| Site “EXILES” Gun Crime
Andres Escobar, CCDO Visiting Fellow
Bennett high school seniors learn about Wicomico EXCELL.
|
Gang Coordinator Dan Doughtery speaks with youth at the annual Salisbury Festival. |
When a small city has a big crime problem, it needs to be fixed right away; in Salisbury, MD, community members promptly responded to their gun crime problem and are still finding success.
Salisbury, a city of about 30,000 people, is the retail, commercial, medical, educational, and recreational hub of Maryland's rural Wicomico County. The county's rural nature, however, concealed an alarmingly high level of gun crime—one so high that it spurred members of Salisbury's Weed and Seed community to join together, brainstorm solutions, and identify funding. Then, they instituted a response that led to a countywide initiative—Wicomico EXILE.
Three years ago, Beverly Ward, the Salisbury Weed and Seed liaison to the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO), partnered with the Wicomico State's Attorney's Office to apply for a grant from Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in America. Wicomico County, with a population of about 85,000, had the third highest gun-crime rate per capita for the state of Maryland, just behind Baltimore City and Prince George's County. The site brought together 16 partnering agencies and organizations, including all local law enforcement agencies, to discuss the problem and then to create a task force to focus on gun crimes.
Some of the partnering agencies and organizations included the Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office; the USAO; the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office; Wicomico County Narcotics Task Force; Division of Parole and Probation; Salisbury Police Department; Department of Juvenile Services; Salisbury Urban Ministries; and Bennett High School.
The task force became a team that synthesized prevention services with interdiction and intervention. The team members' collaboration has resulted in aggressive prosecution tactics that have led to numerous felony convictions, a community awareness campaign with a special focus on high school youth, and a system for sharing information related to gun crime and gang activities among all local law enforcement agencies.
Before achieving these results, however, the task force faced several challenges, the first of which was data collection. Initially, each agency used different means to collect and store information, so the sheriff's office created an accessible format for all data. Each agency also assigned an officer to be the point person for gun- and gang-related cases. Now, all gun- and gang-related information is funneled through a specific system and linked countywide.
The second challenge the task force faced was how to get its message to a diverse county population. Using the PSN grant, the project created its own logo and tagline for nationally produced public service announcements ("Hard Time for Gun Crime") and ran an extensive media campaign. In addition, the task force sponsored speeches at civic organizations and local community groups, and the State's Attorney's Office began publishing quarterly newsletters that highlighted specific gun convictions and included names and sentences.
The most significant component of the public relations project was Wicomico EXCELL—a program created to inform high school youth about the consequences of gun possession and gun crime, and to give them guidelines for making positive life choices. The Board of Education has approved the EXCELL curriculum for countywide use. To date, 14 schools are using it.
"We realized that most of the violent crimes involving guns were being committed by 15–23 year olds," Ward said. "After an incident at one of the high schools where a student brought a loaded handgun to school, students approached the vice principal. They had seen the ad campaign we were running and wanted EXILE to meet with them. We realized then that we needed to focus on this age group and developed the EXCELL concept to reach these students."
Ward believed that teens needed to know the real consequences of gun crime and have the tools to make better life choices. Weed and Seed and the Wicomico State's Attorney's Office, working with Front Row Productions, an Annapolis-based production company, developed a video using nationally produced spots, some pertinent statistics, and film reenactments of actual events related to gun crime. Then they interviewed some students who had stopped committing gun crimes and were choosing to do something constructive with their lives. Today, the Weed and Seed site uses the video, a PowerPoint presentation, and promotional materials (e.g., logo-emblazoned key chains, bracelets, ink pens, t-shirts) as part of its presentations.
Statistics show the success of the program: since the inception of Wicomico EXILE in July 2003 through March 2005, 260 firearm cases have been prosecuted, 192 have been closed, 107 have resulted in guilty verdicts, and 68 are still pending. All but seven of the convictions resulted in incarceration with an average sentence of 7 years. Thirty-seven cases have been referred to the U.S. Attorney for federal prosecution, with nine federal indictments.
As a result of Project Wicomico EXILE, violent offenders are being removed from the neighborhood and are receiving mandatory, no-parole sentences. The parole and probation department does EXILE trainings with all cases and has each offender sign an EXILE waiver. Law enforcement personnel have had overtime patrol hours approved and have purchased equipment that makes cases more viable in court. A countywide video surveillance system that can target problem areas also is being planned.
According to an article in the local newspaper, Salisbury residents claim that their neighborhood is a lot quieter and that people do not seem to act up as much as they used to. While crime has gone down, calls for service have actually gone up, which may reflect that police assistance is being welcomed.
For more information, contact:
Beverly Ward
Weed and Seed Site Coordinator for Salisbury, MD
|
