To fight gun violence, Syracuse looks to hire more ‘credible messengers’ to keep peace

Syracuse city officials are looking to get more people hired to serve as “credible messengers” in hot spots for gun violence.

The Common Council is considering a request from Mayor Ben Walsh’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence to contract with four community organizations that would employ people tasked with keeping peace in neighborhoods where violent crime has been particularly problematic.

The city would pay the organizations, which have already been engaged in violence prevention work, from a $1.4 million federal Department of Justice grant the city was awarded last year for violence prevention efforts. The council is considering four two-year contracts worth a combined $693,000.

Lateef Johnson-Kinsey, the Office to Reduce Gun Violence director, and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens talked about the new program at a council Public Safety Committee meeting Wednesday. They said the funding would enable the groups to hire a combined four to eight credible messengers, depending on whether they would be full- or part-time employees.

The program would complement the Safer Streets Initiative that council approved in August. That initiative will provide mentoring, job training, conflict resolution counseling and therapy for up to 50 gang members between the ages of 18 and 24. The participants in the voluntary program will be chosen by law enforcement, and they can earn internship pay for workforce-related activities.

That $1 million program, which should be starting in January after contracts with partner agencies are finalized, was funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Owens said the new program under consideration by council focuses on getting credible messengers who will perform outreach work in geographic areas.

“The DOJ is giving us an opportunity around territory, to really look at spaces and areas in our community,” she said.

Johnson-Kinsey spoke about the qualifications the city and its partner organizations will seek in selecting credible messengers. The ideal person will be someone who has successfully moved on from gun- and drug-related activities but has also demonstrated that they have respect in their neighborhoods and have acted with integrity already to help improve the community.

As part of his work launching the gun violence prevention office, Johnson-Kinsey has cultivated a group of potential candidates.

“I can tell you for a fact that there’s people that got out of jail over the last three months that are now working and doing things and haven’t been shot because of certain (other) people that make those phone calls and say, ‘Leave him alone, leave him alone.’ ” Johnson-Kinsey said. “That person we have to have on our side.”

Credible messengers receive extensive training before they start and while they’re on the job. Johnson-Kinsey said their first couple of months will involve getting to better know the streets and learning what disputes, often referred to as “beefs,” are festering. They can then intervene and attempt to prevent these disagreements from turning violent.

“Let’s not wait until there’s a shooting, let’s not wait until it’s a homicide, but beat them to the punch,” he said. “Find out who’s beefing and why.”

Another role for credible messengers comes when there is an act of violence. The messengers would get to those crime scenes quickly to figure out what sparked the problem and attempt to prevent a retaliatory act. Both Johnson-Kinsey and Owens emphasized that these are not 9-to-5 jobs, but positions that will require responses all hours of the night.

Councilor Chol Majok, Public Safety Committee chair, asked police leaders at the meeting how they felt about the program. Police Chief Joe Cecile said getting people in the community directly involved is a smart idea.

“The ultimate solution to gun violence is not going to be enforcement, because we’ve been doing that for years and we’re very good at it,” he said. “The ultimate solution is just … people out there getting other people to put the guns down.”

Majok said he supports the program and expects to put the requests to authorize contracts on the council’s Dec. 18 meeting agenda.

The organizations that the Walsh administration has selected as partners are Street Addiction Institute, the Good Life Foundation, OG’s Against Gun Violence and Syracuse SNUG. They’ll each cover a specific area within either the North Side, West Side and South Side.

City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at jboyer@syracuse.com, (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.