Office of Violence Prevention cites gun buyback results and NICJR reports as it seeks larger 2025 budget

Rena Schack, director of the Office of Violence Prevention (prerecorded), presented the office's 2024 accomplishments and the proposed 2025 budget.

Schack said the 2024 community gun buyback distributed $106,425 in gift cards and resulted in the collection and destruction of dozens of firearms, listing the numbers on the record: 67 handguns, 33 shotguns, 38 rifles and 96 assault rifles. She described a partnership with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) that provided technical assistance and produced a community violence intervention landscape analysis and a cost-of-gun-violence analysis.

Citing the NICJR report, Schack said the city incurs approximately $2,100,000 in reactionary resources on average for each homicide and $738,000 for each nonfatal shooting, figures she presented to underscore the financial as well as human costs of firearm violence. She asked council to consider a proposed 2025 budget of $6.8 million, which the office said would expand staff from eight full-time employees to 21 and increase services and contracts with community partners and intervention providers.

Schack said the office is also investing in measurement and assessment work with Ohio State University to create tools for evaluating violence-intervention services.

Council did not vote on the request at the hearing; Schack invited follow-up questions and offered to answer queries from council offices and the public.