- During the City of Tallahassee's annual retreat, Tallahassee's police chief said their priority is reducing crime in our neighborhoods.
- A study published in 2023 by Florida State University's Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research showed gun violence impacted more than 1,200 victims in Leon County during the study's period looking at the past four years. Researchers identified a cluster that shows approximately four-fifths of gun violence incidents were in these zip codes: 32301, 32303, 32304, and 32310.
- Watch the video to see how the Urban League of Tallahassee is on a mission to help youth and young adults.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
At the Urban League of Tallahassee, there's a mission to help youth and young adults and it impacts our neighborhoods.
"If we want to get a handle on this gun violence and crime it starts with parenting and his thoughts with our young kids," Curtis Taylor, Tallahassee Urban League's President and CEO said. "That's where it starts."
Taylor said outreach to youth is multi-faceted.
In a conference room in Downtown Tallahassee city leaders are saying the same thing. During the city's annual retreat, Tallahassee's police chief said their priority is reducing crime in our neighborhoods.
"We tend to focus on homicides, because that's the most public, but all of them, you know, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, all of those types of crimes as well," Lawrence Revell, Tallahassee's police chief said. "And, you know, we have to get the most violent offenders off our streets."
A study published in 2023 by Florida State University's Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research tracked how Leon County could prevent and intervene against violence.
It pointed to youth employment programs and mentoring programs as one tool. The Urban League's youth crime prevention and intervention program offers both.
"Someone have a job they don't have time to be on the street corners out here doing other stuff," Taylor said.
The report showed gun violence impacted more than 1,200 victims in Leon County during the study's period looking at the past four years.
They identified a cluster that shows approximately four-fifths of gun violence incidents were in these zip codes: 32301, 32303, 32304, and 32310.
That's in the Providence, Bond, Frenchtown, and Southside neighborhoods. The report said the rate of gun violence in Providence and Bond in particular was five times higher than that of other communities in Leon County.
"We we were hopeful at the beginning of last year, you know, we only had three homicides going into summer," Revell said. "You know, May, I think it was, and then, you know, the number just exploded over summer and into the fall. Our overall numbers have been consistent, but we don't want to settle on that, you know, we certainly want zero homicide, we want zero crime."
The Urban League president said it's working one person at a time to do its part in preventing crime.
"Once you pull that trigger, you cannot stop that bullet, your life is going to be changed forever," Taylor said. "The other person's lives going to be changed forever, your families are going to be changed forever. And it just does not make sense."
