- Home
- Government
- Mayor's Office
- Domestic and Community Violence Prevention
- Crime Reduction Initiatives
Crime Reduction Initiatives
PREVENTION & INTERVENTION
- FAMILY PEACE CENTER - Opened the state's first Family Peace Center for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
- EDUCATORS' TEAM - Created an educators' team to develop an annual two-day summit, as well as training and assistance for educators to identify and respond to children in crisis from domestic and sexual violence.
- NAVIGATORS - Worked with Rockford Park District and YMCA to support embedding navigators into afterschool youth recreation sites to connect youth and their families to additional services and resources.
- HANDLE WITH CARE - Collaborated with Rockford Public Schools and Rockford Police Department to create a notification system to provide school staff with notice that a student may have been exposed to a traumatic event.
- STEP UP PROGRAM - Implemented a 12-week intervention/diversion program for youth and their families to receive group and individual support.
- HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESPONSE TEAM - Established a Human Trafficking Response Team to identify, refer, investigate and prosecute human trafficking in Winnebago County.
- CAMP HOPE - Launched Camp Hope for youth to help them process experiences of being exposed to domestic and/or sexual violence in a trauma-informed way to help with healing and finding hope.
- NO ENTRY PROGRAM - Launched a five-year initiative to address racial and ethnic disparities and reduce the number of youth entering the justice system with a new no entry program.
- RE-ENTRY PROGRAM - Partnered with Winnebago County to establish a program to identify and deter members of the community who were at a heightened risk of committing future acts of crime and gun violence, as well as helped hire a special prosecutor for the program.
- ENGAGING MEN & BOYS PROJECT - Awarded a grant to develop a train-the-trainer program to help staff of youth-serving agencies identify, respond and redirect behaviors, beliefs and actions that may lead to violence against women, girls and marginalized communities and encourage them to be positive mentors to their peers.
- COMMUNITY HEALING CENTER- Awarded a grant to support the establishment of a Community Healing Center, a multiagency, multidisciplinary facility, where children exposed to violence, and their families can receive healing and supportive services that promote trauma recovery, youth development, and violence prevention and interventions.
- YOUTH PROGRAMS - Supported youth programs, such as Comprehensive Community Solutions, 815 Alive, New Genres Art Space and Boys and Girls Club, to provide youth with positive experiences and outlets, as well as reduce the number of youth entering the criminal justice system.
- WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS - Partnered with a local minority contractor to hire at-risk young adults to gain job skills by building sidewalks in neighborhoods across our community. In addition, partnered with another contractor to establish pre-apprenticeship program for vertical construction.
- CRIME REDUCTION PROGRAMS - Provided funds to both Northwest Rockford Neighbors, Inc., and Community Life Center to establish youth programming to help with crime reduction and violence prevention.
- VIOLENCE PREVENTION RESPONSE TEAM: Worked with a grassroots team to respond in real time to violence. The team connect shooting victims to long term navigation and support in an effort to start their recovery, develop a pathway out of violence and prevent retaliatory shootings.
- BARBERSHOP PROJECT - Provided tools and education to local barbers and beauticians to help interrupt the cycle of violence and support the mental wellbeing of clients.
- MY LIFE MY CHOICE - Introduced a Human Trafficking Prevention curriculum for girls ages 12-18 to learn the signs of grooming and human trafficking so they are equipped to recognize tactics and seek help.
- VIOLENCE PREVENTION COORDINATING COUNCIL - Convened a multidisciplinary team to organize and align violence prevention efforts.
- SCHOOL BASED HEALING CENTERED FRAMEWORK - Identified and participated in the development of a framework that promotes healing centered practices for staff, scholars, and community exposed to trauma.
ENFORCEMENT
- OFFICERS - Increased our authorized police force to more than 300 officers.
- LICENSE PLATE READERS - Purchased more than 150 mobile and stationary license plate readers.
- CAMERAS - Quadrupled the number of cameras in high traffic and high crime area.
- GUN DETECTION - Purchased gunshot detection software.
- SOCIAL ANALYTIC SOFTWARE - Instituted social analytic software to track criminal's use of social media.
- BODY WORN CAMERAS - Equipped each officer with a body worn camera and each vehicle with a dash camera.
- PARTNERSHIPS - Continued strong partnerships with local agencies, including Loves Park Police, Park District Police and the Sheriff's Department.
- RELATIONSHIPS - Strengthened our relationship with the State Police, FBI, DEA and ATF.
- CCRT - Created the Crisis Co-Response Team, which couples law enforcement with social workers, to respond to mental health crisis calls.
- SPEED RADAR DETECTION: Purchased speed radar detection equipment for all marked patrol vehicles to increase the amount of officers who are equipped to enforce traffic violations, which allows for an increase in traffic safety operations within the City.
ADDITIONAL STRATEGIES
- EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION - Doubled the number of children in Early Childhood Education, as well as doubled the number of hours Head Start students are in the classroom.
- BUSINESS ACCELERATOR - Supported Think Big to create a small business incubator for minority and women owned businesses.
- SCHOLARSHIPS - Created the Rockford Promise NIU partnership to provide any child who lives in Rockford and graduates from RPS with a 3.0 GPA free tuition for four years at NIU.
- EXCEL CENTER - Provided funding to Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois to support the development of an Excel Center, where students can obtain a high school diploma, workforce training and dual credits while offering free child care and other support services.
- NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT - Launched a Neighborhood Improvement Initiative to bring community resources and services directly to six neighborhoods negatively impacted by violent crime.
- CANNABIS FUND - Designated the 3% local sales tax on recreational cannabis to support various programs for economic and business development; education; youth programming; job training; health; or other financial assistance to individuals, businesses, and communities within the City that have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis-related laws.