The Commitment: Pulaski County Funds Group Violence Intervention

On November 20th, 2025, leaders in Pulaski County reached a pivotal moment in the fight against violence. After two years of discussions and research on bringing Group Violence Intervention to the area, they joined forces and made a commitment to fund the strategy. 

The announcement happened at a press conference that marked a new chapter for the community. In this episode, you’ll hear the voices from that moment—leaders explaining why this decision matters, what comes next, and the shared resolve to save lives.

#community #safety #safecommunities #crimeprevention #communityviolenceintervention

Chapters

• 0:01 Why GVI And Why Now
• 2:10 County Judge Sets The Stakes
• 5:48 Little Rock’s Data And Holistic Approach
• 9:26 North Little Rock Joins Forces
• 10:45 Prosecutor’s Office Builds Partnerships
• 13:48 Business Community Steps Up Funding
• 16:48 Closing Commitments And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

On November 20th, Pulaski County reached a pivotal moment in the fight against violence. After two years of discussions and research on bringing group violence intervention to the area, leaders held a press conference and made a commitment to fund the strategy. In this episode, you'll hear the voices from that moment explaining why the decision matters, what comes next, and the shared resolve to save lives. Around the nation, gun violence is destroying families and weakening communities. It's becoming a leading cause of death for young people. We know that in nearly every city, only a small number of people are driving most of the violence. An approach called group violence intervention, or GVI, identifies those individuals and engages with them directly, trying to offer them a way out before the violence occurs. It's not just about stopping the shootings, it's about building a community where everyone feels like they have a shot at home.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02

Thank you all for joining us today for this important announcement regarding our group balance intervention partnership. Today represents a unified step towards reducing violence, increasing opportunity, and strengthening the futures of young people and families of Pulaski County. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge and thank the elected officials, the community partners, and organizational leaders who are with us today. Your presence reflects the collective commitment required to make meaningful, lasting change in our communities. Thank you for standing with us, for believing in this work, and for helping us move this initiative forward. Today, you will hear from several of our key partners, leaders who have championed collaboration, accountability, and intervention strategies that save lives and create safer communities. You'll hear from County Judge Barry High, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, North Little Rock Mayor Terry Hartwood, and prosecuting attorney Will Jones. At this time, it is my honor to welcome and introduce Pulaski County Judge Barry High.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10

So good morning and thank you all for being here. Today, Pulaski County stands united with the cities of Little Rock, North Little Rock, the Pulaski County Prosecutor and Turning's Office, and our Parkers 50 for the Future around one shared purpose: building a safer, stronger community for every resident. We want our police chiefs to know we're in a fight, in the fight with them. Chief Helton of Little Rock, Chief Patrick Thessing of North Little Rock are here today because they're committed to doing whatever it takes to make their city safe. Chief Helton, Chief Thesson, today we offer you extra support. Here's the stark reality. Gulaski County ranks in the bottom 6% of U.S. counties for safety. Listen to this. According to Crime Grade, crime cost our community over$1.4 billion every year. That includes both tangible cost and the intangible cost called pain and suffering. But these aren't just numbers. They represent lies interrupted, families hurt, and opportunities lost. Behind every statistic is a story, and we owe it to our neighbors to change that story. That's why we're here today. That's why today matters. Together, we're investing in a study to determine whether group violence intervention model, GBI, can work here. GBI has helped other communities by focusing on small group on the the small group of individuals that are responsible for most crimes. And giving them a choice. This is a joke about enforcement. It's about prevention, collaboration, and hope. By taking this step, we're saying that safety and compassion can work hand in hand, and that every life in Silaski County is worth protecting. I'm deeply grateful to Mayor Scott and Mayor Hartwick for joining in this. And a 50 for the future. Thank you for standing with us with your investment and help in supporting this to become a reality. We're sending a clear message. Violence is not who we are, and it will not define our future. Folks, let me say that again. Violence is not who we are, and it will not define our future. But this effort needs every neighborhood, every business, every family. Everyone has a role to play. Folks, we can be safer together. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 5:48

Thank you, uh Judge High, and your commitment and leadership as we uh here in the Little Rock region are all united in public safety. Uh before I share my comments, uh today in that unity it represents also the true example and the demonstration of public-private partnerships and philanthropic partnerships of what we call P4. And so I want to take this time to recognize my dear friend and my dear brother, Patrick Shick, who is uh part of leaving the public safety of We're 50 for the Future, as well as Mayor Dype, who's the chairman of the Ficture for the Future right now. Uh they have been locking step and making certain that public safety is front of mind in every community, in every zip code, not only in the city of Little Rock, but in the Little Rock region. And so when we talk about today, public safety isn't solely just targeted patrol, which is needed. Isn't solely just data-driven solutions that we receive from Chief Helden, who is our chief, from one of the best chiefs in the nation. Isn't solely just the prevention, intervention, treatment programs, which is solely needed. It's a combination of all those things that creates a true holistic approach, that we are making certain our officers are the highest aid, that they have all the resources they lead, that we understand that mental health is a true component to some actions of crime, and that we have to continue to have social workers that are part of the public safety team which we have in the city of Little Rock. But as organizations that are part of our community programs division, like a restore hope in the leadership of Paul Chapman, who understands that we gotta always think outside the box to provide the solutions. And because of that, the city of Little Rock, and you understand and you look at cities and study cities, the true telltale of a city is what have they done over the last five years? Over the last five years, overall crime is down 27%. Violent crime is down 21%. Year to date, overall crime is down 20%. Violent crime is down 11%. Last year alone was the lowest amount of homicides in the state capital city with 34 that we've seen in the recent memory. And I just turned 42. What do I mean by that? We're doing the work. We are focused on data-driven, holistic approaches, but we got to do more. And receiving this idea for Paul Chapman to restore hope and understanding what was done in Pond Bluff, it's time to expand if it could be done in Pond Bluff, and we know the impact it can make in the Little Rock region and it can may stay wide. And so we're grateful to have these additional tools on the toolbox. I also want to share my appreciation to Chief Helton because of his leadership and being open-minded about so many different things and working with our community programs division. And that's the reason why we have these numbers we could tout. But as I always say to him and to all my team members, more work to do, and we'll get a chance to do it with this GBI. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 9:15

Thank you again for having me, and thank you, Chief Tassik, for being here. Appreciate you so much. Uh, you can't say enough about what the Chiefs do. Whereas Classic County, Little Rock, North Rock, whatever you do, all the way around. And I'm with uh, I got the call, I guess, about two or three months ago about GVI. At first, I kind of uh I don't know, but the more you hear it, the more you read about it, the more you talk about it, you can see it makes a difference. As Frank said, it's not just one city, it's cities and counties. Without a doubt, I think the city of and Northern Rock region is like I said that way. No. In our Northern Rock region, we all should work together, and we do. Frank and I, and of course, Barry and I go way, way back. Long story short, it is a process that we should work together to lower the crime. And we can't do it alone. That's why I bring they call me. First thing I said is, let's hear a program, which we have, it works. It works, it works, it works. And yes, North La Rock region is going to be working with Little Rock, the county, to make sure this works and it all works. My chiefs, our chiefs are here to make it work, without a doubt. And see, Frank Scott said, it works when we will all work together. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it very much. And you know that.

SPEAKER_04: 10:44

Strong personal connections. We talk about that a lot of times in the prosecutor's office. That strong personal connections are uh that's how you weather storms, that's how you get through hard cases, that's how you collaborate with friends and partners in law enforcement and social work and uh friends like Dickie from Future in the business community. Strong personal connections is how we get through anything. And today, I book you see, this is an example of strong personal connections and a lot of people in leadership throughout your community that understand and appreciate the fact that we have to make our community safer. And I hope that you gain some pride in that and some confidence in that, that your elected leaders are here together, united with the business community to make your community safer. And I have to especially thank a few people. One of those personal connections that I had is Judge Ernest Brown from Pott and Bluff. Many of you in this room, I see a lot of heads nodding. Many of you in this room know him and understand the impact that he's had on his community and Pine Bluff. I got a chance to make a strong personal connection and a professional connection with him. And I was down in Palm Bluff for two years as the chief deputy in the prosecutor's office. From the day I was elected and came to start serving this community here, he was in my ear. I'm going to tell you some people know that we're on some of those tech strings. Casey Bierberg's on a lot of those tech strings. She's in our office and has been leading the charge in our office with uh with Paul Chapman with the Chandleros and Indiana Balkers to help get GBI here and get the logistics going to make sure that it's working. Um Judge Brown was telling me from the beginning, this was before Pine Bluff had had the successes. He was just telling me how important this was and that we needed to be on board with that. And actually went on a side visit with the Pine Bluff team to see how this strategy has been implemented in other places. And so we came back here, we started reaching out to all of our most personal connections that I talk about, and everybody was on board from the beginning. And then it's been two years of hard work and collaboration to get here today. But once we got to the point that we could bring it to the business community and to these leaders here on the stage, every one of them jump in and put their full efforts and pocketbooks uh behind this program to make it work. So what I want to leave you with is have confidence that your leaders are working to keep you safer. And as the law enforcement leave, at our office will be taking that. We'll work hard with our with our law enforcement partners here. We got great relationships with them. Just know we will get this done. And we're here in a in a year from now, two years from now, three years, four years from now, we're gonna be talking those numbers that that Mayor Scott talked about, those are outstanding numbers. They're great. But just like he said, we're not standing up here beating our chest to say, hey, we've already done these great things. What that tells us is some of the things that we're doing are working. And what that does, it just motivates us. And the prosecutors offices and talk about all the kinds, we are more motivated than now, now than ever, to keep our community safer. We know that we could drop these things down, these numbers down, and make our community safer. And we know that GDI is gonna be a big part of that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 13:48

I'm uh head of the group, uh the the I'm I'm head of the uh 50 for the futures um violence intervention group with the uh Little Rock Chamber, and we are very happy to be a part of this. Um I uh bothly put together a great speech today for me to talk about what GVI is and what GVI does and all the great things that it brings to our city and how we're gonna lower crime with it. I think that's been covered here very, very well. Um, I just would like to look at it in a different way. Uh, first and foremost, this is an opportunity for not only the city of Litterock, but the region, including the region of Morpher, to be able to affect juveniles in our society. We live in a violent society. I mean, there's no doubting that. And every opportunity that we have to make a difference in a kid's life to make sure they don't go down that wrong path, we have to take advantage of it. And this is one of those opportunities that we're gonna have to take advantage of. And we as the business community think it's our obligation, it's our opportunity to be able to push that forward in a very positive and meaningful manner that's not only gonna affect the lives of juveniles, but it's gonna affect the lives of every citizen of Greater Little Rock. And that's why we're here today. That's why we have the support of all three other counties, whether we're bridge cities, it's so important to me to show how big this is. I've been to numerous press conferences involved in crime and things of that nature. This is the first time in my 10, 15 years in the chamber that I've seen both Little Rock Chief and North Little Rock Chief sitting right next to each other. That shows you where leadership has taken the city in regards to crime. So I applaud you two for that. I applaud the mayors, I applaud the county judge, and we are lucky to be a part of it here at the chamber. So at this time, I would like to say special thanks to Casey Beer. She is a driving influence. She made this happen with her passion, her dedication, and her fast words. We finally got her to slow down, and it's been fantastic. She was eloquently able to tell us what she needed and how much she needed. It just took a little bit of time to get there. I'd also like to thank Jim Carble and uh Dr. Fitzhill. Uh, Dr. Fitzhill had a saying when we first came to the first meeting. This takes land, air, and sea. We gotta throw everything we can at this, no different than the United States military. And I think we as a city, we as a business community, totally believe in what Dr. Hill said. So at this time, I'd like to present uh the check. Judge Hyde, Judge, if you would. I always wanted to do this with a big treat.

SPEAKER_05: 16:34

So before we continue, I want to take a moment to speak directly to the heart of this program and why it matters. The work we're doing is not just about prevention, it's about opportunity, accountability, and community, which we all mention here today. It's about showing our young people that they are seen, supported, and worth investing. We're gonna throw the air, the land, the seed, and everything else he's saying towards it. At this time, it's my pleasure to welcome up uh my boss, County Judge Barry Hyde, to give us closing remarks.

SPEAKER_03: 17:07

You know what what pleasure it is uh and an honor to be on stage with with such committed um uh leaders from from the old folks uh that are visiting us today from the uh greater North Little Rock region and at the York folks on this side of the river.

SPEAKER_04: 17:26

But you don't want that money.

SPEAKER_03: 17:30

And and uh uh at at the beaty by it's nice to be in the middle of that. So uh uh thank you for being here once again. Um uh the uh contribution for 50 is is critical. Um uh the uh the amount is important, uh, but the commitment to participate and the acknowledgement that this is a uh a broad responsibility of all of us, um uh and the opportunity to uh take it to the public as best we can, uh, in that we need every church and every business and every neighborhood leader to participate and commit to making a difference. Um uh you know I I'm gonna assume that almost everybody in this room, if not all, have paid attention to what happened in Jefferson County and specifically Pine Bluff when this program was implemented. Uh I would happily tell you that I I I would admit that um uh I was not overly optimistic when that started, but I washed because I I actually uh sat close to Ernest Brown when we were in the legislature together. Uh and uh uh and he's God we really can't get things done. Uh and by golly, if it worked at Pine Bluff, it'll darn sure work in Plaskey County, uh especially with with the uh well the commitments and the force that we enjoy for it. So um uh the cities have uh and the county have each made a$25,000 contribution with a commitment um uh to fund the next level um uh in the uh 50 for the future, uh paying that additional amount really uh for the uh uh for the uh assessment that needs to be done uh before they can uh make a commitment uh to uh implement them their program here uh and give us a a uh an anticipation of what the results are gonna be. So thank you again. Uh I I just uh uh tickled. It's you know, some of you would probably guess how difficult it can be to get uh uh all of these folks, important people in each area that they uh uh live in every day, uh to be able to uh adjust schedules so we could all be here at one time, including the Chiefs, who I understand they just do a lot of coffee drinking at their place. There's not much going on. They they had there 24 centimeters early when we talk about that. So um uh I'm I am so optimistic uh and so uh excited about what's to come. Uh I I thank I thank each and every one of you for being on the on the stage with us today. And I especially want to uh uh thank uh as we talk about Yam. We're gonna talk about people who who were really um uh gonna be pushing us uh uh senior folks uh uh going on with uh Senator Scott. Uh so it's just uh great job. And and uh uh Latricia Woodruff uh and the team at uh Platka County Communications, uh what a great job you did of getting this put together. You guys really had to do the shuffling to try and keep everybody on target to be in the same place in the same cot. Thank you. Thank you all very much.

SPEAKER_02: 20:38

Listen to a shot at hope on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Or go to smartjustice.org.