Key Sentence:
- What is a practical approach to public safety?
- And who leads – society?
- Police?
- Both of them?
Looking ahead, Simon Stumpf of Ashoka met with DeVon Boggan, founder of Advance Peace, an organization based in Richmond, California, promoting effective community-based responses to retaliation and repeated gun violence that reduce gun violence by up to 80%. This summer, Boggan was tapped by President Biden to brief the White House Home Council on what he’s doing to reduce violence at urban guns and achieve sustainable outcomes for our hardest-hit American cities.
Simon Stumpf: DeVone, you started working on the topic of urban gun violence over 15 years ago. What is your assessment of what needs to change?
DeVone Boggan: Almost everything. In particular, violent crime and gun violence plague many of our neighborhoods, and we seem to have only one answer: the police and more police. And the data shows that this is not working for the affected communities. So in 2006, we launched the first city-based violence prevention service focused on reducing gunfire without prosecution.
In the early years, we received a lot of encouragement for the idea at the time. We now have more than 25 government offices across the country working to reduce gun violence and address other social challenges. As the only and most effective solution, even if data and research say otherwise. Most of the available data prompts us to ask, “Is this approach detrimental to public safety?”
Stumpf: And your starting position is quite different – you’re engaging an active armed criminal. Tell us more.
Blunt: “Small group” means dozens of people or less, against hundreds?
Boggan: That’s right. And it depends on the number of residents in the city. I would say less than 0.03 percent of the population for the most part. The bottom line is that we can embrace it. It’s not so vast that we can’t squeeze it. If we look closer, we also find that almost 98% of these people are not involved in any other city or public care system.
We believe that to get the best results from reducing expressed gun violence in saving lives; we cannot ignore the involvement of this crucial group of people. These young people must be at the center of solving the equation. They also need to be supported by the people who have been there, change the lives around them, and make a positive and healthy contribution to their community.