ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — On Monday night, April 22, the Rock Island City Council voted to sign a one-year agreement with the National Group Violence Intervention program.
GVI is a partnership between law enforcement and community groups, such as Family Resources. The goal of the partnership is to help deter residents from committing crimes by promoting anti-violence at a community-wide level.
"It's to bring us all together and work towards one common goal, and that is to reach these individuals before they are victims or perpetrators of crime," Rock Island Police Chief Richard Landi said.
Davenport has run the same program for almost two years. Landi says their partner across the river has seen a correlation between a decrease in violent crimes and GVI. Rock Island hopes to have similar success.
"We were dealing with a spike in gun violence in 2022," Landi said. "We had several homicides that year. We've seen a decrease since then, but we want to make sure we keep it down."
Watch more news, weather and sports on News 8's YouTube channel