Sacramento leaders consider moving Office of Violence Prevention from under the police department
Sacramento leaders consider moving Office of Violence Prevention from under police department
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The Sacramento City Council discussed the structure of its Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), which is currently overseen by the Sacramento Police Department, amid concerns from community organizers and councilmembers.
“When the city moved OVP under the police department, that broke trust with the very youth these programs are supposed to reach,” one speaker said during public comments at Tuesday’s meeting on youth violence prevention.
Leia Schenk, founder of Empact, an organization that works with victims of violent crime, said she won’t apply for funding from OVP as it’s currently structured.
“It doesn’t work for me. The kind of work we do is already dangerous,” Schenk said. “If we show proximity or alignment with the police department, then that lessens credibility that we have in the community, which means we’re less effective that way.”
City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan acknowledged the debate surrounding OVP’s placement.
“I think the argument can be made both ways—why it’s under the police department and why it’s beneficial under somewhere else,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan added that an assessment of OVP is already underway, and she hopes the city manager will explore connecting OVP with the Children’s Fund, which also awards grants aimed at preventing youth violence under Measure L.
Kaplan pointed to examples from other cities where comprehensive youth violence prevention plans have successfully coordinated efforts between community-based organizations, law enforcement, and other stakeholders.
“If you look at what Baltimore has done, if you look at what Denver has done, it has come from a comprehensive youth violence prevention plan that pulls all CBOs, city PD, everybody together to really coordinate,” Kaplan said.
The city says the next step after the assessment is to gather feedback from community members. Sacramento police have not yet responded to requests for comment from the Office of Violence Prevention.
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