INDIANAPOLIS — Some of the country's leaders in law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels have come to Indianapolis this week to hear strategies for fighting violent crime.
One of the event's participants said changes made in her city are working.
The ZIP codes may be different, but the problem is not a unique one.
First the gunshots, then the police tape and sometimes what's left is a family and community in mourning after the loss of another life to a violent crime.
"Like many cities, Sacramento wasn't unique in seeing a surge of violent crime, especially gun violence, as we were getting out of the COVID pandemic," Sacramento Chief of Police Kathy Lester said.
Lester is participating in the annual Public Safety Partnership Conference and Violent Crime Reduction Summit in Indianapolis to share how her city reduced homicides by 40%, violent crime overall by 18% and the number of shootings by 30% from 2021 through 2022.
"The numbers don't lie," Lester said. "Obviously across the nation, you're seeing some reductions, but ours are even more significant than what you're seeing nationally."
Sacramento's police department just finished the first year of a three-year public safety partnership with the federal government that gave the city a grant to implement a violent crime reduction strategy.
Part of that, Lester said, has been identifying and communicating with people who have been involved in violent crime.
"We reach out to them and offer them resources, work with our community partners in our city and try to get people off the path of community crime and violence," Lester said.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke at the summit this week, outlining what he called a Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap. It lays out 10 steps to reduce violent crime, like identifying the people and places driving the violence and setting aside money to engage community partners.
"This is a problem we're never going to arrest or prosecute our way out of," Garland said.
"A lot of the tenets of the road map are things we've already implemented here in Indianapolis through our gun violence reduction strategy, our Indy Peace Fellows and other partnerships that we have," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Zachary Myers said.
According to IMPD, criminal homicides are down — 166 compared to 204 the city saw last year at this same time. Sacramento's numbers are down, too. Lester said partnerships are key, no matter the city.
"No one can do this alone," Lester said.