Philly turns to ‘peacekeepers’ for community violence intervention

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The city is turning to community members to help keep the peace and continue to curb gun violence.

More than two dozen people from Philly neighborhoods will spend the next two months in the city’s Peacekeepers Institute, taking courses to improve communication skills, de-escalate situations and learn outreach strategies.

“These are people who the community looks to and, frankly, respect and will listen to,” said Philadelphia Public Safety Director Adam Geer. “They have a pulse on their communities and in our neighborhoods about what is going on. … They know who the players are. They do understand the system in a very real way, and a lot of what we are doing is supplementing the skills to make them even more effective.

“If there’s any sense of violence or retaliation or any type of issue like that, then they are looked to and they proactively go out and try to stop any escalation of violence.”

Geer said the hope is to expand the program and have this group go out and teach others how to keep the peace.

“That acute intervention of just the physical presence and a conversation often leads to de-escalating a situation, because the person is in front of you,” he said.