Can a new Columbia office curb rising gun violence? Mayor hopes it will cut shootings in half
Sixty-one people in Columbia have been shot with a gun this year, 10 of them fatally. Law enforcement estimates there will be another 60 shootings before the year is over.
Local leaders have frequently described the number of shootings here a crisis. In May, Richland County Solicitor Byron Gipson said the the gun violence is “another type of pandemic.”
A new program being considered by Columbia’s City Council seeks to help in a big way.
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann is hoping his colleagues on council will approve spending $803,000 on a new four-person office of gun violence prevention that he hopes will cut shootings in half over the next three years.
Rickenmann called the office the “quarterback” for city crime reduction resources in a presentation to the rest of City Council Tuesday. He stressed that the effort would rely on buy-in and participation from a network of neighborhood leaders.
“For this to be successful, we’re going to have to have community partners, we’re going to have to have crisis teams, we’re going to have to have our churches involved,” he said.
In addition, community events, behavioral therapy and blight control are included in the holistic approach Rickenmann hopes the city will take.
“Studies and experience have shown that community-based solutions have as much of an impact in violence reduction as law enforcement-centric solutions,” he wrote in a memo to the City Council prior to Tuesday’s work session.
Under Rickenmann’s proposal, the office would have its own director and support staff and would tap existing community leaders as “violence interrupters” to help mediate street-level conflicts and facilitate neighborhood conversations.
It would also have staff dedicated to connecting people with various city resources. Those employees would be trained social workers and each would oversee 25 individuals at a time in need of local resources.
In total, the program is estimated to cost $802,800 over three years, which the mayor hopes to pay for with federal ARPA dollars. The office would be active starting in 2023.
After three years, Rickenmann hopes there will be enough success to leverage federal and private dollars.
Major cities such as New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have launched similar programs in recent years. Columbia’s office would mirror the work in other cities, according to the mayor’s memo.
Next steps
Local leaders agree gun violence, particularly among youth, is a major problem in Richland County and Columbia. And they also seem to agree that community-driven intervention is the ideal solution.
One example is the recent formation of a group called Getting A New Generation Started in Peace, or G.A.N.G.S in Peace. That organization brings gang ambassadors formerly associated with groups including Bloods, Crips, Folk Nation, Gangster Disciples and Piru together with local religious leaders and law enforcement to try to reduce youth gun deaths.
Most on City Council said they agree with the approach as well and voiced support for the mayor’s vision. Nearly all council members agreed there needed to be further discussions on how the office will be staffed and what it specifically will aim to accomplish.
“I totally support the concept of having an office of gun violence prevention, but I do have tons and tons of questions,” said District 1 Councilwoman Tina Herbert, whose district sees a disproportionate number of shootings compared to the rest of the city.
Several council members took pause with the price tag, which would spend roughly $803,000 of the $27 million the city got from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
At-large Councilwoman Aditi Bussells said she agrees with the office’s goals but asked for further discussion, as research has shown violence interrupter programs aren’t always effective.
A 2022 audit of a similar program in D.C., which Bussells cited, could not say whether the program was effective because data on the program was incomplete.
If the city does move forward with the office, it would take a focused geographic approach to curbing shootings.
Roughly 40% of shootings in Columbia occur in about 2% of the city’s surface area, according to police data. Those areas include Booker Washington Heights, Colonial Heights and the corridor around Millwood Avenue and King Street.
The office would coordinate with groups already working on gun violence prevention, like Kassy Alia Ray’s Serve & Connect, which seeks to improve relationships between residents and police.
“We are optimistic to hear of the Mayor’s proposal to establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention,” that organization said in a statement Tuesday, adding the office will help sustain work like theirs.
City Council members Tuesday agreed to move ahead with discussions about the office but took no formal votes because it was a work session.
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 9:12 AM.
