In 2006, the Providence Police Department implemented the Drug Market Intervention in the Lockwood section of Providence. A year after its implementation, calls for police services decreased by 58 percent, reported drug crime decreased by 70 percent, and drug calls to police decreased by 81 percent. Lt. Gannon maintained strong community relations and helped lead a follow-up initiative in 2009, closing the open air drug market in Chad Brown.
A new Massachusetts-based group, the National Medical Council on Gun Violence, says it’s time to go beyond asking patients if they have access to a gun. “If people don’t know what to do when they get a ‘yes,’ then they’re never going to screen for it,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, who helped organize the “Caring for Patients at Risk for Gun Violence: Medical, Legal, & Ethical Issues” conference at Baystate Medical Center on Dec 6th.
Lt. Daniel E. Gannon is a 25 year veteran of the Providence Police Department in Rhode Island. A year after the implementation of the Drug Market Initiative, calls for police services decreased by 58 percent, reported drug crime decreased by 70 percent, and drug calls to police decreased by 81 percent. Lt. Gannon maintained strong community relations and helped lead a follow-up initiative in 2009.
By 2009, Wilmington, Delaware ranked third-highest in violent crime for U.S. cities its size. The News Journal highlights Providence's successful model of dealing with chronic violence, transforming once-corroded neighborhoods through community policing and social services strategy. UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy Professor Mark Kleiman argues that poverty and racism cannot be fixed until the crime problem is under control. During the same decade, several other cities including Cincinnati; Nashville, Tennessee; Rockford, Illinois; and Raleigh and High Point, North Carolina have used the new ideas about deterring crime to effectively wipe out their most infamous drug markets. The ideas also are being applied to gang crime, domestic violence and probation.
The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence (ISPN) is an innovative organization that works with the National Network to reduce group-related violence in Providence, RI. Working with law enforcement and hospitals, executive director Teny Gross and ISPN have helped to reduce the homicide rate consistently over the past decade. ISPN uses street outreach work, mentorship, nonviolence trainings in prison and schools, hospital response to violent crime, and employment services to serve both victims and perpetrators of violent crime. Its Victim Services Department responds to all homicide victims' families and living victims of violent crime. Additionally, ISPN works with juveniles and adults as they prepare to be released from the training school or prison.
The National Network believes the ISPN model - and street outreach work in general - can be integral to violence reduction and especially to support and outreach structures for the high-risk individuals with whom our cities engage.
