All right, we're gonna ask the uh authors to take their seat as we get started.

Uh we are uh we are missing a couple authors, but uh a couple autos will be late, and we have uh one order that is online.

We have eight, we got one online, yeah.

So we're good, and then ten for council.

Uh tonight we're gonna start our committee at a whole meeting uh Tuesday, September sixteenth, two thousand and twenty-five.

Uh first we will have uh call to order.

Um at this time we do not have a corner.

We have one, we have all the Popon online.

We have Alder Frazier and Harmon.

They are gonna be running late and they will be on their way, and also Alder Kelly.

Uh so they will they'll be on the they'll be on their way, and so we're gonna actually get started.

Uh first item, uh, we're gonna start zero seven eight two dash two fire communication sponsored by Audemac requesting that community safety director Tate give a presentation on the following.

One status of the comprehensive plan, two and analysts of gunfire analysis of gunfire and shooting calls in racing this year, and third one is strategies being implemented to address gun violence and racing.

And so I think uh Director Tate is going to start off and we will start with him.

So first things first, we'll jump right into the comprehensive safety plan of twenty twenty-five.

You will have a handout if you don't already, that is in draft form, but we have been operating based off this information for much of this year.

Um, so first, uh, this since it's my first time appearing for this body as a whole, I'll give you a brief overview of who we are, why we do what we do, what motivates us, what drives us, and how we operate.

Um so this department did evolve uh in 2024 out of the City of Racine Office of Violence Prevention.

Um we're tasked with developing and coordinating a public health approach to community violence.

Um, in practical terms, that does mean treating violence like a communicable disease by understanding its underlying causes, its associated risk factors, and developing appropriate intervention strategies.

Uh where we have our mission, vision, and values.

Um, our primary mission is establishing common ground with those who are also concerned about safety within our community.

Uh, we're assembling our collective strengths because collaboration is one of our core uh values and innovating with evidence-based practices and doing things thinking outside the box.

Our vision is ultimately that no matter who you are, where you live, where you come from, you have a right to be safe in this community.

And safety is an essential need, like food, shelter, and water, like anything else.

Um, so again, our values are collaboration first and foremost, because nothing that we do in regards to safety can be done independently of other partners, whether that's law enforcement, whether that's the hospital systems, whether that's the school district, collaboration is key.

Um, empathy, which means understanding where people are that we're working with and being non-judgmental, because some of the populations that we engage, it's very easy to judge.

You know, you're running around the streets being destructive and harming others, or you come from a background that does so, it's easy to dismiss those folks and not try and find a way to reach them and prevent them from engaging in harm to themselves or others.

So trying to build that understanding and engage them is one of our core values.

Um, resilience, because the folks that we work with and the challenges that we deal with, it can be very easy to tuck our tails and run to put our heads down and say we can't deal with this, there's no solutions here, let's give up.

But we have to continue to press through.

One, because our community is worth it, but two, because we believe these interventions work, um, because they're evidence-based, and ultimately it's a collaborative effort to do so.

And lastly, ingenuity, which is again thinking outside the box and breaking away from traditional ways that we understand how to deal with violence, how to deal with safety, and ultimately broadening our toolbox to address the challenges that we see in our community.

Uh so you know, improving safety again does start with shifting perspectives.

Um, our job is ultimately to approach with a public health perspective by connecting community members, organizations, um, and utilizing data-driven methods and utilizing evidence-based community-informed strategies.

The reason we say community-informed is because everything we do ultimately has to be in response to what our community desires to see in regards to safety.

And that's one of the core tenets as we talk about this comprehensive plan.

Um, and again, you know, we want to be actually addressing the issues that the community has identified as issues.

So, just to provide a quick framework of what the public health approach actually is.

Um, we aim to use strategies that do the most benefit for the most people.

Um, that using that approach to address safety, we draw on various scientific methodologies, whether that's the medical, sociological, psychological, criminology, education, and economics, because all of these factors actually are relevant when we talk about the underlying issues that cause violence in our community.

Um, more specifically, you'll see there the graphic, which might be hard for you to see, but it's uh simply the public health approach starts with defining the problem and understanding what it actually is.

That second step then means identifying the risk and protective factors, risk and protective factors for those who don't know.

A risk factor is something that increases one's probability or chance to have a harmful outcome, a protective factor is that which reduces the probability of a negative outcome.

Um, and then once we understand that, we can start to develop strategies and interventions that directly address those both protective factors, risk factors, and those underlying issues that we defined as the problem.

And then lastly, we're seeking widespread adoption so we can evaluate the outcomes.

Um, in this particular process, this started back in 2022, uh, when we saw a spike in violence not only in Racine but across the country.

Um, and the violent crime reduction initiative came together with the city of Racine, the County of Racine, or Racine County, the Racine Unified School District, and many others who were interested in saying, like what we're doing isn't working, this is not sustainable, it's not satisfactory, we have to approach this in a different way.

Um, so that initiative actually originally defined the problem.

You know, we're seeing gun violence, we presume it's one thing, but what actually is going on?

Um, and we'll talk a little bit further about what that definition of that problem ultimately produced, because it was distinct from what people presumed was the core problem.

Um at the time, people were like, it's just the kids, it's the youth.

Then when we took a step back and assessed who who was actually driving the violence in our community, it turned out it was people above 18 and up to 35.

Um, so that required a different type of approach and a different type of intervention to reach that particular population that is perhaps disconnected from some standard infrastructure like schools.

So again, the public health approach starts with a social ecological model in this particular case.

Um, as you can see from the graphic, it starts with the broader population that we examine, you know, the societal issues and the factors that contribute there, and work our way down level by level, societal to community to family to individual.

And when we assess the challenges and protective and risk factors at each of those levels, we have a much more comprehensive view of what actually contributes to violence within our community.

That also means that the interventions we identify happen at each of those levels as well.

Um, but where their production is matters about the amount of time that we invest.

So the individual level might be focused on intervening right at that direct person, having a direct conversation, a direct intervention, or even an intervention might include law enforcement action.