Mayor Kenney, city leaders announce findings of Violence Intervention Program evaluation

PHILADELPHIA - Mayor Jim Kenney and other city leaders announced the progress of their gun violence intervention program on Tuesday. 

City workers, law enforcement officials, and volunteers came up with a program that targets gang and group violence. The program, which launched in August 2020, is an evidence-based approach to gun violence.

The program's creation is based on the premise that only about 0.5 of one percent of the city’s population may be linked to 60 to 70 percent of shootings and homicides.

Program Director, Deion Sumpter, says they track social media activity and meet weekly with law enforcement and other partners to discuss those very individuals and how to approach them. On Saturdays, two or three teams deploy with a list of roughly 12 individuals to speak with.

"When we're out there, we knock on doors. If someone comes to the door, we engage them, and we don't turn our backs on anyone," said Sumpter.

Each team is paired with program social service providers, two police officers, a representative from the District Attorney’s Office, and often volunteers.

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Cherie Ryans is one of the many women involved. Her son, Terence, was murdered in 1990.

"I couldn’t save my son, but I try as much as I can to save somebody else’s son," she said. "What better way to stop this, to talk with perpetrators to let them know you don’t want your mother to go through this."

The city contracted with the University of Pennsylvania to evaluate GVI. On Tuesday, they announced that between January 2020 to May 2022, 113 groups or roughly 276 individuals received GVI treatment, which they define as a contact between a GVI staff member and a recipient. The study found these groups saw an average 38.6% reduction in shootings per week, and groups who received treatment twice over the tie period saw a decrease of 50.3%.

However, city-wide gun violence statistics are still grim.

"We know through police data that the majority of the incidents of gun violence we're seeing is based on arguments or beefs. Sometimes we can predict that if we are watching the patterns and the movements of the groups. But, oftentimes, it is episodic," said Erica Atwood, Deputy Managing Director. "So it's that balance, GVI being really focused on those who are socially networked, but some of the other violence, we're looking at other methodologies to be able to make those interventions that are not the group involved violence."

Sumpter says sometimes it takes multiple visits or law enforcement action before people seek help, and that involves a variety of services including transitional job opportunities. The evaluation found that 26 groups experienced an enforcement action.

A recent $2 million grant will allow Sumpter to bring in 7 more case managers, so he can expand teams on the weekends.

"I’m deploying two teams on average, if I could deploy three or four or five, I think we could really make an impact, and just with what we’ve had we definitely made a dent, but there’s definitely more work to be done," he says.

When questioned how to ensure the next administration will fund and prioritize the program to avoid it ending, a similar program did in the past, Mayor Kenney, gesturing to the moms that volunteer their time with the program, said, "Whoever the next mayor is will get visited by these ladies."

"How about that?" he said. "And I honestly think that, I honestly think that, and I think it should also be part of the job of the media and part of the job of people who are following elections to ask those questions."