the role of community-based Public Safety is taking on greater importance throughout a lot of communities in New Jersey especially in the wake of police involved fatal shootings today a group known as the New Jersey violence intervention and prevention Statewide Coalition joined with leaders in Trenton to take a harder look at how the model which removes law enforcement from responding to certain crises is working as cities work to combat crime Melissa Rose Cooper has the story and when you ensure the safety and the wellness of our communities you ensure the safety and wellness of all New Jersey communities members of the New Jersey violence intervention and prevention Statewide Coalition applauding community-based organizations for their work in helping to reduce crime across the state these are highly skilled members of the community responding often times to highly charged and Incredibly sensitive situations armed with nothing more than their expertise their emotional aptitude contextual understanding and and above all else their Humanity which allows them to deescalate situations that honors the work and the lives of all the individuals involved their work has contributed to the 45% reduction of homicide in the city of train their work has contributed to noring a 60-year low in violence with a 15% reduction in homicide victims and a number of shooting victims that fell more than a third in 2022 thank you their work has caused violence and parison to drop by 35% murders down 39 % and shooting victims down 25% compared to 2022 this comes nearly a year after violence intervention activist Najee Seabrooks was shot and killed by Paterson Police during a mental health crisis I'd be lying if I I said that I this wasn't a bitter sweet moment for us it's been a very tough year for our team and uh we're still working through it um but with your support you know we've been able to persevere and u i I assume I can take this with a great Assa that it's a silver lining State lawmakers have since passed legislation aimed at helping communities respond to crisis incidents it's named after Najee Seabrooks and Andrew Washington who were both killed by police during mental health calls we've heard about the success of the bills why we have these bills brothers who lost lost their lives to get us to this point that shouldn't have had to happen Drew Washington and not Najee Seabrooks like we need to say their names right Najee Seabrooks and Drew Washington like they lost their lives so somebody doesn't have to so our communities can step in and fill that Gap that we know wasn't filled before but while Community leaders say they're grateful for State support they say it's the work of the people on the ground that really make the impact when it comes to Crime reduction and it's amazing when you realize that that coincides also when we started to actually receive the funding you know because we're one of those organizations that have been in place for you know almost 10 years but when we actually were able to to get the funding you can actually start start to see the results not that we're not occupying Corners not that we're not in the schools talking to the youth not that we're not doing everything that we can do but when we're able to actually put some kind of money towards programming to get these kids in the places that they need to be to make sure that these adults you know I mean have the resources to you know um violence prevention you know techniques and things like that and we can see change while we've experienced some strides and mistake we still got a ways to go but we're not unreasonable people right we believe in giving credit where it's due we commend the administration and the legislature for their leadership in ensuring that the uh Investments have been made into balance Interruption programs throughout the state but let's be clear this wasn't done because of Al right this was done because they understand what we all understand and that's because they understand that these programs work social Advocates also say they hope funding for Community violence prevention programs becomes permanent in the budget so they can continue to do the work that's necess Neary to keep their neighborhood safe for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper