Jacksonville Cure Violence program asking for more funding, as crime continues to rise in the city

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A program aimed to reduce crime in our area does not seem to have the data to back it up.

Critics of Cure Violence Jacksonville said they want to see more proof that it is working. Supporters countered that the program will take more time to develop.

The group sends outreach workers along with what they call “violence interrupters” out into our community to diffuse conflict before it becomes violent. Those interrupters are former felons themselves.

“Our violence interrupters go out, and they work with their contacts in the community to make sure that those incidents

do not occur,” Kendra Mervin said. She is the grant administrator for the City of Jacksonville.

Mervin went before the city’s Finance Committee to talk about the budget for Cure Violence on Wednesday morning. The group wants $3.53 million dollars for the 2022-23 fiscal year budget instead of its $2.23 million from the fiscal year before.

The request brought some tough questions from the Finance Committee since the data in its presentation wasn’t exactly in their favor.

“The numbers are flat or going up, and obviously I’m a little distressed by that,” Councilman Ron Salem said at the meeting. “Not knowing how much time it will take, are you expecting numbers to eventually come down?”

“Yes,” Mervin responded. “We have had some increase, but again, over the past year, nationwide, we have had an increase in violence.”

This is graph from their presentation. It shows the number of shootings in the areas where there are Cure Violence facilities. It then breaks down each shooting by year and deadly vs. non-deadly. For the “Noah’s Ark” facility, located in Springfield, the number of deadly shootings increased. In the last year, the number of non-deadly shootings stayed the same. Surrounding the “Bridges to Cure” center in Moncrief, both deadly and non-deadly shootings increased for 2022. At Potter’s House, on Normandy Boulevard, the number of deadly shootings stayed the same, and non-deadly incidents decreased for 2022.

“We can’t place the blame on the continued rise (in crime) that Cure Violence isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” City Councilman Matt Carlucci said. “These violent interrupters are trying (to) say, ‘Hey, we’ve been there before. Get out of it, and we can show you the way.’ They go where no one else wants to go.”

The group wants to use the extra money to expand the number of outreach workers and violence interrupters that go out into the community. It also wants to develop more mental health resources and resources that help get people into trade schools.

“My colleagues and I found this thing,” Councilman Salem said. “I want to make sure we’re spending our dollars where we’re eventually going to see something that makes us feel like we’re doing the right thing.”

We reached out to the mayor’s office for comment. In response to our question about whether it believes the program is utilizing all its resources effectively, a City of Jacksonville spokesperson sent us this statement:

“Nationwide crime statistics have shown an uptick in recent years. Jacksonville has not been immune to that. While it is difficult to prove a negative, in that these efforts prevented a violent crime from occurring, we can see from early data that crime inside the areas of focus are being impacted positively versus outside of those areas. The data also shows the large increase that the sites have produced in violence interruptions, community events, and participants served over that time period. These efforts directly reduce violence at the street level. Our data analysis firm will be gathering further detail for presentation as the program continues to evolve. The goal of this program is to pilot strategies proven to be effective in other major cities to reduce and prevent crime in areas of greatest need. The continued building of the program that has demonstrated value in crime prevention is the goal of the proposed funding levels.”

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