Authorities leading the Don't Shoot initiative to reduce gun crime in Peoria say the program may be showing big dividends.
Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy says they’ve seen the number of people in the jail reduced nearly by half during the last 18 months. He owes a large part of the shift to the Don’t Shoot Program, but he says there’s still more to be done to further reduce gun violence.
“It’s a time program. It’s not going to happen tomorrow. We need the citizens to help us, to get involved. The police are not going to solve this. The police and the prosecution are not going to solve it. It’s the community that’s going to solve it and we need people to get involved,” McCoy said.
The Don’t Shoot program is approaching four years in Peoria and the results may be most noticeable in the County Jail, McCoy said. The jail has about half the population it did 18 month ago. McCoy says a year and half ago there were 620 people in the jail and as of Monday afternoon, there were 330 inmates.
“That’s a huge indicator. You can’t say it’s all because of Don’t Shoot because that wouldn’t be fair because we can’t attribute it all to Don’t Shoot," McCoy said. "But I can tell you a large part of it is attributed to Don’t Shoot.”
Sheriff McCoy says the The Peoria Community Against Violence group needs more participation. The next Peoria Community Against Violence or PCAV event is a Peace Walk Friday starting from the soon to be Save A Lot Grocery store on Western Avenue at 5:45.