Wichita will pay Chicago firm $125,000 to organize efforts combating gun violence

Wichita will pay a Chicago-based consulting firm $125,000 to spearhead efforts to combat gun violence in the city.

The contract with Cure Violence Global is part of a larger $1.5 million effort, funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, that aims to detect and disrupt violent situations before they result in shootings.

A record-high 56 homicides were committed in Wichita in 2020, followed by 46 in 2021, data from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation shows.

“Violence interruption looks to shift the discourse towards the view of violence as a disease and placing an emphasis on finding solutions to end the epidemic,” City Council member Brandon Johnson said before the contract was unanimously approved.

CVG has provided training and technical assistance for fighting violent crime in more than 50 cities globally, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, San Antonio, New Orleans, New York and Juarez, Mexico.

“We specifically are looking at killings and shootings, and we want to bring those numbers down,” Charlie Ransford, director of science and policy at CVG, told The Eagle. “Consistently, programs that have implemented this in other places have got reductions in the neighborhood of 30 to 50%.”

CVG will work closely with Wichita police to analyze data trends and identify high-risk areas for violent crime in the city. The firm will also assess existing outreach programs and provide training for “violence interrupters” who will be embedded in high-risk areas.

“Not just anybody can walk in off the street and do this,” Ransford said. “You first have to have the credibility and then you have to have the training to really know what you’re doing and stay safe.

“That person will be in the community talking to people at the corners where the hot spots are. They’ll be following their connections through the people they know in the community, and basically what they’re doing is they’re trying to detect any ongoing conflict. Is there a street corner that people are arguing over? Is there something that happened last night? Maybe a robbery or something that maybe somebody’s trying to get revenge for.”

CVG will also train violence interrupters to detect conflict over social media, Ransford said.

The lion’s share of the $1.5 million of federal money will go toward implementation of the program, which will be carried out by a local organization selected by the city through a competitive bidding process.

“We as a national organization are never implementing in a community. That doesn’t make sense,” Ransford said. “You need the credibility of the organization, as well as the credibility of the workers themselves.

“Getting those right people is really crucial.”

CVG will track program success, including individual and collective behavior change, through a data system that relies on some 270 metrics, he said.

“I’ve heard from other council members in other cities that this does work — especially if you make it non-cookie cutter based on your city,” Johnson said.