Charlotte could see a violence interrupters program in 2021, but what is it?

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Charlotte could see a violence interrupters program in 2021, but what is it?

Amanda Zhou

When Charlotte City Council reconvenes in the new year, a priority for members will be getting a violence interruption program off the ground.

The program — which pays trusted community members to anticipate where crime will occur and intervene — was initially discussed in January 2020 after a year when the homicide total grew to 107 killings — more than doubling between 2014 and 2019.

The program was delayed by the pandemic and a month of nationwide protests over police brutality that led City Council to review police policy first.

Now, Lacey Williams, a program manager with the city’s office of equity, mobility and immigrant integration, hopes the violence interruption program will be in place before the summer of 2021.

The need has never been greater. With only a couple days left in the year, the city has broken last year’s record of homicides and also experienced a rise in violent crime, while overall criminal incidents have been down.

The program — which comes from the Chicago-based organization Cure Violence — is intended to be hyperlocal and will specifically address a part of Beatties Ford Road near LaSalle Street. City Council members and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officials have said they support implementing a violence interruption program and hope it can be one of many efforts to address violence in the city.

Here are answers to questions about the violence interruption program:

What is a violence interruption program?

At its core, a violence interruption program consists of training and paying trusted members of a community to anticipate where violence could occur and intervene. The key is to hire people who are from the community and already know the neighborhood, Williams said.

Cure Violence will work with the city to select and train a local organization to implement the program, which will be funded by both the city and Mecklenburg County.

The city of Durham adopted an interrupters program in 2016 and used former inmates to mediate conflicts between rival gangs.

The “interrupters model” was developed by an epidemiologist who argued that violence could be thought of as a public health issue. In presentations to Charlotte City Council, Cure Violence representatives have described violence as something that can cluster in neighborhoods and spread through exposure and cultural norms.

Crime is a symptom of systemic problems, Williams said, sometimes related to poverty, a lack of job opportunities and access to guns.

“You have to stop the bleed first to be able to address the root causes,” she said.

Cure Violence also will work with local hospitals to establish an interruption program that connects interrupters with people who have just been shot to prevent retaliation.

Does this model work? Why Cure Violence?

Cure Violence — which has implemented the interrupters model in cities across the U.S. like Milwaukee and Chicago — has been evaluated independently by multiple universities, according to a presentation to City Council by Cure Violence Chief Program Officer Brent Decker. In Chicago, shootings and killings decreased between 41 and 73%, and in Baltimore, homicides dropped by 56%, the presentation stated.

According to Durham County Commissioners Chair Wendy Jacobs, the neighborhoods where interrupters work have also seen declines in shootings since 2016, the Observer previously reported.

“I think it’s a model that works,” she said.

What separates Cure Violence from other anti-violence programs, Williams said, is that its main goal and metric is whether shootings and deaths decrease.

“(Interrupters are) not on the street, begging people to stop selling drugs (or) trying to change their lifestyle or their behavior,” she said. “They’re really just about ‘don’t kill people.’”

Why Beatties Ford?

Earlier this year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police identified four neighborhoods as hot spots for violent crime: the areas around Interstate 85/Sugar Creek Road, Beatties Ford Road/LaSalle Street, Nations Ford/Arrowood roads and Sharon Amity Road/Central Avenue.

Those areas, make up less than 2 square miles of CMPD’s jurisdiction and 8% of violent crimes. While each of those areas have different characteristics, the violence on Beatties Ford Road primarily occurs between individuals having minor arguments that escalate, Williams said.

She anticipates an interrupter would likely monitor social media to get a sense of where tensions are starting to bubble over and try to mediate the conflict between the individuals.

Beatties Ford Road, a historic Black neighborhood, has been marked by disinvestment, Williams added.

The city has also designated the neighborhood as a “Corridor of Opportunity” and an “Opportunity Zone” — both government designations designed to bring more economic growth to the corridor and improve the quality of life for residents, the Observer previously reported.

“This is not going to be the silver bullet that saves homicides all over Charlotte, but it’s like we have to start somewhere. And we’re starting in the place of greatest need,” Williams said.

What is it going to take to get the program started? How much does it cost?

To start, the city must identify a local organization that will be trained by Cure Violence and will eventually administer the program and oversee the hiring of interrupters. Williams said the city is hoping to have a request for proposals out in January.

Cure Violence also is still looking to identify people who are willing to serve as interrupters, she said. Since September, Cure Violence representatives have visited the Beatties Ford neighborhood and have met with local activists and stakeholders. Community members are often skeptical of “outside” organizations at first, Williams said, but activists left the meeting in support of the model.

The local organization will receive $390,000 for one year to hire five to six people including two interrupters and an outreach manager, who will essentially act as a case worker, Williams said. The outreach manager will work with individuals who want to make a lifestyle change, and connect them with resources.

The city also needs to set aside $80,000 to contract with Cure Violence which will work with the city and the local organization “every step of the way” Williams said.

Cure Violence has also determined that whatever organization receives the grant will likely need administrative help — such as human resources or payroll duties — for such a large sum. The city will need to set aside around $20,000 to contract with an organization like the Urban League to provide that administrative help.

With the Mecklenburg County Health Department being tied up by managing the pandemic, Williams said the city will administer the program at least for the first year and the funding will be split equally between the two government agencies, she said.

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