Gainesville records striking decrease in gun violence in 2024

Gainesville records striking decrease in gun violence in 2024

Published on December 16, 2024

With 2024 coming to a close, data from the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) shows a striking decrease in gun violence and related gun crime over the course of the calendar year.

Since May, there has not been a single gun-related homicide reported in the City of Gainesville. City leaders are hopeful this momentum can be attributed to the increasing quality and reach of city-led projects aimed at reducing gun violence. A timeline of these efforts is available online.

"The City of Gainesville is always working with our community partners and challenging every department to think outside the box and substantially lower the violent crime rate," said Mayor Harvey L. Ward. "We've taken a kitchen sink approach to saving lives in this community, and it's gratifying to share that all of the steps we've taken along the way are having an impact. It's a long road and many steps remain, but we are developing the solutions needed to create positive change as we work collaboratively with our partners across the county."

That change is evident in GPD's end-of-year Gun-Related Statistics. The table below documents quarterly totals going back to January 2024. It shows across-the-board reductions in homicides, gunfire injuries and number of shots fired.

GPD Gun-Related Statistics*
Crime	Jan. 1-March 31	April 1 - June 30	July 1 - Sept. 30	Oct. 1 - Nov. 30
Stolen Firearms	21	32	25	20
Firearms Seized or Recovered	64	72	68	43
Number of Shots Fired	45	35	25	14
Persons Shot or Injured by Gunfire	13	15	8	2
Homicide Victims	5	2	0	0

*Numbers current as of Nov. 30, 2024.

Led by Mayor Ward and District 1 Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker, the Gainesville City Commission has spent two years prioritizing a wide array of gun violence prevention policies. City Manager Cynthia W. Curry has planned and implemented the operational components, including the August 2023 Gun Violence Prevention Summit, the Community Gun Violence Prevention Alliance, the GPD Gun Violence Unit and IMPACT GNV.

"IMPACT GNV is how we connect neighbors with resources that can help," said Gun Violence Intervention Program Manager Brittany Coleman. "We've teamed with B.O.L.D. to build and to strengthen prevention and intervention methods. We work closely with a violence interrupter team to reach into neighborhoods. We also have our Community Care Callouts, where agencies come together when trauma-informed outreach is needed following acts of gun violence."

The city has invested considerable funding to create these programs, which are supported by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the General Fund. Additional support from the Children's Trust of Alachua County, which recently allocated $500,000 toward gun violence prevention efforts, will be administered by the city and county as they work in coordination with the Community Gun Violence Prevention Alliance based at Santa Fe College.

Gainesville Police Chief Nelson Moya feels this multi-pronged approach is essential to the city's progress.

"When I came to the organization we were in the middle of a wave of violence, but there were some opportunities. The city was recognizing the problem and was already allocating resources centered on prevention, intervention and enforcement," he said.

In mid-2023, Moya helped GPD establish the Gun Violence Unit, a temporary effort that later evolved into a full-time unit targeting gun crime. Comprised of one sergeant and four officers with the sole focus of reducing gun violence, the unit works with partner agencies, including the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, to cross jurisdictional lines and share resources. To date, GPD's Gun Violence Unit has worked 11,800 hours at an estimated cost of $560,000.

Meanwhile, Gainesville's data continues to stream in, providing important insights related to existing efforts. The recent conclusion of One Nation One Project (ONOP), a nationwide initiative to improve the health and well-being of young people through culture and the arts, has delivered a flood of valuable information. When launching ONOP in 2022, the City Commission selected the reduction of youth gun violence as the project's focus. Over the course of the two-year project, ONOP GNV interacted with 3,605 community members through events and funded projects. Youth who participated in the second round of funded projects demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in gun violence risk factors and reported increased emotional well-being and socio-emotional functioning at the end of their experience.

Commissioners will receive a report detailing the achievements of One Nation One Project at the Joint City/County Commission Special Meeting at 1 p.m. today. The meeting will be broadcast on Cox Cable Channel 12 and livestreamed on the city's website and Facebook page, and archived online. A full summary of the city's gun violence prevention efforts is listed on our website).

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