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Davenport officials return from D.C. trip with differing views on violence prevention

Quad City Times - 7/9/2021

Jul. 9—Nearly five weeks after a fight among people in a large group assembled atop a downtown Davenport parking ramp erupted in gunfire, police have yet to publicly announce any arrests.

More than 80 vehicles were atop the Redstone parking ramp at River Drive and Main Street around the time about 80 shots were fired from multiple firearms from the fourth floor, damaging the Skybridge and the Figge Art Museum.

The city-owned parking garage is under surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except on major holidays. The ramp's payment-collection system keeps track of the license plates on vehicles that come and go.

Police have said they have used that information to identify vehicles and individuals likely present during the shootings. Getting witnesses to cooperate, however, has proven difficult.

Davenport Police have asked for the public's help in determining who was responsible. Crime Stoppers of the Quad-Cities is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible for causing extensive damage.

Mayor Mike Matson said he can't help think things would be different if Davenport had a more extensive wireless network of public surveillance cameras with live feeds that could be monitored in real-time to allow for quicker response and help police better identify, document and track perpetrators of gun crimes.

"We are looking at what we can improve upon, and technology is certainly one area," Matson said. "I'd love to see us have the ability to have a real-time camera setup so we can see in certain, maybe, places of the city real-time what's going on. Again, balancing cost and manpower. We'll see what we can do."

Davenport police and city staff share a different view — one geared to providing coordinated outreach and support for people most at-risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of gun violence.

"That's not on our horizon here," city Chief Strategy Office Sarah Ott said of the notion of building a network of strategically placed surveillance cameras.

Assistant Police Chief Jeff Bladel as well said he "does not see an investment in live monitoring in the near future."

"Those are very staff intensive," Bladel said. "We don't have the ability to do any real-time monitoring."

Bladel and Ott said Davenport police have done a valuable job of using footage pulled from city and private home security cameras, as well as license plate readers, to aid investigations and track stolen vehicles.

Matson, Bladel and Ott, along with two representatives from Family Resources, traveled last week to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore to study local violence prevention efforts in those communities.

Matson, in an interview, was keen on the communities' use of technology to more quickly and immediately respond to gun violence. That, Matson said, included live video feeds from city surveillance cameras and gunshot-detection systems that use acoustic monitors — high-powered, sensitive microphone stations — to detect, discriminate, triangulate and report gunshots to the police within seconds of the shot being fired.

"I'm a believer in technology, and all of these things are proven, both in D.C. and Baltimore — data-driven, research-based and it provides tools for investigators," Matson said. "I will discuss with council and our city administration increasing the use of technology. My job is to find resources and tools to give law enforcement aid in their investigations."

Matson noted state crime analysts arrived in Davenport last week to provide "increased investigative tools" to speed along investigations of gun crimes in the city.

State troopers have already been assigned to patrol Davenport highways, and Matson said that will continue for the immediate future.

Matson asked Gov. Kim Reynolds in early June for assistance.

Police and city administration officials, however, say the focus of the trip was more geared on community-based intervention strategies.

"I think those were some fun, flashy toys they like to show off to us, but not necessarily why we were there," Ott said. "The programming we went to learn about is more preventative in nature and isn't necessarily going to stop the people there on the top of the Redstone ramp three weeks ago."

The trip included learning about D.C. and Baltimore's use of "violence interrupters" and "credible messengers," often former gang members, former drug dealers and others with violent pasts who use their experience, street credibility and social capital to stop shootings before they happen by brokering peace and helping people turn away from a life of crime.

"One is trying to stop violence from occurring in specific neighborhoods," Ott said. "The other is trying to get folks connected to programming to assist them in getting out of that lifestyle," by connecting them to housing, career and workplace readiness, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, academic support, and other government services.

Davenport city officials have discussed using about $750,000 in federal COVID-19 rescue funds to hire "violence interrupters" — community members who would aid police in heading off conflicts before they turn deadly. City officials say the aim would be to use "credible community messengers" to help police "prevent and reduce youth violence, particularly gang violence," by using "street outreach" and "group violence intervention."

"Davenport has seen a significant increase in gang- and gun-related crimes," according to city staff. "While DPD has made operational changes to address enforcement and investigation after a crime has occurred, what is missing is a holistic, community-based approach to prevent youth from participating in these cycles of violence."

The program is part of Washington D.C.'sOffice of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, launched in 2017 as Mayor Muriel E. Bowser's$5.4 million yearly investment to combat crime in ways traditional policing cannot.

The interrupters engage with the community to learn about brewing conflicts and aid in resolving them peaceably before they erupt in violence, Ott and Bladel said. If a shooting does occur, the interrupters work with those affected to prevent retaliation, and organize rallies or vigils when shootings occur so violence is not normalized.

They can help police de-escalate and mediate those situations, as well as provide community outreach, either interrupting the violence or helping connect families and individual to social services and other support, Bladel said.

"We're not reaching a lot of the people that are causing a lot of the problems or who need services the most," he said. "From law enforcement, a lot of times we feel we're chasing our tail so to speak."

Ott used the Redstone parking ramp shooting as an example.

"We know some of the people that were involved in the Redstone incident," she said. "Maybe not enough to bring charges, but we know that they were there. We know they are contributing to that issue. If we had a credible messenger program here, the police department could communicate with them ... and the credible messengers can go and develop those relationships with those people. They may not have been the shooters. They may have just been people that were there. But we know that people that are tangential to crime are often those who are next going to fall into it. And that is what we want to prevent."

Davenport officials were also briefed on D.C.'s new gun violence prevention emergency operations center, part of a $15 million comprehensive gun violence prevention program aimed at coordinating and focusing community resources on engaging people most at-risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of gun violence, including those repeatedly arrested for gun-related offenses.

The center is staffed by a team of D.C. government leaders who specialize in emergency management, government services, housing, job training, mental health, and social services, according to the D.C. Mayor's Office. The initial focus of the center will be on 151 blocks of the District that make up 2% of all blocks but account for 41% of all gunshot-related crimes in the District.

While such a large and costly operation may not be feasible in Davenport, Matson, Bladel and Ott said aspects of it could help city leaders ensure the city and its partners are aligned and working in the same direction.

"The whole theme of all of this is focused deterrence to concentrate on the people committing the violent crimes," Matson said. "I do believe we can improve on the technology side. What does that mean exactly? I have my view. We'll see where everybody else's view is."

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