Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission ask their staffs to make draft plan for reducing gun violence

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the Joint Gainesville City Commission/Alachua County Commission meeting on January 22, both commissions voted to direct their staffs to identify ongoing actions related to the local Gun Violence Public Health Crisis and return with a report in 60 to 90 days that will include short-term and long-term recommendations that can be part of a draft plan to reduce gun violence.

Gun violence added to the agenda during the meeting by County Commissioner Anna Prizzia

During the adoption of the agenda, County Commissioner Anna Prizzia asked to add an update on gun violence prevention efforts to the agenda. County Commissioner Ken Cornell made the motion to add the agenda item, and County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. The Gainesville City Commission had already adopted the agenda without the added item, so Mayor Harvey Ward said if that the County Commission put it last, they could consider it as part of Member Comment.

Deputy County Manager Carl Smart led off the discussion, saying he had been meeting with Gainesville Fire Rescue Chief Joseph Dixon and representatives from Santa Fe College to put together a Memorandum of Understanding between all three groups; he said they’ve looked at inviting experts to come in and talk about gun violence prevention and have been conducting a second round of interviews for the City’s Gun Violence Prevention Manager, after an unsuccessful first round. 

Chief Dixon said gun violence is a “wicked problem; there’s no simple solution.” He said that there were 83 shooting incidents with seven deaths between July 1 and December 31 of 2023; as of January 15, there were already 13 shooting incidents and two deaths in 2024. Dixon said he is working on this because “I may be a Fire Chief, but I’m invested in this problem. It’s not [just] a law enforcement problem.”

“I noticed that we come back again and again to the fact that a majority of these violent crimes are being committed by the same people, again and again. In fact, I was told that somewhere close to 90% of the gun violence in this community has been committed by people on probation.” – County Commissioner Anna Prizzia

Prizzia said she had looked at the data around local shootings, “and I noticed that we come back again and again to the fact that a majority of these violent crimes are being committed by the same people, again and again. In fact, I was told that somewhere close to 90% of the gun violence in this community has been committed by people on probation.” She said she wanted everyone, from Court Services and career support to Economic Development and law enforcement agencies, to “start working from [jail] booking to really begin developing programming that’s going to attack this issue of these people continuously perpetrating this gun violence.”

Dixon said, “The statistics that you mentioned regarding the same people committing a crime, that’s true.”

Prizzia favored moving more quickly to develop a plan and then letting the Gun Violence Task Force, which will be convened by Santa Fe College, bring that to the community for feedback: “I really think we need to give that direction to County staff, at the minimum, to create a violent crime prevention team within our County that will work with the City and other Constitutional Officers to create that plan using the Department of Justice [Roadmap] that Chief Dixon mentioned.”

The Department of Justice Roadmap includes 10 Essential Actions:

• Set a clear goal: commit to saving lives by stopping violence;
• Identify the key people and places driving the violence;
• Create a city-wide plan for engaging key people and places;
• Engage key people with empathy and accountability;
• Address key locations using place-based policing and investment;
• Place responsibility for violence reduction efforts at the top;
• Emphasize healing with trauma-informed approaches;
• Invest in anti-violence workforce development;
• Set aside funding for new stakeholders and strategies;
• Commit to continuous improvement based on data, evidence, and peer-to-peer learning.

“People have been angry from time to time; people have had bad days that turned into violence throughout history, but when we provide everyone with a very efficient killing machine, that ends in deaths… The commonality between every gun death in the last 12 months in our community is the gun.” – Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward

County Commission Chair Mary Alford recognized Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward next. Ward said, “We talk a lot about gun violence, and then we pretend that ‘gun’ is not part of that phrase… Research from Everytown… indicates that stronger gun laws–not every time but most of the time–stronger gun laws equate to fewer gun deaths in a state. That’s what the data says. It’s not speculative–it’s years of information that tells the same story. Until we address that–and by statute, we are not allowed to address that from this dais or from the dais across the street… Availability of firearms is the issue… People have been angry from time to time; people have had bad days that turned into violence throughout history, but when we provide everyone with a very efficient killing machine, that ends in deaths… The commonality between every gun death in the last 12 months in our community is the gun.”

Prizzia responded, “But it’s also that 90% of that was perpetrated by people who are on probation for violent crimes to begin with. We know who the people are… We can put a program together now; we could put a plan together now. All we need is the political will, we need to get it on paper, and we need to fund it.”

Ward said that idea was “very nice–and it’s good, and it’s another tool.” He said that many of the gun deaths over the past year “are just not predictable–they’re just not. The commonality between them all is ‘gun.'” He said they’re doing “much of this already,” but the people doing it were not “in the room with us today, partially because it wasn’t on the agenda.”

“[If we had the] safety harnesses that were necessary in this community, we wouldn’t have the violent crime problem that we have right now.” – County Commissioner Anna Prizzia

Prizzia agreed that “guns are the problem [but] we don’t have control over gun legislation.” She said that if community partners and government partners and the business community would work together, people on probation might not “continue to perpetrate these crimes instead of being supported with an opportunity to change their lives.” She wanted to start at booking “with job opportunities, with training, with family mental health supports, with social services, and we build the safety nets.” She said if they had the “safety harnesses that were necessary in this community, we wouldn’t have the violent crime problem that we have right now.”

Prizzia said she was just following up on the City’s call to action with the Gun Violence Summit and wanted a plan “now. Not in three months from now, not in six months from now. In a month from now, I want a plan.”

“We need to do this next step, but let’s not think that it’s going to be the solution… Putting something on paper is not going to be the fix.” – Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward

Ward said the law enforcement agencies “are working with each other, and we should not speak as if this were not happening… We need to do this next step, but let’s not think that it’s going to be the solution… Putting something on paper is not going to be the fix.”

County Commissioner Ken Cornell said he heard Prizzia’s “urgency” and asked Smart, “What low-hanging fruit can you tell us you’re doing right now to address this Public Health Emergency declared 11 months ago?”

First County motion

Prizzia made a motion to ask staff to use the DOJ “10 Essential Actions” to “put together a plan in coordination with the City, the Public Defender, the State Attorney, the Sheriff’s Office, and any other relevant stakeholders to put together a plan based on those 10 actions and bring it back to this Commission within the next two months.” There was no second to the motion.

City Commissioner Casey Willits agreed with Ward that the legislature had “tied a hand behind our back” by preempting local governments from making gun laws. He added that the City has had “almost another hand tied behind our back because, for the past year, instead of thinking about what we could do, what resources we could put into this, we’ve had to think, ‘What resources can we pull away from this effort and not kill it?’ Because that’s where we’re at, budgetarily.”

Prizzia clarified that she saw the Gun Violence Task Force as “external… [it’s] about what the community wants to say about what we’re doing,” and she was talking about an “internal” effort. She said a lot is currently being done, but it needs to be collected in one document so it can be understood and communicated.

“Housing matters. Housing, housing, housing, and the spike in gun violence happened right along with increasing rents during the pandemic… We’ve got to continue to figure out how to make rent cheaper for people.” – Gainesville City Commissioner Casey Willits

Willits added a “plea to UF Health” to get involved and also said, “Housing matters. Housing, housing, housing, and the spike in gun violence happened right along with increasing rents during the pandemic… We’ve got to continue to figure out how to make rent cheaper for people.”

Alford said, “I agree. I think all the social determinants of health feed into violence. I mean, it’s frustration, in a lot of places.” She thought it might be “a frustrating process” for staff to try to write a plan and suggested having representatives from the City and County Commissions and the Constitutional Officers meet for a retreat, go through their goals, and set out a plan: “That would be the inside-facing plan to work with the outside Task Force, hand in hand.”

City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said gun violence is a very big problem, “but there are communities that have put together strategies, that have put together plans that involve and embrace the public safety and public health and that are pulling everyone in an all-hands-on-deck approach to try to address the issue. I agree that a plan is absolutely essential.”

“Unfortunately, it seems almost as though our kids are being programmed for violence, and we’ve got to be intentional about deprogramming. That means bringing the school board on. How do we create or help to encourage the creation of non-violent curriculum, programs, etc.?” – Gainesville City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker

Duncan-Walker said the plan must center on young people: “Unfortunately, it seems almost as though our kids are being programmed for violence, and we’ve got to be intentional about deprogramming. That means bringing the school board on. How do we create or help to encourage the creation of non-violent curriculum, programs, etc.?” She agreed with Willits that housing is “one of the root causes of violence.” She added that she was “so excited to hear the urgency… But I was a little confused about who’s doing what.” She said she needed clarity about who is leading the effort. 

Ward said again that “the folks who are working on this every day, right now, as we’re sitting in this room, aren’t here. And I don’t think that we… should be speaking for them when they’re not in the room… I am uncomfortable with having an extensive discussion about what is primarily a public safety issue with public safety not represented.”

“This is no longer about being compassionate for those who commit the crime. This is about being compassionate for the victims… That’s my view about it.” – Gainesville City Commissioner Ed Book

Commissioner Ed Book recommended publicizing the gun bounty, “because the gun bounty puts money in the hands of people that may be willing to report somebody else [who has a gun].” He suggested doubling Crimestoppers rewards. He said that he is aware of efforts between the Gainesville Police Department (GPD), the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and the State Attorney’s Office to look for “punitive action, which is action that takes the person who commits the act off the street… This is no longer about being compassionate for those who commit the crime. This is about being compassionate for the victims… That’s my view about it.” He said the State Attorney is looking “for every enhancement possible” for gun violence prosecution. 

Book said the best thing the Commissions could do would be to “support our law enforcement and our marketing and communication arms, with putting out information. When somebody is caught and arrested, we make no bones about putting their name in big letters, with what’s happened, what sanctions have occurred, how they’ve been prosecuted.” He said some people get “nervous” about doing that, but he believes it makes crime “very uncool.”

County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said the issue would not “be so easily addressed with a plan… [Commissioner Book is] probably the best one on this board to address what we’re talking about right here. The law enforcement in our community is the best people to come up with the plan… I don’t think that’s something our staff can do.”

Prizzia said her motion was to ask staff “to work with those people. It wasn’t to tell law enforcement what to do.” She said her goal was to have something that captured all the things that are being done so she could communicate them when asked. 

City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she didn’t think they were ready to develop a plan; she favored waiting until after GPD’s presentation to the City Commission in February and then having a presentation at their next joint meeting with information about the steps that have already been taken. 

Second County motion

Cornell made a motion to “refer to staff the task of identifying the current steps and existing stakeholders at both the County and the City and the activities that are occurring related to the local Gun Violence State of Emergency, and return to us within 60 to 90 days with a report of these activities, which will include, but not be limited to, each of the January 2022 Executive Summary ’10 Essential Activities’ and tasks to reduce violence now, as well as other immediate short-term and long-term recommendations, that could serve as a draft plan for both Commissions to begin to consider. That would give staff 90 days to say, ‘Here’s the things that we’re doing,’ including some of the things that are in this report that you’ve actually started to implement. We could then receive that information, absorb it, and then start to think about our next budget cycle and developing a plan while simultaneously not [stopping] the energy of the Task Force in Santa Fe, which is community-based.”

The motion passed by a 4-1 vote of the County Commission, with Wheeler in dissent.

City motion

Duncan-Walker made a motion to mirror the County’s motion, and Willits seconded the motion. 

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he liked the “simple format” of the 10 Essential Points and added, “We’re already doing a lot of these things… So I’m happy to support the motion.”

Willits suggested removing the word “emergency” from Cornell’s motion and changing it to “crisis.” Duncan-Walker agreed, saying, “There was apparently a state prohibition with us using that language in terms of declaring it as a state of emergency; it is a public health crisis.”

Before calling for a vote, Ward said, “Part of the point behind all this is that when we ask all the stakeholders to come talk again and put reports together, that takes them off task… Every time we do this sort of thing, it does not come without a cost of the work that is being done otherwise.”

Book pointed out to Alford that the City has a Gun Violence website that lists some resources, although it does not have “quite the specificity that you were talking about.”

The City’s motion passed unanimously.

Change to County’s motion

Cornell made a motion to change the County’s motion to say “crisis” instead of “emergency,” and that motion passed unanimously.