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Plan to beautify 50 vacant lots falls short nearly two years later

Manny Ramos

February 07, 2021 |

Chicago Sun-Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Since June 2019, Chicago's Grounds for Peace pilot project has begun cleaning up vacant, city-owned lots using an approach to urban beautification that has been shown in other cities, and in one Chicago neighborhood, to reduce crime and boost residents' feelings of safety. While the city and its contractors consider the project a success in the making, thus far only two of the original 50 targeted lots show signs of improvement. Project leaders blame funding shortfalls, disruptions due to the pandemic, and difficulties in removing abandoned vehicles.

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Health care workers replaced Denver cops in handling hundreds of mental health and substance abuse cases — and officials say it saved lives

Li Cohen

February 06, 2021 |

CBS News |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assisted Response) replaced police officers with health professionals on 748 calls for help. In incidents involving mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse, police backup was never needed, no one was arrested, and minor crises did not risk escalating into violence because of police presence. The six-month pilot project will expand to more parts of the city and more hours of the week, with an infusion of city money to supplement the private funding that got the program started.

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Denver successfully sent mental health professionals, not police, to hundreds of calls

Grace Hauck

February 06, 2021 |

USA Today |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first six months, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) handled 748 emergency calls that in the past would have gone to the police or firefighters. Two-person teams of a medic and clinician helped people with personal crises related mainly to homelessness and mental illness. None of the calls required police involvement and no one was arrested. The city plans to spend more to expand the program, which is meant to prevent needless violence and incarceration from calls to the police that other types of first-responders can better address.

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With Car Heists At Record Levels, Citizen Sleuths Take To Facebook To Find Their Stolen Rides

Bob Chiarito

February 03, 2021 |

Block Club Chicago |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Stolen Car Directory is a Facebook group that helps people find their stolen cars and makes the police aware of abandoned cars that may have been stolen. The recently formed group, with 14,400 members, has helped recover more than 200 cars at a time when auto theft and carjackings in Chicago have risen substantially. While the group's effect on the crime rate is unknown, it has encouraged more aggressive enforcement efforts while reuniting people with their property.

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Next Step goes to the front lines of gun violence in Minneapolis, starting with the shooting victims

Maya Rao

January 30, 2021 |

Minnesota Star Tribune |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Next Step is a hospital-based violence intervention program based at Minneapolis' Hennepin County Medical Center that counsels gunshot victims to try to help lower the chances that they will be harmed again or seek to harm others. Focusing on young adults and their families, the program starts its work when a victim is hospitalized. The counseling and connections to support services can continue for months and even years.

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An Oregon city's decades-old alternative to police

David Kroman Sara Bernard

January 28, 2021 |

Crosscut |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Like many cities, Seattle is looking to Eugene, Oregon, for a model to shift resources from police to unarmed crisis responders handling 911 calls about mental health, addiction, family conflict, and other non-criminal problems. Eugene's CAHOOTS program has been doing such work for half a century, and since 1989 sending medic-and-counselor teams on calls. In 2019 it saved $8 million in police costs and $14 million for ambulances and emergency room visits. But, while taking police out of situations where they might cause more problems than they solve, it's only as good as its region's social services.

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How reform gave way to ‘Defund the Police' in Seattle

David Kroman Sara Bernard

January 28, 2021 |

Crosscut |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Seattle spent nearly a decade reforming its police department and branding itself as an example of how to fix a broken system prone to violence and racial bias. Public trust improved and the use of force declined. But the protests of 2020 changed perspectives in Seattle so much that now it is a leader in taking money from the police to fund community-based responses to social problems and low-level crime. The community is divided, largely along racial and ideological lines, over whether to "defund" the police, whether police reform is even possible, and how to reimagine public safety.

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Seattle Cut Its Police Budget. Now the Public Will Decide How To Spend the Money.

Manjeet Kaur

January 28, 2021 |

The Appeal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Since 2017, Seattle residents have had a direct say in how some city money is spent on neighborhood projects. It's a form of "participatory budgeting" that has been spreading from Brazil through many U.S. cities. After the 2020 racial justice protests, King County Equity Now, Decriminalize Seattle, and other groups spent several months calling for a budget that takes money from policing and invests in "true public health and safety" projects. After eight weeks of hearings, the city agreed to put $30 million – $12 million cut from police – into a citizen-controlled safety budget.

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The Free Hotline That's Saving Women's Lives by Disarming Dangerous Men

Christina Noriega

January 22, 2021 |

Medium |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

The Calm Hotline takes calls from men in Bogotá, Colombia, in an effort to address the root causes of domestic violence: a culture of machismo. Four psychologists take emergency calls – about 700 calls came in the service's first month – and works to refer the callers to an eight-week "gender transformation program" that will attempt to change men's toxic attitudes that can lead to violence. The program is patterned on a counseling hotline in the Colombian city of Barrancabermeja that was associated with a steep decline in domestic violence.

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After shootings hit new high, Durham to spend $935,000 on an alternative to police

Charlie Innis

January 20, 2021 |

The News & Observer |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

Because two Durham neighborhoods using the Cure Violence method of "violence interruption" bucked the citywide trend toward higher gun violence, the city will expand its Bull City United violence-prevention program to four more neighborhoods. The additional $935,488 cost will pay for 16 employees, many of them formerly incarcerated, who will mediate disputes after a shooting, to prevent retaliation, and who will conduct outreach to people at risk of gun violence.

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