The National Network's approach has attracted significant media attention over twenty years. This page features the most recent coverage of our work and a searchable archive of media about the National Network's projects around the nation and abroad.
The National Network convenes regular conferences, working sessions and webinars to discuss and promote developments in its core areas of operation, showcase innovations, and set research and development priorities.
Due to the initiative's recent success, the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination team expanded its' efforts to cover the second most violent area of the city. BRAVE now covers the areas that account for over 50 percent of Baton Rouge’s violent crime.
Citing growing divisions between police and residents, AG Holder announced the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, aimed at mending these relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. "As law enforcement leaders, each of us has an essential obligation and a unique opportunity to ensure fairness, eliminate bias, and build community engagement," he said.
GVI efforts in Louisiana's two largest cities has produced a prominent national award for New Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and East Baton Rouge DA Hillar Moore. DA Leon Cannizzaro’s work with GVRS and the Multi-Agency Gang Unit in New Orleans won recognition from FBI director James B. Comey and the 2014 Director's Award for Distinguished Service to the Law Enforcement Community. This marks the first time a New Orleans district attorney has won the Director's Award. Read the press release here.
Closing the crime gap entails more than just policing and new city ordinances, writes Yale University's Andrew Papachristos. Among the numerous gaps that contribute to inequality, closing the crime gap also means thinking about ways to enhance the legitimacy and fairness of our criminal justice system.
New Orleans is using a data driven innovation strategy to reduce violence after having studied strategies used by other cities like Memphis, Chicago, and University of Cincinnati's Robin Engel. “The biggest thing that went against common belief is that a lot of our violence was related to groups and gangs,” says Charles West, who was appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to lead the New Orleans innovation delivery team. “We were always told that we didn’t have a gang problem. But we had gangs of significant size, and people just weren’t talking about it. More than anything, there wasn’t a specific form of policing strategy for groups and gangs.”
On September 10th, NJ mayors of Jersey City, Newark and Paterson, prosecutors, police chiefs, and criminal justice experts convened at the Urban Mayors Roundtable on public safety at Rutgers University’s Police Institute to discuss strategies to reduce crime including focused deterrence responses to violence and building trust with the community. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka spoke of the debilitating effects of aggressive policing in minority neighborhoods, adding, “We have to have a police strategy that’s focused on the 1 percent we keep talking about as opposed to this big net." In addition, Newark Public Safety Director Eugene Venable spoke about Newark’s Violence Reduction Initiative.
Over the last four years in South Bend, shootings have gone up during the summer months. However, this year has been different. Homicide is down this summer and the South Bend community leaders involved in the city's Group Violence Intervention think it's due to the success of the call-in meeting held in May, where law enforcement, community activists, and service providers spoke directly to group members about stopping the violence. South Bend held it's second call-in August 28th.
The National Network's pilot intervention aimed at the most dangerous domestic violence offenders is showing promising results in its initial implementation in High Point, North Carolina, and heading for replication in several other cities. Domestic violence victim advocate Shay Harger saw the essence of the approach from the outset: "It was the first time I'd had somebody say to me, "the victim doesn't have to take responsibility for somebody else's behavior." Harger and High Point Chief of Police Marty Sumner discuss the OFDVI approach.
Yale Law School's Tracey Meares writes in The New Republic about the sentiment of fear and anger in Ferguson and other traumatized communities. She argues that the fear and anger is not solely the result of mistreatment by the police, but from other factors such as housing, educational and civil
Don't Shoot in Peoria held it's sixth call-in with group members, and the dedicated community members involved in the strategy believe the message is getting across.
Looking to the example of veteran National Network partner High Point Police Department in High Point, North Carolina, East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office' DA Hillar Moore is hoping to adopt a new approach to target chronic domestic violence offenders, expanding on the tactics already in place for the city-parish's anti-group violence initiative, BRAVE, Baton Rouge.
New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman emphasizes the importance of forging positive relationships with the community before violence occurs. Beyond recommendations to have a police reflect the community it serves, Esserman said, “how you police matters—It’s about fairness and dignity and trust.”
NPR's Code Switch discusses tensions between police and communities, and means to build trust, in the aftermath of the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. David Kennedy contributes the National Network's experience with shifting and resetting these relationships.
The National Network for Safe Communities' approach in Salinas is being identified as an alternative to the conflict in Ferguson. "This is ultimately, a slow and deliberate process of trust building," says Salinas Police Department Chief Kelly McMillin
Two and a half months after South Bend's first call-in, GVI coordinator Dominic Zultanski says the number of shootings in South Bend are down. Out of the 21 men who attended May's call-in, fifteen men have accepted offers for services.
The Lexington Police Department earlier this month kicked off a domestic violence initiative that's focused on offenders and replicates High Point’s Offender Focused Domestic Violence Initiative, first implemented by High Point Chief of Police Marty Sumner. Officials hope the duplication of the program will reduce repeat calls for services and injuries to victims.
In the five months since Chattanooga's Violence Reduction Initiative began, 58 of the city's most violent offenders have landed jobs, and with the help of VRI, 42 have held onto those jobs. Police and community leaders also met face to face with 26 people to deliver custom notifications -- a personalized letter from Chief Fred Fletcher.
A new report from WNYC's Kathleen Horan talks about how the 79th precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant is one of eight precincts taking part in a pilot program that aims to show new cops how to bring a more personable approach to law enforcement.
During a visit to Bridgeport, Gov. Dan Malloy said that programs like Project Longevity is part of a coordinated effort to keep the state's young people safer. Bridgeport's chapter of Project Longevity has reached out to 79 potential offenders between the ages of 17 and 34 — some of them with records of violent crimes — inviting them to group meetings with police officers and other members of the community to talk about the consequences of violent activity and offering to help them find jobs.
As of June 30, Kansas City homicides were down 31 percent from the same time last year. Coincidence or not, the decrease comes during the first months of a reorganization in the way the Kansas City Police Department fights violent crime, and follows the first full year of the ambitious and multifaceted Kansas City No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA).
Andrew Papachristos points to what he calls "the crime gap" — the huge disparity in homicide rates in different areas of the Windy City. "Even though the numbers in Chicago are what they are, the gap between the worst neighborhoods and the best neighborhoods is massive," he said. The neighborhoods that have had the highest rates of violence over the last half-century still see the most violence.
Six months ago, parents could not let their children out of their homes in Avondale without fear. After coordinated efforts between Cincinnati Police and the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), resident Darlene Gillie says things have changed on Irving Street. “And it’s gonna keep that way.”
Prior to his return to the department a year ago, Police Chief James Craig began his career in law enforcement in Detroit in 1977 and has since then served in Los Angeles and Cincinnati. "We need to drive the message. We need to tell the story. We need to talk about our crime reduction efforts. We need to talk about the community’s perception,” Craig said.
Kansas City closed out June with good reasons to be encouraged that efforts to abate violent crimes may be showing results. "Using intelligence to get ahead of violence is huge," said Kansas City Police Capt. Joe McHale, who is working with Kansas City NoVA, one of the innovative ways of deploying police resources, one of the efforts that may be having results.
