A Town Hall for Justice held in April to discuss gun violence.
A new program in Harrisburg could change the way the city addresses gun violence, but, according to officials, it will take the community’s commitment for it to work.
After gaining approval from Harrisburg City Council this month, the city plans to start a Group Violence Intervention (GVI) initiative this summer with the goal of preventing violent crimes.
“We wanted to address a lot of the gun violence that’s been going on in the city,” said Adrienne Hoffman-Lewis, crime analyst for the Harrisburg Police Bureau.
In December, Harrisburg received a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for violence prevention efforts. The grant was tied to a requirement for the city to contract with The Research Foundation of the City University of New York, on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) at John Jay College, to provide services for a two-year term. The organization is a pioneer in GVI strategies that provides evidence-based, crime-reduction strategies to communities across the nation.
The GVI program is centered around an ultimatum of sorts—one that Harrisburg offenders may soon face. Members of violent groups in the city will be presented with the option to either receive help and stop the violence or to face consequences.
“You either have the choice to accept social services and get out of that life, or if you don’t, we are going to come down hard on you,” explained Chardan Huston, director of community relations and engagement for the Harrisburg police.
Under the program, which could begin as early as June, staff members with the NNSC will conduct research and analyze group violence in Harrisburg. This will include identifying members of violent groups.
Huston explained that the GVI program uses the term “group” rather than “gang,” because not all violent groups are gangs.
According to Hoffman-Lewis, the city doesn’t currently have formal data identifying violent groups in Harrisburg. This is information NNSC will gather, likely by the end of the year, Hoffman-Lewis said.
Identifying community participants is another large part of the puzzle. These “moral voices”—as the GVI program refers to them—will partner with the city to help support and convince group members to accept help.
“The biggest piece of this strategy will be that collaboration between law enforcement, social services and the community,” Hoffman-Lewis said. “We really need the community to be involved, we need their voices.”
Huston predicts that the data-collecting and partnership-building first phase of the program will take up the rest of the year. In 2023, the bureau will then focus on implementation. Officers and other community members will conduct call-ins—presentations to members of violent groups about their options moving forward.
Within the coming weeks, the bureau is looking to hire a project manager, preferably a resident who already has knowledge of and relationships with Harrisburg law enforcement, social service organizations, and residents, according to Hoffman-Lewis. The person in this role will spearhead the program and serve as a liaison between violent group members, law enforcement and other organizations.
If the program is successful, it could reduce violence in the city and help those involved on a better path, officials said. But there are still many unknowns with the initiative, which will be new to Harrisburg. At previous city council meetings, council members expressed their concerns, asking questions about the timeline and strategy.
No one can know for sure how the new program will play out in Harrisburg, but bureau officials have studied how other cities, like York, have fared under the model.
Since 2016, York city has utilized the GVI program in an attempt to combat gun violence.
According to Lt. Daniel Lentz of the York City Police Department, the initiative has impacted the way that the department has approached policing.
“The whole goal is to keep group members safe, alive and out of prison,” Lentz told TheBurg. “We don’t want to be arresting you, but we want the violence to stop.”
In York, getting violent group members to participate has included requiring attendance at call-in meetings as a condition of probation and even confronting members at their homes. For those they can’t reach, the goal is that group members spread the message.
Lentz said that the department has seen small changes over the years. From 2020-21, York experienced a 10% decrease in non-fatal shootings. But he believes that, even nearly six years into the GVI program, the real change is yet to come.
“I don’t think we will see the true effects for 10 to 20 years,” he said. “It’s about breaking a cycle and that takes a lot of time.”
In Lentz’s opinion, Harrisburg’s two-year contract with NNSC should be enough time to get the GVI initiative established. From there, the fate of the program will rest on the community’s dedication to keep it going.
“The ultimate success relies heavily on strong partnerships,” he said. “Every entity has to be committed.”
Hoffman-Lewis believes that help from the NNSC will leave Harrisburg in a place of self-sufficiency, where, like York, the GVI program can become a regular part of how the city operates and interacts with offenders. But more than that, she’s hopeful that it will prevent future tragedies.
“The hope is that, as group members and other people that are committing violence see that these things are being offered, that maybe they will be proactive in reaching out,” she said.
For more information on the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College, visit their website.
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