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Amid pandemic, city's Peacekeepers working to keep a lid on violence

Record - 5/7/2020

STOCKTON -- It may seem as though violent acts such as homicides and injury shootings are picking up, and they are. But compared with other cities around the nation during this pandemic, Stockton is looking good, according to the city's Office of Violence Prevention.

Since mid-March when the response to the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, businesses and gathering places and ordered people to stay home, "Stockton has actually had a significant reduction in injury shootings. We looked at it and we are one of the lowest in the nation for this time period," said Daniel Muhammad, who became the OVP's new manager last month.

The key to that was being ahead of the game, already having its proven Peacekeepers program in place along with established partnerships with the city's Police Department and other community partners like San Joaquin General Hospital, the county's Human Services Agency and private nonprofit agencies.

"When the pandemic hit, we had a jump on it. We already had engagements with the highest risk individuals who are either at the highest risk for being victims of gunshot violence or at the highest risk for being the perpetrators of gunshot violence," Muhammad said.

Before travel was restricted, other cities including Washington, D.C., New York and Mexico City sent representatives to Stockton to see how its program works. Other cities including Oakland, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, were lined up to visit but had to postpone.

"That's the ultimate compliment for them to come to us," Muhammad said.

Most of this year's more than a dozen homicides in the city have been domestic-violence related, not gang related, he said. Of those, the typical age has been in the late 40s, not the early 20s typical of a gang shooting.

"We are seeing the levels of domestic violence kick up in the city, and that is concerning, but as far as gang-related incidents they are very low," he said.

The agency's corps of Peacekeepers have the trust of police and are immediately called after a shooting to deploy to the scene and to the hospital where they try to understand the conflict that led to the violence and keep the situation from boiling over into retaliation and further violence.

"That has worked out really well. We've been fine-tuning the model over the past 2' years. It's kept the lid on, while the city of San Jose and Modesto have seen 20 to 30% increases in shootings since COVID (response) took place," Muhammad said.

The Peacekeepers are currently engaging with 75 mostly young men who have been involved in a shooting or are at the highest risk of becoming a victim or a perpetrator. "They have pivoted to become first responders from a public health standpoint, doing wellness checks," he said.

After determining the biggest concerns, OVP turned to its partners to help it start a hot meal program, provide groceries and put together hygiene packages containing items such as hand sanitizer and toiletries.

"We bring them in two to three people at a time maintaining social distancing so we are COVID safe. We sit down in a safe environment and feed them and give them groceries and a hygiene kit." To date, Muhammad said, OVP has provided 801 hot meals, 600 bags and boxes of groceries and 500 hygiene kits to its clientele.

It allows the Peacekeepers to engage the men and youth up to three times a week, talking to them about what is going on in their lives, if they are working or not working, and trying to build a trust relationship that leads to talking about job placement and services offering better outcomes for them.

Before the pandemic took hold and changed the way everything is done, Muhammad said the Peacekeepers would actually be more engaged with their clients.

"This population is very mistrusting of authority. They didn't really believe the COVID thing. We wanted to make sure they had the necessities so they didn't go back to robbing people. When we take them out of the house, they love it. We spend about 45 minutes with them and use that opportunity to do some initial life planning and for when things open back up," he said.

In addition to showing them how to live a healthier lifestyle and deal with the trauma they've experienced, they get tips on financial literacy and how to improve their credit. Muhammad shared one example of a young man who dreamed of owning a Tesla. When it was pointed out the client was spending $850 a month on marijuana, it was the first time he realized "he was smoking his Tesla away."

"This type of one-on-one mentoring is transformative. ... Usually with this high-risk population, most agencies would brag about a 40% recidivism rate (returning to jail). That would be a good standard to go by," Muhammad said. "But last year alone we worked with over 80 guys and have a 10% recidivism rate."

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGoldeen.

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