Gun Violence Reduction Strategy

At a glance

• What: the city's gun violence reduction strategy (prevention, intervention and suppression), run with the police department and the Office of Violence Intervention and Prevention.
• Where it stands: presented to the council October 7 and received and filed. The presenters reported a 74% drop in shootings from 2021 to 2024 and 10 homicides so far in 2026.
• Funding: Measure N public safety vital services tax dollars and a three-year, $5 million state grant that began in April.

Sources

• Video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ycJMpkul25s
• Minutes of 2026-08-05: https://docs.bakersfieldcity.us/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=2000875&dbid=0&repo=CITYRECORDS (read from a scanned document)

Log

2026-08-05 - City Council

A consent item for an agreement of up to $300,000 with the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania for Cohort 5 grant program evaluation services was removed for separate consideration (the discussion is not in the available text). This appears related to the evaluation cited at the October 7 presentation.

2026-10-07 - City Council (2)

Christian Clegg presented the strategy and the data behind it: about 150 people driving roughly 70% of gun violence at the start, a 74% reduction in fatal and non-fatal shootings from 2021 to 2024, and gun and gang homicides falling from 17 in 2021 to 3 in 2024 and 3 in 2025. A University of Pennsylvania analysis was cited and a fuller evaluation is underway. Councilmembers asked about population-adjusted rates, environmental design, Measure N funding and participant feedback. The council received and filed the presentation.