The NBA Allstar Weekend in San Francisco this past week saw a showcase celebrating the Bay Area’s Violence Intervention efforts. Held by The National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, this was an amazing well-attended event on the Chase Center campus. I was honored to participate as one of the co-sponsors of this event (with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform and Live Free).
There, I took part in an important first—a conversation about the creation of a regional approach to reduce the gun violence still harming Bay Area communities.
Gun violence in the Bay Area is changing. The environments where it happens, the people who engage in it, and the players that fuel it have evolved dramatically. For decades, community violence intervention (CVI) efforts have focused on individuals and groups defined by geographic boundaries, neighborhood rivalries, and identifiable affiliations. But today in the Bay Area, much of the firearm activity defies these patterns.
Yet, our CVI strategies for preventing and interrupting violence have remained largely the same. If we are to truly address retaliatory gun violence more effectively today, we must embrace a new approach, one that is regional, adaptive, and built on trust and collaboration across city borders.
The Case for a Regional CVI Strategy
Retaliatory gun violence is no longer confined to city limits. The actors at the center of gun violence rarely have fixed locations, common insignia or colors, and their identities are as fluid and elusive as the cyberspace they operate within. Conflicts no longer play out in predictable ways–they ignite on social media, may flare up in multiple cities at once, and escalate with unprecedented speed. A shooting in Oakland can trigger a response in Richmond; a dispute in Stockton can lead to violence in Vallejo. In this landscape, siloed intervention efforts are ineffective. Failing to collaborate leaves dangerous gaps that violence can slip through. A regional CVI strategy, one that connects San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Vallejo, Antioch, Stockton, and Sacramento is not just preferable; it is essential.
This approach will demand trust. Cities and CVI practitioners must commit to sharing critical intelligence across city boundaries. This means overcoming long-standing barriers to information-sharing, ensuring that what is shared is protected, and building the relationships necessary to fortify and sustain trust overtime.
But trust alone is not enough. A regional CVI strategy must decentralize decision-making, empowering frontline workers to act swiftly and effectively. It must embrace organic fluidity, allowing interventions to adapt in real time rather than follow rigid bureaucratic processes. Most of all, it must be built on a shared consciousness and a collective understanding of the shifting dynamics of violence across the Bay Area.
The Path Forward
It is time for Bay Area city leaders, intervention workers, and community stakeholders to come together and build a system that reflects the reality on the ground. A system where collaboration is not an afterthought but a core principle. A system that is dynamic, responsive, and relentlessly focused on stopping the next shooting before it happens.
This evolution will be CVIs toughest test yet. Practitioners must be willing to unlearn old paradigms and adapt to a reality that demands new ways of thinking, new structures, and new operational norms. This will not be easy. It will demand tough conversations about data-sharing, resource allocation, and decision-making authority. It will require all of us to step outside our comfort zones and take risks in the name of something bigger than ourselves.
Every delay in adopting this new approach will cost lives. When cities operate in isolation, retaliatory violence can fester unchecked. Without a regional strategy, we are asking CVI practitioners to fight a battle where the rules have changed but their tools and tactics have not. That is not a fair fight.
To win, we must change. We must get here.
The Bay Area has always been a region of innovation, collaboration, and resilience. Now, it must apply those same strengths to the urgent fight against retaliatory gun violence. The future of our communities depends on it.