The Madison Police Department will receive $117,000 from the federal government to help combat gun-related violence in the city.
The money will fund public service announcements and translation services, as well as educational and informational materials and software to track gun-related incidents. Updated training for officers will also be included, according to Captain Ellen Schwartz of the MPD.
Approximately $24,000 will go toward funding community service to help prevent juvenile gun crimes. Schwartz said the programming will be utilized to work with youth and parents to identify common precipitating factors of gun violence.
Schwartz added gun violence is on a recent rise in the city. In 2003 there were 11 homicides in the city, of which eight involved guns.
“Eleven homicides doesn’t sound like a big thing for a lot of cities, but for us, it’s pretty big,” Schwartz said. “[W]e have been experiencing a rise in gun violence.”
Schwartz said deaths by gunshot as well as armed burglaries, robberies where gun use was threatened, have not risen at an incredibly fast rate, but they have nonetheless steadily increased over the past five years.
“There isn’t a part of the city that isn’t in some way touched by it,” Schwartz said.
Ald. Austin King, District 8, said although gun violence is not common in the campus area, it could be brought in from areas where it is more notorious in the city. He added when gun violence grows in the outer communities and neighborhoods it has a way of feeding back into campus on the weekends.
“Helping make the city a better a place will make the campus a better place too,” King said. “It’s nice to actually once in a while to get money back from the federal government to do productive things.”
Schwartz said the central part of the city has had a share of the armed robberies and gun violence. She added students can be susceptible to this type of violence when it occurs in areas they often travel.
“With alcohol and any kind of drug trade involving students, they are just as likely as anybody to be touched by [gun violence],” Schwartz said.
King said a 1991 referendum attempted to ban handguns in the city of Madison but was defeated in a close 51-49 vote.
“We’re a city that really doesn’t tolerate gun violence,” King said.
The MPD will also be tackling a tougher prosecution of individuals committing violent crimes with firearms, including felons, individuals providing firearms to juveniles or to felons.
The grant was only recently formally awarded and was introduced to the City Council Tuesday. It must now travel through the acceptance of government processes, but Schwartz said it should be set by the end of the month.
