Paying Shooters to Hold Their Fire?
To Fight Rising Murder Rate, More Cities Find, Mentor and Pay Likely Shooters

Advance Peace Fresno attempts to steer gang members who commit the most shootings away from crime, but opponents say stipends send the wrong message

The program, called Advance Peace Fresno, is trying to reverse a rising murder rate by offering fellowships to people identified as most likely to be involved in shootings.

Advance Peace’s fellowship program is now running or set to launch soon in nine cities, including Rochester, N.Y.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Sacramento, Calif. Another 18 cities are using elements of the program, according to Advance Peace and law-enforcement officials.

Advance Peace Fresno’s $1.8 million budget comes from the city, state and nonprofit groups. Garry Bredefeld, a Republican city councilman, voted against funding the program because of the money provided to participants.

Advocates say the stipends are important to keep participants engaged in the program

“I know a lot of people who got allowances growing up, I know a lot of people who got a little extra dough when they did well in school” said DeVone Boggan, chief executive of Advance Peace. “These guys haven’t had a childhood.”

Mr. Boggan founded the program more than a decade ago in the Bay Area city of Richmond, Calif., to address a growing murder rate. He hired former gang members and ex-cons to identify and mentor young men who had spent time behind bars for shootings, had been shot themselves or were suspected in recent shootings.

In the first five years of the program, 94% of the 68 fellows were alive, 79% hadn’t been arrested or on gun-related charges, and 60% had received monetary incentives, according to an evaluation by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a nonprofit research group.

Jason Corburn, a University of California, Berkeley professor who has evaluated the group’s work in Sacramento and Stockton, Calif., said that over the course of an 18-month Advance Peace fellowship, less than $20,000 is typically spent on a cohort of 30 to 50 individuals and an average of 20 to 50 shootings are prevented.

“If you were an economist, you’d say that’s a great return on investment,” he said.

Last year there were 732 shootings and 74 murders in Fresno, compared with 374 shootings and 45 murders in 2019. In June, city officials agreed to fund a local Advance Peace program for three years. wsj.com