(Photo by Matt Wisla)

The Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention will be launching a comprehensive, community-driven planning process next month. This effort has been in the works for quite some time and has attracted the support of local and national organizations. I have accelerated the Violence Prevention initiative since my appointment of a new director to that office. 

We are engaging national and local partners in this effort and it will reflect strategies for enhancing public safety. As I’ve said repeatedly, law enforcement is an important part of the public safety equation but not the only piece. If we have learned anything from the events over the past two weeks, it is imperative that we all work together to address the factors that we know drive crime and disorder in communities.

This is an issue that the city can’t shoulder alone. We look forward to engaging multiple sectors including business, education, community, youth, health and officials across all levels of government in identifying comprehensive strategies that we can align resources and policy to launch and sustain.

We will be working with the Prevention Institute out of Oakland, CA with extensive experience with facilitating planning process with cities throughout the country. This effort will be led by the Office of Violence Prevention.