White House Conference on Gang Prevention and Crime Control Focuses on Federal-Local Partnerships
by Michael Karpman
NLC and key city leaders joined Attorney General Eric Holder and Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske at a recent White House Conference on Gang Violence and Crime Control to discuss innovative strategies and federal-local partnerships for preventing crime and violence. The August 24 conference brought together nearly 200 mayors, police chiefs, foundations, researchers, community leaders, service providers and national organizations.
“We are pleased to be part of this important conference and look forward to having a dialogue with the Administration,” said Donald J. Borut, executive director of NLC. “The conference provided an excellent opportunity for cities and the federal government to learn from one another and find ways to partner in collaborative crime prevention efforts.”
Principles for Getting “Smart on Crime”
Attorney General Holder praised mayors and police chiefs as “innovators in the administration of justice.”
“You are the people who work to make changes on the front lines,” said Holder. “You are constantly refining your approach to crime. You know what works, and what doesn’t work, to make our neighborhoods and communities safer. You field-test new strategies and you prove that solutions are possible to some of our most challenging crime problems.”
While recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work in every community, Holder highlighted five principles for getting “smart on crime”: innovation, evidence-based strategies, results-driven approaches, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. He pointed to several innovative local initiatives to illustrate how cities can apply these principles, including:
• An effort to shut down drug markets in High Point, N.C., that has reduced violent crime by 57 percent since 2004;
• Summer Night Lights, a partnership between the City of Los Angeles and community organizations to reclaim local parks from criminal activity and gang violence by providing safe nighttime activities;
• New York City’s Real Time Crime Center, a centralized police department technology center that provides officers in the field with up-to-date information as they investigate a crime scene, and uses satellite and mapping technology to identify where suspects are likely to flee; and
• CeaseFire Chicago, a public health model that uses street outreach workers and “violence interrupters” to defuse conflict and prevent shooting and killings.
Holder committed to a strong federal partnership with cities on public safety, not only through recent funding increases for programs such as Community Oriented Policing Services, but also through mutual participation in federal and local task forces, providing data and research and sharing best practices.
Keeping Students on Track
Other conference speakers included Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Providence, R.I., Mayor David N. Cicilline, Rochester, N.Y., Mayor Robert J. Duffy, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and San Bernardino, Calif., Mayor Pat Morris.
Emphasizing the vital connection between student success and violence prevention, Mayor Duffy noted that in his city “three-fourths of those arrested had dropped out,” and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris stated that in recent years, 94 percent of her city’s homicide victims under age 25 have been high school dropouts.
Maximizing Limited Resources
A number of speakers represented NLC’s California Cities Gang Prevention Network, including John Calhoun, the 13-city network’s director, Mayor Morris, San José Police Chief Rob Davis and Rev. Jeff Carr, chief of staff to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Mayor Morris discussed San Bernardino’s innovative Operation Phoenix program, which has linked a countywide gang prevention effort to a targeted, neighborhood-based strategy that has significantly reduced crime and homicide rates.
“In my view, our collaborative approach is what’s made it possible to drive down crime so dramatically in our city over the last three years,” said Morris in the local Press-Enterprise newspaper.
Launched by NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), with ongoing funding by The California Endowment and the California Wellness Foundation, the California Cities Gang Prevention Network seeks to help cities develop comprehensive local gang violence prevention plans, highlight promising approaches that can be adapted in cities throughout the nation, and identify federal and state policies that can support local efforts.
Faced with significant budget constraints, network cities have found that they could develop and implement comprehensive local plans more effectively if federal and state law provided more flexibility to address their most pressing needs. Among the key recommendations from the network that NLC shared at the White House conference are policy changes that require increased accountability for measurable outcomes in exchange for greater flexibility in the use of state and federal funds.
Details: To learn more about the California Cities Gang Prevention Network, visit www.ccgpn.org or contact Leon Andrews at (202) 626-3039 or andrews@nlc.org.
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