Waco police to seek violence interrupters

wacotrib.com

Waco Police Department will coordinate with community organizations to seek “violence interrupters,” who would aim to intervene before violent situations arise, Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian told Waco City Council this week.

While discussing the police department’s response to rising crime in Waco, Victorian told the council that apart from homicide, the rates of both violent and nonviolent crime are actually trending about the same this year as last year. She also said her department will seek out “violence interrupters” among the community, aiming to prevent situations from escalating to violence.

“An uptick in crime is not a police problem. It’s a community problem,” Waco City Council Member Andrea Barefield said.

Taking the lead to gather the community in response to the rising number of homicides this year, the chief proposed violence interrupters.

“I know people through my last job (as an assistant police chief in Houston) who have done this type of program before and been successful,” Victorian said.

Violence interrupters are not actually people who would walk into the middle of a fist fight and pull the fighters apart, police spokesperson Cierra Shipley said after the council meeting.

“(It) is a term (the chief) uses to describe community members/mentors/influential stakeholders as people who redirect our youth and interrupt the cycle of crime,” Shipley told the Tribune-Herald by text message Tuesday.

According to a statement from the National Gang Center of the U.S. Department of Justice, at the street level, violence interrupters are individuals who, because of their past positions in the community or, in some cases, their prior history with a gang, retain the ability to reach and talk to key active gang members.

“Violence interrupters use these personal relationships to address ongoing disputes, which may prevent them from escalating into shootings,” according to the statement. “Their activities include talking individuals and groups out of planned violent events and, in some cases, talking with and/or bringing together key individuals who are involved to cool down those conflicts.”

Violence interrupters represent a proactive policing strategy that began in the early 2000s, said Patrick Flavin, a Baylor University political science professor who leads the school’s program offering a minor in criminal justice.

Flavin said he has read research where violence interrupters have been tried in large cities like Chicago, New York, Phoenix and Pittsburgh.

“(It’s) a way to try to proactively deal with violence, to limit (violent acts) from happening in the first place,” Flavin said.

He said it is a “practical” method.

Using violence interrupters “involves identifying scenarios where violence happens and attempting to prevent it with those who have a better chance of breaking through and having an effect,” Flavin said.

He also said it is key to measure the results.

“In some of the cities where this was tried, crime went down,” he said. “In others it stayed the same.”

There were a couple of studies where crime actually went up, he said.

“It’s important to have ways of measuring the results, so that they can do something different, or make adjustments, if they don’t get the results they want,” Flavin said.

He also said all the studies on violence interrupters he has read took place in larger cities than Waco.

“There’s no one way to do it that will guarantee success. It works better in some places than others,” Flavin said. “Maybe it will work better in Waco.”

The Waco police chief told the council a Waco-area nonprofit will apply for a grant later this month to provide training to the mentors and influencers who would help to break the cycle of crime.

Crime trends and arrests

Victorian also touted the number of arrests the Waco Police Department has made and the number of firearms they have taken off the streets.

“Waco saw a slight increase in violent and nonviolent crime in 2018, a slight drop in 2019 and, except for homicides, has been comparatively flat since then,” the chief said. “So far this year, we have made 433 arrests for violent crimes, including clearing seven homicides and 13 sexual assaults by arrest.”

She also said her officers have taken 281 firearms off the streets.

“Those 281 firearms include weapons taken into evidence,” Victorian said, as well as recovered stolen guns and guns taken away from felons not allowed to have firearms.

Other ways to reduce crime

Victorian also discussed the department’s Neighborhood Engagement Team and a neighborhood camera initiative.

“The Neighborhood Engagement Team has been visiting schools, walking the halls, reading to students and eating lunch with them,” she said.

She also said that the Neighborhood Engagement Team follows up with clergy and civic organizations after vigils and public events to get them involved in redirecting youth and preventing crime.

In the neighborhood camera initiative, she said residents who have Ring brand doorbell cameras can give the police department temporary access to review recorded video for evidence of crimes or to see suspects’ movements.

Victorian also said the department would bring proposals for the department to buy and deploy its own gunshot detectors, which use a network of audio sensors, and automated license plate readers to the council at a future meeting.