We are at a pivotal moment. CVI has shown it can interrupt cycles of violence, earn community trust, and deliver results that traditional policing alone cannot. Yet most jurisdictions still treat CVI as a temporary add-on or pilot—”a nice program” dependent on short-term grants and vulnerable to political shifts. The only way to secure its future is through policy.
Community Violence Intervention (CVI) has emerged as one of the most effective public safety approaches for addressing the root causes of gun violence. But to make CVI permanent, we must do more than prove its impact—we must codify its role. That means advancing public policy that doesn’t just support CVI in principle but embeds it into the very architecture of how cities, counties, and states govern public safety.
CVI is too often treated as a program—a single initiative in a single department with a single funding stream. “Programs” can be cut. Programs can be replaced. But when a city adopts a policy, it adopts a commitment. It sends a clear message that CVI is not a luxury, but a necessity. I for obvious reasons cannot help but to think about the city of Richmond California. Not solely because I helped to standup and serve as the founding director of the first and longest standing Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) in the country, but because in its seventeen year, it remains a publicly funded necessity. Without a doubt from anyone living in Richmond, the ONS has and continues to help deliver optimal public safety outcomes. Moreover, the Richmond ONS has provided substantial evidence of what’s possible when CVI is embedded as a permanent part of government public safety infrastructure. Richmond also provides a roadmap to be followed.
Policy transforms CVI from a side initiative into a core function. It shifts the question as former Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay would note, from “Should we fund this?” to “How well are we delivering on our obligation to do this well?”
To make CVI a permanent part of public safety governance, cities/counties must pursue policies that:
- Declare CVI an Essential Public Safety Strategy
Cities and counties should pass formal resolutions recognizing CVI as a necessary component of their comprehensive public safety plans. These declarations signal intent, establish a standard, and open the door for further investment.
- Establish City Offices of Violence Prevention (Offices of Neighborhood Safety)
More than 70 additional cities that include cities like Baltimore Maryland New York City, Oakland California, Rochester New York, and Milwaukee Wisconsin have led the way by institutionalizing CVI through dedicated offices with direct accountability to the mayor or city manager. These structures ensure CVI has a seat at the decision-making table, not just a place in the community.
- Mandate Interagency Collaboration
Public safety doesn’t happen in silos. Strong CVI policies create formal mechanisms for coordination between public health, schools, community-based organizations, and law enforcement. This helps ensure that high-risk individuals receive services, not surveillance—and that efforts are aligned rather than duplicated.
- Guarantee Baseline Local Funding
Many CVI efforts run on philanthropic, state, or federal dollars, but true sustainability requires local buy-in. Cities should pass ordinances that guarantee a minimum level of general fund support for CVI—like how cities fund fire, police, or EMS services.
- Adopt Standards for CVI Practice and Workforce
We must keep our clients safe and our professional workforce healthy. Policies should outline expectations for training, compensation, and professional development of CVI workers—especially violence interrupters and outreach workers who often operate in high-risk environments without the protections or benefits afforded to other public servants.
Passing local laws and ordinances to support CVI does more than provide legal cover—it affirms a city’s values. It’s a declaration that saving lives through relationship-based strategies is not just good policy, it’s a moral and financial imperative.
Cities can go further by embedding CVI language and staffing into their general plans, public health strategies, and budget frameworks. This level of integration makes CVI difficult to erase—and far easier to grow.
If you are an elected official, policymaker, city administrator, or public safety leader reading this, now is the time to act. If your city benefits from CVI, then your city should be fighting to secure it—not just for the next grant cycle, but for the next generation.
Ask yourself: Have we formally acknowledged CVI in our public safety plan? Have we put general funds behind it? Have we created structures to support it? Have we institutionalized it? If the answer is no, then the work is far from finished.
Making CVI permanent isn’t just about funding or programs. It’s about political courage, policy innovation, and a belief that peace, like violence, can be engineered—intentionally, locally, and for the long term.