In April, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) cut millions in grants to be consistent with the administration’s agenda to slash executive programs and spending. Ultimately, cutting these grants will cause greater risks to the public, more danger to law enforcement, and more gun deaths across the nation.
One of the many grant programs that the DOJ eliminated is the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVI). The total sum cut from these initiatives is $100 million: $50 million from normal yearly appropriations and another $50 million from Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funds. CVI programs are diverse and can range from aiding law enforcement operations or helping someone transition from incarceration into a job.
One of their most well-known functions is violence interruption. Violence interrupters, or credible messengers as they are sometimes called, are a tested solution to gun violence. They understand root causes of violence, the challenges that people face, and possibly most importantly they have credibility because they know the community – they live there. Violence interrupters often stop people from shooting guns resulting in lives saved.
Some examples of the power of CVI:
- Lexington, Kentucky saw homicides decrease from 44 in 2022 to 22 in 2024.
- The City of Baltimore, Maryland saw a 23% year-on-year reduction in homicides in 2024 which built on the 20% reduction the city witnessed in 2023.
- The New York City murder rate has declined 24% year-to-date as of April 2025, making it one of the safest cities in the country.
These promising figures undersell the effectiveness of violence interruption programs because violence interrupters cover only neighborhoods in a city while crime data is reported for the entire municipality. If crime data and violence interrupters covered exactly the same footprint the positive results would be greatly increased. A Johns Hopkins study found that $1 invested in violence prevention yielded roughly $7-$19 in benefit.
A Johns Hopkins study found that $1 invested in violence prevention yielded roughly $7-$19 in benefit.
These programs not only save precious lives and local government dollars, they could save the lives of law enforcement as well. Baltimore estimates that one homicide (assuming one suspect) costs approximately $2.4 million and can come with substantial risk to law enforcement. Violence interruption can limit this cost and danger by stopping gun violence before it even begins.
If the President can capriciously eliminate congressionally-funded programs he or she does not like, this nation ventures into dangerous territory. A future president of another political party can eliminate large numbers of programs they disagree with in the future. These dramatic, partisan cuts have no place in the executive branch.
The government should invest more, not less, in CVI, which funds violence interruption programs nationwide, to promote these initiatives that are saving lives. Congress should increase funds to CVI that support violence interrupters and call for accountability in the face of these dramatic and misguided cuts that have eliminated the CVI program at DOJ.
As Congress begins the fiscal year 2026 process, they must robustly fund CVI with $200 million and exert their constitutional authority over spending as the first branch of government. Congress must hold this administration accountable for these dangerous policies.
