NYC’s Crisis Management System Interventions Reduced Gun Violence by 21%, Comptroller Lander’s Report Finds

But the report also found the system can work better: Insufficient oversight, limited data tracking, and payment delays by the Adams Administration hinder community efforts to improve public safety and prevent gun violence. 

New York, NY—In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found that the New York City Crisis Management System’s (CMS) Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs reduced gun violence by 21 percent where it was deployed, leading to 1,567 fewer shootings citywide between 2012 and 2024.  

While the comprehensive report, The Cure for Crisis, highlights the success of community-based CVI programs, it also uncovered major management deficiencies that hinder efforts to improve public safety and prevent gun violence: a lack of coordination, insufficient tracking of data and outcomes, rampant delays by the Adams Administration in processing payments, and insufficient technical assistance and support for CVI providers.  

“Our report confirms what many have long known: community-led solutions are a critical part of the cure to our gun violence epidemic,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Beginning with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ advocacy more than a decade ago, New York City implemented and expanded these life-saving solutions to neighborhood gun violence – and the results are clear, in fewer shootings and lives saved.  

“But our report also shows that we can and must do better,” Lander continued. “To secure a safer city, City Hall needs to provide better oversight and coordination, launch a real-time CVI dashboard to track outcomes, engage community members more effectively, and stop paying providers an average of 255 days late.” 

“I’ve been proud to have Comptroller Lander as a partner in public safety for over a decade. His efforts through this report to further fund and integrate Crisis Management and other prevention programs into our city’s public safety infrastructure will build on the clear success these programs have had in preventing violence and promoting community health,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. 

While the report underscores that CMS’s CVI programs effectively curb incidents of gun violence in localized communities, it warns that persistent issues—including payment delays, lack of centralized coordination, technical assistance, and inconsistent oversight—hamper progress. 

The key findings in the analysis reveal:  

• CMS reduced shootings by 21%, or an average of 7.4 shootings, in precincts with CVI programs, contributing to a 9.8% citywide reduction from 2012–2024. 

• Five percent of city blocks account for a disproportionate share of shootings, concentrated in hotspots like the South Bronx, East Harlem, Brownsville, and East New York. Pandemic-driven surges revealed emerging hotspots, even as areas with robust CVI programs saw long-term declines. 

• Data gaps and inconsistent leadership limit the city’s ability to fully evaluate CMS effectiveness, despite its proven success. 

• CMS providers face long and growing payment delays: Average wait times for reimbursements surged from 130 days in 2016 to 255 days in 2024—a 96.5% increase. 

In 2012, under the leadership of then-City Council Member Jumaane Williams, New York City established the CMS. The program equips trusted community members with resources to mediate conflicts, prevent retaliation, and address the root causes of violence through a public health approach. Today, CMS encompasses over 20 CVI organizations that combat gun violence through de-escalation, conflict mediation, and social service delivery. 

To understand the historical context for gun violence in New York City, the Comptroller’s Office conducted a spatial and temporal analysis of all 23,298 shooting incidents across New York City over the past 19 years and examined trends across all 77 police precincts and all 41 CVI service areas—a novel, dual-layered approach that goes beyond previous studies. This report presents the most up-to-date analysis by using 2024 data to reflect neighborhoods where the City recently expanded CMS while providing nuance to identify critical gaps in order to optimize outcomes. 

In addition, the Comptroller’s Office analyzed vendor payment data from the Department of Youth and Community Development’s (DYCD) Office of Neighborhood Safety—where the CMS program is currently housed—to assess the financial and operational challenges facing CMS providers between Fiscal Years 2016 and 2025, including approximately 1,400 payment requests from 112 contracts totaling $192 million.  

Though CMS has demonstrably reduced shootings, City Hall’s lack of oversight, inadequate data-driven strategies, coverage gaps, funding inconsistencies, and bureaucratic inefficiencies constrains its impact.  

The report proposed recommendations to City Hall and the City Council:  

• Improve the City’s management & coordination of CMS, including strengthened oversight: Create a dedicated team to improve the City’s management and coordination of CMS, standardize data collection and reporting, and provide technical assistance and capacity-building for CVI Organizations.  

• Launch a real-time CVI dashboard: The City should provide CVI organizations with real-time access to shooting data, crime trends, public health data, socioeconomic data, and available community resources through a Unified CVI Dashboard. The City should facilitate data-sharing between NYPD and CVI groups while protecting privacy. Additionally, if the City chooses to continue using ShotSpotter, it should leverage ShotSpotter’s Data for Good program to provide its data to CVI groups.  

• Deploy a Data-Driven Community Engagement Strategy through Monthly “NeighborhoodStat” Meetings: The monthly meetings should go beyond NYCHA public housing and apply it to all precincts with active CVI programs, creating a structured forum for collaboration between violence interrupters, community organizations, NYPD precinct commanders, and local residents.  

• Take a data-driven approach to expanding capacity and efficiency of CVI: The City should conduct regular studies of CVI programs and establish a rapid-response improvement mechanism with insights from the real-time data dashboard, monthly coordination meetings, and a reimagined NeighborhoodStat. The City should also expand CMS into high-risk areas without coverage, such as Harlem, Inwood, Washington Heights and Longwood, and increasing funding and staffing in Brownsville, Northern Harlem, East Harlem, and the South and Central Bronx, where shootings remain frequent despite CMS presence.  

• Close payment delays: Adopt a formal 90-day reimbursement timeframe policy for City contractors, including CVI providers, to prevent delays in critical funding. The City must fulfill the longstanding promise to launch ContractStat, a public tracking system for contract delays, in order to ensure transparent and accountable funding timelines. 

I am excited about the opportunity to be in conversation on improving the lives of New Yorkers by enhancing our cure violence, resources, and accessibility to new tools that will make it so we can offer greater help to our young people. I stand with improvement. I stand with victory over violence,” said Dr. Iesha Sekou, CEO and founder of Street Corner Resources. 

“Violence interruption builds safety for everyone. By addressing the root causes of violence, creating spaces to heal, and connecting young people with the opportunities they deserve, our communities can thrive,” said Hailey Nolasco, Center for Justice Innovation’s Senior Director of Government Relations. “The message of the new report is clear: New York City’s Crisis Management System (CMS) and community violence intervention programming is saving lives and reducing violence. Every day, CMS programs are making a positive difference by sending respected members of the community into neighborhoods to mediate conflicts and connect people with services. We are grateful the Comptroller’s Office is shining a light on this vital work.” 

“Community violence intervention (CVI) programs are one of the greatest tools at our disposal for combating violence in New York City,” said David Caba, Senior Vice President at Good Shepherd Services, Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.) Cure Violence Program.  “As one of New York’s evidenced based Cure Violence programs, B.R.A.G. has worked consistently on the frontlines to eradicate gun violence in the Bronx in the Fordham, University Heights, Wakefield, Edenwald and Kingsbridge neighborhoods. Today’s report proves what we have always known to be true: the Crisis Management System and CVI programs save lives. As we seek to make further inroads in decreasing gun violence in NYC, we join the Comptroller in calling for the expansion of the Crisis Management System and further investment in critical CVI programs.” 

“Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI) is a dynamic community-based organization with a citywide scope with service sites in all five boroughs, providing comprehensive social services to all segments of the population,” said Rabbi Moshe Wiener, Executive Director of Jewish Community Council of Staten Island. “We are particularly proud of our work as a Cure Violence provider through our Operation H.O.O.D. (Helping Our Own Develop) division, which has played a pivotal role in achieving significant milestones, including over 200 days without shootings in Coney Island on multiple occasions. The success of Operation H.O.O.D. has been so impactful that we have been invited to expand our programming into other communities. JCCGCI wholeheartedly supports any initiative that aims to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the Cure Violence model and looks forward to growing this work with broader support for our efforts.” 

 

Read the Comptroller’s report here: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-cure-for-crisis  

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