Brooklyn Center Officials: Community Intervenors Helping To Reduce Crime
Brooklyn Center leaders are crediting paid community intervenors for helping to deter crime in the city.
LaToya Turk, director of the city’s new Office of Community Prevention, Health and Safety, spoke to the city council this week to provide an update on the city’s crime reduction strategy. The office was set up following extensive budget discussions after the 2021 fatal officer-involved shooting of Daunte Wright.
“From last year’s crime stats to this year, for the past two months, we have seen a decline,” Turk said.
Turk said the city contracts with four intervenor groups whose members wear blue shirts that say “outreach” on the back. The intervenors are deployed to 16 so-called “hot spots,” where there are more police calls, she said.
City officials believe they’re making a difference.
“We’re saving lives and we’re building lives and we’re building relationships,” Turk told city council members. “There’s a wealth of benefits for us as a community to have community intervenors in those spaces.”
Map shows crime “hot spots” in the city. The yellow and orange indicate areas with higher numbers of police calls./courtesy Brooklyn Center
Community intervenors receive Department of Justice training and also learn how to administer Narcan, the drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. They also communicate daily with Brooklyn Center police to report what they’re seeing.
Intervenors were also credited with helping to disperse a large crowd at a city park two months ago. Turk said the intervenors are committed to the best interests of the city.
“Our intervenor groups, all our led by residents of the city of Brooklyn Center, either residents having homes or having businesses here,” said Turk.
Turk said her office is in the process of putting together a 2024 proposed budget to continue the community intervenor strategy.
