Brook Endale and Christina Elias, Evansville Courier & Press
EVANSVILLE — It’s been nine years since Bridgett Tate’s son, Derrick Brian Jackson, was murdered six blocks from their home. She still calls the Evansville Police Department every week seeking answers in the unsolved homicide.
“If I didn’t stay on it, he would just be forgotten,” Tate said. “And that’s not – that was my only child. I'm only making it because I want to see my son get justice before I die.”
Her son, who went by Brian, was shot on Chandler Avenue, between Garvin and Governor streets. It’s hard to remain in Evansville, she said, especially in the same neighborhood where Brian died. But fighting to get justice for her son is the only thing that gets her up in the morning now, Tate said.
She’s involved with Mothers Against Senseless Killings and has spoken publicly many times about Brian’s death.
“You don’t get over it. You do not get over losing a child,” Tate said. “Every time you hear of somebody else's child being murdered like this, it brings it all back up again."
A continuing crisis
Gun violence in Evansville has been increasing over the years, as has the number of lives lost.
This year, 62 people were victims of shootings in the city as of Dec. 10, according to Evansville Police. As of Dec. 23, police had responded to 802 shots fired calls and 14 homicides. And 422 guns have been seized.
Compare that to 2019. That year there were 56 shooting victims, 10 homicides, 686 shots fired calls and 531 guns seized.
Gun violence in 2020 is the second-highest it's been for the last five years, according to EPD data. The only year with higher rates was 2017, and 2020 doesn't lag far behind.
In 2017, Evansville recorded 64 shooting victims, 19 homicides and 820 shots fired calls, and 480 firearms were seized.
“Over the past, I'd say, four or five years, it's started hitting here in Evansville pretty hard,” EPD Chief Billy Bolin said. “A lot of these people that are shooting at each other are teenagers.”
Not only are perpetrators and victims trending younger, but the violence is impacting communities of color disproportionately. Black men make up the largest demographic for both victims and suspects.
From 2016 to 2020, 149 Black men and 35 Black women were victims of shootings, compared to 40 white men and 19 white women. One shooting victim was a Hispanic man.
Over the last five years, 27 Black men were victims of homicides, six Black women, 19 white men, seven white women and one Hispanic man.
When victims or witnesses provide a suspect description, those also overwhelmingly trend toward Black men. On average, from 2016 to 2020, 56% of shooting suspects were described as Black males.
Feelings of hopelessness
Community members say the gun violence in Evansville is turning their lives upside down.
A woman living on Evansville's South Side with her husband, who asked for her name not to be used for fear of harassment, said she proudly bought a home 20 years ago that she loved. Now she feels trapped there.
She hears gunshots almost every other night in her neighborhood. On two occasions, she woke up to find stray bullets lodged in her home. Another time, in her car. Someone was shot and killed in front of her neighbor's house. She’s lost loved ones to shootings and fears for her younger relatives.
No one should have to live like this, she said.
The woman said she feels hopeless, saying all she can do is pray for God's protection over her nieces and nephews.
"I’m fearful for them as young men trying to grow up in Evansville,” she said. “Knowing the ones you love so dearly could just walk out the front door or walk into the gas station to get a soda and be killed. It’s crazy."
The people carrying out the shootings aren't showing any signs of stopping but instead seem more brazen.
"They're not even doing it in the cover of darkness anymore,” she said. “In broad daylight, people are getting shot and killed and hurt. And why?"
Looking for answers in the crisis
That question is critical to addressing this crisis, said Evansville CIty Council President Alex Burton, who's been outspoken about combating gun violence in Evansville.
He said when there are kids as young as 14 or 15 years old getting their hands on guns and carrying out shootings, there’s a problem.
Burton believes Indiana's gun laws, the ease in which juveniles can get their hands on guns and the lack of programming and resources for at-risk youth in Evansville are causing this crisis.
"It’s all related,” Burton said. “And we need grassroots efforts. It’s going to take some real work, and it’s going to have to be intentional."
He believes the community needs to be strategic in how resources are allocated. To reach the most at-risk, often young Black men, there needs to be programming and mentorship to engage them.
When kids lack a support system and activities or interests to occupy their time, it's easy for dangerous things to grab their attention instead, Burton said.
He said the city and community needs to invest in programs and people who can effectively reach at-risk youth.
The woman on Evansville's South Side said no one is engaging these kids and asking what they need and doing so, she said, would make a difference.
"To figure out what the problem is, we need to talk to the kids,” she said. “We need to know what’s causing them to sell drugs, quit school and not want to further their education. A lot of issues arise in the home. Parents are on drugs, and kids aren’t getting attention and are out there raising themselves and looking for the best, quickest way to survive, but it could cost them their lives."
She said it breaks her heart to see young Black men and women become victims of violent crimes or end up in jail. It's evident there's a problem, she said, but it feels like nothing is being done to address it.
'It is systemic, but it's not systemic racism'
After the spike of violence in 2017, EPD founded the Violent Incident Prevention Enforcement Response Unit. Sgt. Patrick Phernetton leads the unit and is frustrated by the violent crime seen in Evansville.
“Our problem here in Evansville, it is systemic, but it's not systemic racism," Phernetton said. “It's not the police; it's systemic in that we allow this to happen. As a community, we're allowing this to happen by several factors.”
He blames the courts for creating a “revolving door” through low bonds, probationary sentences or short sentences, a point of view Bolin shares.
“The VIPER Unit over the past three years has arrested close to 1,500 people,” Phernetton said. “That's a huge number. Most of them were almost immediately back out on the street. We've arrested people for gun crimes twice in one day.”
“It's frustrating to the officers to see the same dangerous criminals on the street, over and over again,” he said. “We have complained repeatedly about it, without any relief.”
Bolin and Phernetton believe the pandemic contributed to crime rates this year.
"If you have more aggressive policing, if you're out stopping more cars or being more proactive, that is a known way to cut down on things," Bolin said.
"When it comes to COVID, there were huge chunks of the year where we were telling our officers, 'Don't stop anybody unless you absolutely have to. Just go sit on a gas station lot or school lot and answer your runs,'" he said. "So we were encouraging our officers to not be proactive, because of COVID."
The virus also forced them to cut down on community outreach, which is tied to one of the biggest hurdles law enforcement sees to getting offenders off the streets and solving cases: trust and cooperation. Phernetton understands why many don't want to talk to the police, especially when "they know more than likely that person is going to be walking the street again" soon.
"It's a combination of not wanting to be a snitch and not wanting to be labeled like that, and also for fear of retribution," he said. "Because they don't have confidence in the system, that they're going to be protected."
Bolin said oftentimes EPD knows who the perpetrator is but can't prove it without the cooperation from the community.
“Without getting an eyewitness or some kind of tangible evidence, it's tough sometimes to solve these crimes," he said. "And then a lot of the victims' families think that we're not doing enough or that we don't care. ”
Working to focus on individuals, not groups
In Evansville, law enforcement have shifted focus to monitoring individuals rather than gangs, which tend to be disorganized and constantly evolving. Phernetton said it's more effective to focus on individuals. He said there are about 13 identifiable gangs in the city, but only ever two to three groups actively feuding with each other.
Phernetton said the VIPER Unit's approach is to deter repeat offenders with a zero-tolerance policy.
“We try to relentlessly put pressure on those that are creating the most problems in our city,” he said. “You know, even if they're not currently wanted for anything, we try to stay visible and in their face. My response to them when they call, or the mothers will call to complain about being harassed is, 'That's right. As long as you're committing crimes in our city, we're going to harass you. If you don't want to be bothered by the police, don't commit crimes, or you can feel free to move.'”
Bolin said cities across the country are struggling with how to reduce gun violence but he wants Evansville to figure it out and be an example. He believes the first step to doing that is to see this as more than just a police issue.
"There's no magic bullet,” Bolin said. “Nobody has the golden ticket to fix this, but I think the more meetings we have, the more conversations, the more collaboration, hopefully, we can become an example.”
A new approach
Many in Evansville want to see a new approach to combating gun violence.
Pam Decker, a member of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church who works with Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment, wants a solution to the gun violence she feels is out of control and creating a dangerous environment for Evansville youth.
“Evansville right now is sitting on four unsolved murders by guns of African American members in our community, and they’ve all been very young people,” Decker said. “That’s why I worry about my young granddaughter.”
In her work with CAJE, Decker has been advocating the city partner with the National Network of Safe Communities (NNSC) as a first step in addressing this crisis.
"The city has a responsibility to do everything they can to try and resolve, decrease and eliminate the gun violence issue,” Decker said.
Every year CAJE hosts five weeks of listening sessions asking people about their biggest concerns and worries.
Amy DeVries, the lead organizer with CAJE, said the resounding answer from people in Evansville and even neighboring counties was the increase in gun violence. She said CAJE members did extensive research into how other cities successfully reduced gun violence and discovered the NNSC.
"It's the logical first step to reducing gun violence in our city," DeVries said.
Reaching out to those who are high risk
The NNSC said they collaborate with communities to implement proven strategic interventions that reduce violence, build trust and increase public safety.
David Kennedy is the co-founder and executive director of the NNSC. In the 1990s, he led Operation Ceasefire in Boston during the height of the crack epidemic. The results were a 50 percent reduction in killings within two and a half years.
"It was the first time anyone was able to produce the kind of public safety improvements that we now know are possible," Kennedy said.
Since then, the NNSC has partnered with various communities across the country. This 25-year-old approach is a way of organizing the way communities and law enforcement think and act around violence and violence prevention, he said.
Kennedy said homicide and gun violence are usually concentrated within extremely small, active and identifiable groups and people. Most of the groups, which people think of as "gangs," tend to be disorganized structures without formal leadership.
In most cities, these groups represent half of one percent of the population but will be responsible for anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of all homicides and gun violence, Kennedy said.
It is possible to engage with those high-risk groups of people in ways that can be extremely effective, he said, and that is what the NNSC helps to develop.
This approach brings the community together to make it clear that non-violence should be the norm and violence will not be tolerated under any circumstance. It also identifies those few individuals carrying out the violence and directly talks with them, offering help to those who want it.
"People who are at risk and have experienced this kind of trauma need immediate assistance and support with whatever is going on in their lives," Kennedy said.
This works to address a big misconception about how people, especially juveniles, end up embroiled in violence.
"The image that outsiders have is people sitting down and deciding they’re going to be gang members instead of lawyers, and that’s just not how it works,” Kennedy said. “The awful thing is that more often than not, it's almost by accident or because they feel like they don’t have much choice.
“Often people will be doing what they’re doing not so much for themselves but because they’re younger brothers and sisters are hungry. All of that needs immediate attention, and that’s what support and outreach do,” Kennedy said.
When cities experience rampant gun violence, it's never just a police issue, he said. It needs to involve the entire community. There are people within every community who high-risk individuals respect and will listen to. And hearing from the parents who have lost their children to gun violence asking for it to stop also has an impact. And when people who've been in that life and get out and say, “you can do this too,” that can break through to those high-risk individuals, Kennedy said.
Communities need to find those kinds of figures and support their outreach efforts, he said.
Law enforcement can best use its resources, he said, by focusing on those few individuals responsible for the violence and making it clear that the city wants everyone, even those at high risk, to be safe and to succeed.
In many cases, Kennedy explained, Black neighborhoods have been harmed, neglected and suffered over-enforcement and under protection which has fostered a distrust of police.
"Law enforcement is like chemotherapy. It never saves your life without incurring a cost, and we want as little of it as we can manage that’s consistent with public safety."
If people don’t trust the police, they won’t call, he said, adding most people follow the law because it’s the right thing to do, not because they’re fearful of being arrested. If they believe police are fair and respectful, that improves trust.
The NNSC approach has been successful in a number of communities, including Oakland, California. He said the community initially didn't properly incorporate the approach but was finally able to get it right and kept it going for several years with dramatic success. From 2009 to 2012, Oakland cut gun violence by 50%.
The Giffords Law Center produced a report on the steps Oakland took to decrease its homicides and nonfatal shootings in half. They said while the criminal justice system has historically relied heavily on hardline tactics such as invasive stops and seizures or overly punitive sentencing, these strategies have done more harm than good in many places where violence is most pervasive.
Kennedy said cities that are successful incorporate NNSC's recommended approach in a way that it becomes central to the way they think about and produce public safety.
The city's stance
Winnecke said partnering with the NNSC has a broad spectrum of support in the city, including from Bolin, community advocates like CAJE and members of the city council he's discussed the plan with.
He believes some of the methods Evansville has tried, including the VIPER Unit, have been successful. But more can still be done.
Bolin has tried to implement some strategies from the NNSC. Some examples are alerting families to teenagers’ involvement in or association with people involved in crimes like shootings. But at the end of the day, he said, law enforcement can’t solve the problem alone.
Winnecke agrees the problem requires more than just police. It’s about pulling together all community stakeholders to address it. This is why he’s confident partnering with the NNSC can make a difference in Evansville.
"We share the community's concerns and this an extraordinarily high priority for the city," Winnecke said.
He said within the first quarter of 2021 there will be discussion in the city council on how to fund a partnership with the NNSC, and assuming they can secure the funding, his goal is to begin implementation sooner rather than later.