The Peoria County Board of Health's decision to terminate the Cure Violence program has raised questions and prompted a criminal investigation into possible financial malfeasance.
Implementation of the gun violence prevention program in Peoria struggled through various attempts. After the City Council passed on the program, the Peoria City/County Health Department stepped in to try and launch the initiative in the East Bluff through a partnership with Peoria Community Against Violence (PCAV).
After PCAV dissolved when its funding was discontinued, the health department shifted its focus to Peoria’s South Side and selected nonprofit House of Hope to operate the program. In August, the health department cut ties with House of Hope, and ultimately pulled the plug on Cure Violence – before discovering apparent financial discrepancies.
In part two of our latest monthly interview with Peoria Mayor Rita Ali, she discusses the problems with Cure Violence and how the void it left behind can be filled.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
With the demise of Cure Violence, where does Peoria stand now in terms of anti-violence programming and initiatives? How can the void left by abandoning Cure Violence be filled?
Mayor Rita Ali: Well, I think that we continue to look for evidence-based programs and projects that we can implement here, locally. Certainly, Cure Violence is one that was, is high on the FBI's list of effective evidence-based projects that have worked across the country and globally as well.
But we're not moving forward with Cure Violence in Peoria; there were some issues that took place and unfortunately things didn't work out. But that doesn't mean that we don't continue with existing programs and we don't continue to look for new opportunities. There are programs; the police are using a lot more technology in addressing crime and violent crime issues, catching criminals because of the technology that they're using.
The community is, I would say, cooperating in many ways: by reporting crimes, using the Tip-411, helping the police in their work and their programs. We have after-school programs; the school district has a lot of initiatives they have implemented to address youth delinquent behavior that leads to crime and sometimes shootings and kids having guns.
But there’s existing programs with our not-for-profit organizations, and the city has issued funding – not just through Cure Violence, but for many other programs for youth that are 10-and under, to teenagers and young adults up to ages 21 and 24. So there’s lots of programming that is taking place. Cure Violence, to me, would’ve been a nice supplement.
With the way that the end of Cure Violence transpired, are you concerned about having a hard time getting other leaders to buy in on some sort of replacement anti-violence approach? What can be done to rebuild trust and restore credibility?
Mayor Ali: Well again, the Cure Violence initiative, it had its problems. Capacity was one of those problems with the two organizations, I would say, that we're awarded funding through the Board of Health.
There was an organization that was going to provide Cure Violence services on the East Bluff, and they were awarded funding through the Board of Health, and it didn't work out because of capacity. And then again, on the South Side, the organization that received the grant award through the Board of Health, again had capacity issues that were reported.
So I think that we do have to build capacity of our not-for-profit organizations within the city.
Sometimes there's funding to help build capacity. There was funding from the State of Illinois that was just capacity-building grants that we had pursued, and some organizations got some of that funding; I think House of Hope was one of those that got some of that funding to build capacity.
But we do have to make our organizations stronger in order to be able to implement grants successfully.
The Cure Violence program was a program that you had championed though, and now there's a criminal investigation into possible financial mismanagement. Do you anticipate facing some fallout or criticism, and how do you answer to it?
Mayor Ali: Well, I didn't run the program. I mean, I certainly advocated for Cure Violence. It’s an evidence-based model that has worked across the country. I can't be blamed for an organization that may have mishandled funding.
The city awarded a grant to the Board of Health, had proposed the Cure Violence program. Some of that money is coming back to the city; if it didn't get spent or didn't get spent appropriately, it's coming back to the city. But basically as far as the city is concerned, we ended that program.
We've seen a surge in homicides in the past few weeks, which isn't necessarily unusual for late summer. But what does this indicate about how detrimental it is to have Cure Violence end the way it did?
Mayor Ali: It's very unfortunate. It's just very unfortunate that the program was just getting off the ground and then there were issues (and) concerns by the provider, which cut its relationship with the organization that was awarded the funding.
So, I respect the decision that was made. We have to get up and keep going, we can't stop. Sometimes we have to try things and they don't work but we have to continue to try things, because we have violence that occurs with young people throughout our city.
It's not that people are targeting strangers in this case; these are mostly domestic or targeted incidents. So I just want people to know that Peoria is not an unsafe place, but there are targeted instances where disputes are taking place. They're not targeting strangers, for the most part.
There have been calls for more transparency regarding anti-violence programming. Would you agree with that, and what would that look like?
Mayor Ali: I always agree with transparency. The more transparent we can be in the delivery of services, the better. The police department has a dashboard; wherever we have a dashboard that tells where crime is occurring (and) how we're addressing it, I think that that's a good way to start.
Any questions that the public has about the use of public money for violence prevention, they are welcome to ask those questions – and they usually do, and the media helps with that. So, I think that we have to be transparent. There's been nothing not transparent on the city's part, from my standpoint, as regards to violence reduction programs or funding.
You mentioned earlier, police technology, and we've seen recently that Chicago discontinued its use of Shot Spotter. Where does Peoria stand with its commitment to the Shot Spotter system?
Mayor Ali: We made a decision, I think it was about two years ago, that we were going to continue Shot Spotter. Shot Spotter executives came down, they did a presentation. Our police chief supported that; we supported our police chief's decision.
And again, I just want to point out that compared to this time last year, crime and violent crime, gun violence, victims of gun violence have all gone down. Homicides of gun violence have all gone down, when you compare this time with last year. So we're making improvements.
