This is yet another tragic incident of senseless gun violence in our city. We continue to see an uptick in shootings across our city ever since Republican lawmakers passed Senate Bill 215 last year allowing permitless carry. It’s important we recognize this and hold these lawmakers accountable for passing dangerous gun laws in our state. As a result, mayors cannot pass one piece of legislation aimed at gun reform. Unfortunately, we likely will continue to see incidents like this occur unless change is made at the Statehouse.
My administration has been doing everything we possibly can to address crime in the city through a holistic all-of-government approach that includes investing in technology, our police officers, and through numerous violence prevention and intervention efforts to address the root causes of crime.
We’ve strategically invested in law enforcement by increasing technology citywide through expanding our use of ShotSpotter to help detect gunshots; expanding our residential and commercial camera sharing access program; adding more crime analysts to each district; and by providing our officers with the largest pay increase in the city's modern history.
Our prevention and intervention initiatives have included Neighborhood Safety Walks in each district to build relationships, offer support, and hear directly from residents; a $10 million investment partnering with the Cleveland Foundation to establish a Neighborhood Safety Fund to create a perpetual funding stream for community-driven, evidence based programming; partnering with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2nd year of our Hoops After Dark program; and our Youth Programs Summer Canvass Series with CMSD this summer where my team and I have knocked on approximately 6,000 doors across the city to bring awareness to and increase enrollment in free youth programs at neighborhood resource and recreation centers.
We will continue to look for ways to improve our policing efforts. Safety is our number one priority and we remain committed to doing everything we can to ensure everyone – residents, workers, and visitors – feels safe in our city.
However, change needs to come from all levels. Republican lawmakers need to do a better job both in Columbus and in Washington to pass common sense gun reform laws.
