Hennepin County is now expected to commit $10 million for a comprehensive gun violence plan that will include a violence reduction and prevention coordinator.
Hennepin County expected to commit $10 million to gun violence prevention
The initiative includes a coordinator and a focus on youthful offenders.
February 23, 2022 at 1:57AM
Officials are tapping federal pandemic relief dollars to fund the initiative. The county board approved the initial $5 million in June for short-term violence intervention strategies. The request for an additional $5 million, which will focus on youth offenders, disparity reduction in the court system and data collection, will be debated by the board's budget committee next week.
The funding comes at a time of continuing violence throughout the county, particularly in Minneapolis. The surge also has caught the attention of state lawmakers, who are considering a variety of public safety bills.
During the pandemic, homicides in Hennepin County increased significantly compared with 2019, when there were 67 across the county. In 2020, 109 homicides were recorded and in 2021, 145 were recorded with most (96) occurring in Minneapolis. In 2020 and 2021, the number of homicides due directly to firearms totaled 147.
"This is a tool we are using to attempt to interrupt and stop violence on our streets. Any challenge the community faces has been exacerbated during the now nearly two years of living in a pandemic," said board Chair Marion Greene. "The county partners with community organizations to use a holistic approach to address gun violence in Hennepin County. We do all we can with our partners to stop the violence. Every resident of Hennepin County deserves to feel safe, wherever they live."
According to the latest Uniform Crime Report, the FBI stated the number of homicides in 2020 nationwide increased almost 30% from 2019, the largest single-year increase the agency recorded since it began tracking these crimes in the 1960s. More than two-thirds of the country's most populous cities recorded more homicides in 2021 than the previous year.
The county has allocated the initial $5 million for short-term violence intervention efforts. Specifically, they included:
- Supporting Hennepin County's Next Step Program, a hospital-based violence interruption service for victims ages 12 to 28, who are hospitalized due to violent injury.
- Enhancing around-the-clock gender-specific violence intervention services tailored to the immediate needs of youth (ages 14-24) under the supervision of the county's court and community corrections system and the state department of corrections.
- Assisting on the ground, violence interruption/intervention through patrol and outreach services by community providers in neighborhoods experiencing high levels of crime and violence.
- Increasing resources in law enforcement forensics to support investigations of violent crime cases.
- Creating partnerships and communication channels with the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention and the state to improve efforts and maximize resources and strengths.
- Developing a data collection process and building analytics to monitor outputs, outcomes and program effectiveness.
If the additional $5 million is approved, which is expected, the county will create a coordinator to manage ongoing violence reduction strategies and develop a long-term plan in coordination with other county programming focused on reducing disparities and violence prevention.
The county would also develop more partnerships with cities hurt by gun violence.
