NEW ORLEANS — They’re familiar scenes across the city of New Orleans, complete with yellow police tape and yellow markers on the ground, indicating the latest shooting.
“We all know too well gun violence has plagued this city for a number of years,” said Tamara Jackson, executive director of Silence is Violence.
How to stop gun violence is now the target of a new city-wide initiative.
“I do recognize that the residents of the city of New Orleans are calling for a different approach and a holistic approach,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
That new approach was announced Monday. Through an executive order the city is launching a gun violence prevention initiative, with a focus to build infrastructure to deal with the problem long term.
“Our goal is to prevent violence from occurring through the use of public health intervention,” said New Orleans director of strategic initiatives Joshua Cox.
Cox says part of that intervention will begin at the community level, by training advocates like barbers and beauticians who are entrenched in their communities.
“Social determinants of health often determine behavioral outcomes, so if we can address as many needs of our people as we can, we’re confident that we’ll be able to see reductions over time,” Cox said.
According to preliminary data form the city council’s crime dashboard, deadly shootings in New Orleans are up 21 percent so far this year compared to last year. Non-deadly shootings are up 51 percent. The city plans to use that data academically, teaming up with Tulane’s school of public health, which will study gun violence and evaluate initiatives.
“As we see the progress that demonstrates effectiveness we’re going to continue to support in scale. If we see something that we’re moving in the wrong direction, we’re going to pivot and change it up,” Cantrell said.
City leaders hope it will be a pivot from acts of violence, so scenes of police tape and the tragedies that often follow aren’t as familiar.