW JERSEY Alternatives to Policing Camden’s rebuilding of the police department: Camden abolished its police department and rebuilt the force. The union contracts were thrown out, resulting in the county having full control. However, many on the force earn a lower salary with fewer benefits and it is a politically divisive entity. The priority was to integrate officers into the fabric of the community.15 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST • Reports show that violent crime in the city has decreased, police officers are a regular presence at community block parties, the excessive use of force rates plummeted, and the homicide rate decreased. Essex’s Community Care and Justice Program: Through a partnership between the village of South Orange, Essex County, Seton Hall University, the South Orange Rescue Squad, and the South Orange Police Department, the Community Care and Justice Program was launched in October 2021 • Composed of two social workers and professors from Seton Hall and three interns from Seton Hall, Rutgers University, and New York University, the Community Care and Justice Program (CC&J) has a mission to serve and protect the vulnerable and underserved in the area through an engagement protocol and providing social service resources. They deal with issues including homelessness, elder abuse, hoarding, sexual assault, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health. • South Orange EMS Chief “the social workers the CC&J program provides will make more of a difference than any ambulance or hospital could. Crisis Intervention Team: a county-based collaboration of law enforcement professionals and mental health professionals who are committed to developing a local system of services that is responsive to individuals with mental illness, family members and the police officers. • The CIT-NJ model strives to provide law enforcement officers and mental health professionals with knowledge and skills that allow them to respond to the individual in psychiatric crisis in a manner that minimizes the potential for injury. In addition, the CIT-NJ model can be instrumental in helping to divert the individual with serious mental illness from the criminal justice system to appropriate mental health treatment. Gun Trafficking Prevention and Collaboration with ATF on the Iron Pipeline Atlantic City Metro Task Force: members include the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office, and Atlantic City Police Department. • “ Since its formation, the Atlantic City Metro Task Force has made hundreds of arrests, seized scores of guns, and taken large quantities of drugs off the streets of Atlantic City and nearby municipalities,” said Director Lyndsay V. Ruotolo of the Division of Criminal Justice. • Acting Attorney General Platkin announced the arrest of four individuals trafficking illegal guns, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in Atlantic City, N.J., and other parts of Atlantic County. The investigation led to the recovery of nine illegal guns— including two assault rifles, one of which is a fully automatic, untraceable “ghost” gun—and 14 prohibited large-capacity ammunition magazines. GunSTAT: To help educate the public, State Police now publishes monthly data online which helps draw attention to the problem of interstate gun trafficking, as well as the states and manufacturers responsible.16 TOWARDS A NEW AGE FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUENORTHEAST Community Violence Intervention Governor funding: Governor Murphy and Acting Attorney General Bruck Commit $8.2 Million for Community Violence Intervention Programs • The funding supports 25 violence-intervention programs, covering 15 municipalities in every region of the state. This historic investment supports intervention strategies that provide alternatives to violence and embody a community-based public safety model. • Funding supports community violence intervention programs like Paterson Healing Collective, an Everytown Community Safety Fund grantee, which identifies patients at risk of repeat violent injury and links them with hospital- and community-based resources aimed at addressing underlying risk factors for violence. Hospital Based Violence Intervention Program: multidisciplinary program that combines the efforts of medical staff with trusted community-based partners to provide safety planning, services, and trauma-informed care to violently injured people, many of whom are boys and men of color. • The New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) utilized funds from the Victims of Crime Act Victims’ Assistance grant to provide funds to local hospital-community organization partnerships to start or expand HVIPs across the state. • HVIP’s address social determinants of health at multiple levels including health, education, social and community (mentoring), economic stability and housing. • Gov Murphy “With the implementation of hospital-based violence intervention programs, our state is better equipped to support victims and offer best practices to the community organizations working to prevent additional violence from occurring.”17 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST Originated in 2014 by Mayor Ras Baraka and community organizer Aqeela Sherrills, the Newark Community Street Team (NCST) has been one of the most successful community violence intervention programs in the country. • Using an evidence-based, trauma informed approach, NCST utilizes Outreach Workers and High Risk Interventionists to identify those most at risk of committing violent acts and intervene without law enforcement. • NCST has grown tremendously since its creation and currently operates the following programs: Victim Services, High Risk Intervention, Hospital Violence Intervention, Safe Passage (for schools), a Trauma Recovery Center, and Overdose Response Team, and a youth leadership academy. • In 2015, the year after NCST started, Newark saw a record high in gun violence. In 2022, Newark experienced a 62-year low. • In 2022, NCST received more than $4 million in federal funding to continue its work. The New Jersey Community-Based Violence Prevention Program uses credible messengers to provide program participants, ages 12-18, with trauma-informed wraparound support. The program aims to stop gun violence before it happens by changing the narrative regarding violence among youth in the state. • The program has received more than $25 million in federal and state funding from Governor Phil Murphy in its first two fiscal years. State and Municipal Gun Regulations Gun Safety Laws: New Jersey has some of the strongest gun laws in the country. From comprehensive background checks to disarming domestic abusers to a strong Extreme Risk law. • Ghost guns: New Jersey was the first state to comprehensively regulate untraceable and undetectable firearms, or “ghost guns.” » New Jersey’s ghost gun law was enacted in 2018 and further strengthened in 2019. The law prohibits the purchase or acquisition of parts, prohibits using a 3D printer to produce a firearm or its components, prohibits the distribution of computer code capable of manufacturing firearms and its components, and prohibits knowingly possessing a firearm manufactured or assembled that is not imprinted with a serial number. • Red Flag law: creates an Extreme Risk Protective Order, a type of court order that can temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms when they pose a risk of harming themselves or others and that can help prevent warning signs from turning into tragedies.18 TOWARDS A NEW AGE FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUENORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA Alternatives to Policing 911 Triage and Co-Responder Program: to better identify and respond to behavioral health crisis calls. Behavioral specialists work with 911 operators to determine the most appropriate response to crisis calls. Police officers and behavioral health specialists work together to connect individuals experiencing behavioral health crises or issues related to substance use to treatment, while also responding to emergency response calls alongside the police. • “ This announcement is an initial step to ensure supported interactions involving people in behavioral health crisis, as well as an opportunity to refine services between first responders and the citizens we serve” - Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. • In 2020 the outreach co-responder pilot engaged with approximately 450 individuals, making over 150 real-time connections to services without making any arrests. Police Assisted Diversion: allows officers to use their discretion to avoid arresting low-level offenders and steer them toward treatment or community service. PAD is a collaborative partnership among police officers, service providers, and community members. • Since 2015, the city has seen a 28.5 percent decrease in the prison population. PAD will serve as a way to safely divert participants from unnecessary jail time. • In a study, Clients reported mostly positive experiences with the program, identifying the primary benefits as avoided arrest and relational support from affiliated service providers. Gun Trafficking Prevention and Collaboration with ATF on the Iron Pipeline Gun Violence Task Force: collaboration between the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office—is comprised of attorneys + field agents who investigate the origins of crime guns and trace them back to prevent future crimes. • The GVTF has made 1,871 arrests and seized 3,299 firearms since the task force’s inception in October 2021. • Track + Trace Initiative is a smart-on-crime, data-driven approach dedicated to tracing crime guns and decreasing gun trafficking and illegal transfers. Currently, 51% (595) of all PA law enforcement agencies are using eTrace. Straw Purchase Prevention Education Program: created by the state Attorney General’s office to provide resources and direct grant money for an educational and public service outreach program to inform individuals of the illegal nature of purchasing a firearm for an individual prohibited from owning firearms.19 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST Operation LIPSTICK: In 2019, the AG provided the operation with a $123,000 grant to partner with Mothers in Charge to implement outreach initiatives for women in the Philadelphia area to educate them about the dangers of straw purchases. • In Boston, the Operation helped achieve a 33% reduction in gun crimes by women. Community Violence Intervention Violence Intervention Program Funding: Governor Tom Wolf announced an additional $35 million in gun violence prevention funding, as part of his final state budget proposal in February 2022. The funding would come in the form of violence intervention program grants overseen by the Pennsylvania Commission for Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). Earlier in 2022, Wolf announced another $15 million investment in violence intervention grants through the American Rescue Plan. Philadelphia’s Office of Violence Prevention: implements strategies and initiatives to prevent, reduce, and end violence. OVP is particularly focused on addressing gun violence. • OVP supports the Community Crisis Intervention Program, Violence Prevention Partnership Program, Targeted Community Investment Grants and Group Violence Intervention Program • The Group Violence Intervention Program deals with individuals who are most at risk of engaging in gun violence. They are connected to social services, employment, and community support. From July 2021 to September 2021 830 home visits were made to high-risk individuals, 606 referrals were made, and 161 custom notifications were made for GVI. • Since 2019, the Targeted Community Investment Grants have funded 170 projects. Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia has provided youth programming aimed at reducing and preventing violence since 1991. AVP currently has three youth-focused programs: Youth Violence Outreach, Positive Action, Communities that Care. • Using an evidence-based approach, AVP goes into Philadelphia schools to provide trauma-informed care, destigmatize trauma, and overall promote the well-being of youth in the community. • In 2022, AVP received more than $1 million in federal and state grant funding. Philadelphia CeaseFire, using the Cure Violence model, has worked to reduce gun violence in the Philadelphia area since 2014. • Viewing gun violence as a public health issue, Philadelphia Ceasefire uses violence interrupters to stem retaliatory violence before it occurs. • Organizers say that what sets their program apart is interaction between their interrupters and the community even when violence is not imminent, increasing the credibility of their messengers. • Since the introduction of the Cure Violence model, Philadelphia Ceasefire has seen a 30% decrease in gun violence in the areas it canvasses.Next >