What It Takes for Cities to Reduce Violence

In May, public safety leaders from Baltimore, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Oakland, California, gathered in Philadelphia and Baltimore to compare notes on what it takes to reduce violence and to sustain those gains over time. Across cities with different histories, governance structures, and local contexts, participants described remarkably similar challenges and lessons about what makes progress possible.

The Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of Pennsylvania’s Crime and Justice Policy (CJP) Lab, which organized the event, selected these cities because they are dedicated to not just supporting evidence-based programs but also committed to building and strengthening the governance and management capacities that coalesce these programs into a strategy that can reduce violence at the city level. These identified capacities include political leadership, data-driven problem analysis, cross-sector coordination, effective operational management, strong violence reduction infrastructure, and long-term sustainability. This shared language and framework allowed newly connected peers to quickly dive deep into the work they’re doing in different cities.

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