Street Outreach

Los Angeles, a city of almost 4 million people, is home to an estimated 400 gangs.¹Reginald Zachery and Alfred McCloud, “Los Angeles City Gang Profile,” Mayor Eric Garcetti Office of Public Safety, Gang Reduction and Youth Development Office, accessed August 28, 2019, http://bit.ly/2J4KQH5. For nearly 30 years, gang violence has been the biggest driver of gun violence in Los Angeles, followed by domestic violence and interpersonal disagreements.²Anne Tremblay (GRYD) and Manny Lopez (Public Safety with LAPD), interview by Sunny Schnitzer, Nadia Chait, and Paul John, of Everytown for Gun Safety. March 1, 2019. In 2007, the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety created the Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) program to address the city’s gang and gun violence problems by adopting a comprehensive approach.

The overall mission of GRYD is to strengthen the resiliency of youth/young adults, families, and communities to the influence of gangs by fostering public/private collaborations and supporting community-based prevention and intervention services. GRYD engages multiple agencies to comprehensively address gun violence prevention and intervention.

Over the past decade, the City of Los Angeles has developed multiple street outreach teams and various programs within its GRYD office. The Mayor’s Office of Public Safety created GRYD in 2007 to address the city’s gang and gun violence problems. For GRYD’s street outreach program, the mayor’s office partners with community-based agencies to provide 24/7 incident response to gang-related incidents within the agencies’ geographical zones.³Gang Reduction and Youth Development—Prevention Providers, “2018-2019 Provider Contact List,” accessed October 10, 2019, http://bit.ly/32tRxu7. When a violent event occurs, staff is deployed to incident locations, hospitals, and places within the community to engage with victims, family, and friends and to coordinate responses with community partners. Responses may include planning fundraisers, vigils, marches, etc. GRYD intervention/street outreach workers s to mediate conflicts, connect youth and their families to resources, decrease tensions, and reduce the potential for retaliation. The immediate deployment of resources aims to calm neighborhood tensions and connect victims to GRYD services.⁴Zachery and McCloud, “Los Angeles City Gang Profile.”

In 2014-2015, GRYD Incident Response prevented an estimated 185 gang-related violent crimes, saving taxpayers $110.2 million; the crimes included 10 homicides, the prevention of which saved citizens an estimated $88.8 million.⁵Ibid. The program has expanded from 17 GRYD Zones to 23. A quasi-experimental evaluation of 2005–2017 data found that areas served by Los Angeles’ GRYD program experienced an 18 percent reduction in violent crime, relative to comparison areas.