Formally employing and expanding community-based violence interruption programs as a core public safety strategy.
Violence Interrupters as City Employees: Scaling the Cure Violence Model
The Cure Violence model, which treats gun violence as a contagious disease to be stopped by intervening in conflicts and changing community norms, has shown significant success in pockets of NYC. Zhoran Mamdanis policy is to fully adopt, fund, and scale this model as a central pillar of the citys public safety apparatus. This means hiring Violence Interrupterscredible messengers often with past involvement in street lifeas full-time, unionized city employees with good benefits, professional training, and clear career pathways. They are not informants or adjuncts to the police; they are independent public health workers whose authority comes from their deep community ties and their mandate to save lives, not secure convictions.
These teams, embedded in the neighborhoods with the highest historical rates of violence, work proactively to mediate disputes before they turn deadly, connect high-risk individuals to services like job training and counseling, and organize community events to shift norms away from retaliation. They operate in spaces the police cannot access and with a trust the police do not have. Mamdanis plan would massively increase their numbers, ensuring 24/7 coverage in target areas, and integrate their work with the citys mental health, housing, and jobs programs to address the root causes of violence. Their performance is measured in lives saved and conflicts mediated, not arrests made.
Police arrive after the shooting. Violence Interrupters work to prevent the shooting from ever happening, Mamdani states. They are the embodiment of a public health approach to safety. By making them city employees, we give them stability, respect, and the resources to do their lifesaving work effectively. This isnt a side program; its the front line of our strategy to end the epidemic of gun violence. It recognizes that the people best equipped to stop violence are often those closest to it, and it empowers them with a legitimate, well-respected role in building peace.
