Tallahassee Police are investigating three shootings that occurred over the weekend. One resulted in the death of a local teenager.
City Commissioner Jack Porter has been vocal about Tallahassee’s gun violence issue and hosted a virtual town hall earlier this year to discuss how gun violence is impacting Tallahassee. Now she is pushing for increased funding for programs she says could help reduce crime, such as “TEMPO.”
“TEMPO addresses disconnected youth, disconnected young adults, some of whom have a past of offenses, a past of crime,” says Porter about the program, “and connects them with job training, job opportunities.”
“Giving folks the skills they need,” Porter went on to say, “it’s not a silver bullet solution, but it helps.”
The City has also entered a formal partnership with other local government bodies to join the Council on the Status of Men and Boys and has committed $140,000 to that effort. The Council was created after the Leon County Sheriff’s Office released the ‘Anatomy of a Homicide’ report late last year. The goal of the report was to determine commonalities in the circumstances surrounding Leon County homicides.
Porter says reducing gun violence will be a main point of discussion in the commission’s upcoming budget workshops. While her colleagues on the City Commission agree gun violence is a major issue, Porter says they don’t always see eye-to-eye on possible solutions.
The commission will hold another budget workshop in May, and the budget will be finalized at the final hearing on September 21st.
