Gun Violence Task Force
Study after study confirms that the vast majority of crime is perpetrated by just a few specific people in a few specific areas. Approximately .5% of the overall population is responsible for 50-75% of serious violence in a city nationwide.
The District Attorney’s Office Gun Violence Initiative will facilitate direct and sustained engagement with a small number of group-involved individuals. This engagement will be a collaboration between the District Attorney’s Office, law enforcement, community leaders, and social service providers.
The Initiative implements a targeted enforcement effort that focuses on high-risk individuals who are most likely to be targets of violent acts or commit violent acts, starting in the City of Chester. The Initiative’s approach will make clear to these individuals that we know who they are, we know who they associate with, and we are aware of the violence their groups are responsible for committing. The GVI will use every governmental resource to stop the violence in this community, including charges and arrests for serious violent crime.
However, the Initiative’s goal is to see these high-risk individuals succeed and make life choices that keep them on the right side of the law. In collaboration with the community leaders and social services, the Initiative will provide services and support that these high-risk individuals may find useful to jumpstart a new direction to their lives.
Delaware County’s own David Kennedy’s, founder of the National Network for Safe Communities from which this Initiative is premised, states the Initiative’s mission best:
“The killing must end now. If you let us, we will help you. If you make us, we will stop you.”
The Chester Gun Violence Initiative is a collaboration with the County’s Department of Human Services, Criminal Investigation Division, Delaware County Probation and Parole, Chester Police Department, Chester Office of Workforce Development, and a myriad of other community organizations in and around Chester City and Delaware County.
