Seven months. Four thousand stickers.
Not one gun.
Toledo officials roughly one year ago announced an initiative to get guns and drugs off the streets. The announcement followed a period of high-profile gun violence in the city. On Nov. 16, 2017, Toledo police Detective Jason Picking was shot in the face during a drug raid. On Dec. 5, the city recorded its 38th homicide of the year, and the next day, police exchanged gunfire with a group of armed men at the Monroe Carryout.
The idea behind the program — dubbed “Not in My House” — is simple: Residents can, without risk of prosecution, turn over to police illegal guns or drugs brought into their home by another household member.
The program officially kicked off in May. Officers went door-to-door near the Frederick Douglass Community Center on Indiana Avenue and asked residents to put “Not in My House” stickers in their windows. The stickers signify that no one would be allowed to keep illegal drugs or guns in that house.
But since officers passed out 4,000 stickers in the city, the program hasn’t brought in any guns or drugs, officials said.
City leaders, however, contend the program has still been beneficial. Officials never intended it to take large numbers of guns off the streets, police Chief George Kral said, adding that it is more about unifying neighborhoods.
“I would still consider the program a success,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “I’m going to consider 4,000 positive connections with our citizens a good thing.”
From the middle of May, when the city started the program, to the beginning of December, 18 people were fatally shot in the city, not including two people shot and killed by police officers, according to Blade records. That number does include what was ruled a justified homicide when a neighbor shot and killed a man who was threatening a woman with an ax.
Of the 18 killed by gun violence, two of the deceased were 16 years old. One was 3 years old.
Gun buyback programs historically haven’t been very effective in the cities where they’ve been tried, said Trent Steidley, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver. And gun amnesty programs like “Not in My House,” where people aren’t compensated for the guns they turn in, are often even less effective.
The people who take advantage of such programs, especially the buyback programs, Mr. Steidley said, are usually people with older guns or antique guns they don’t want anymore.
“They don’t typically bring in handguns, and they don’t typically bring in newer guns,” he said.
Any amnesty program could have trust problems, as well. Some people simply might not believe the police won’t prosecute them for turning in illegal guns, Mr. Steidley said.
What does work is targeted policing, he said.
“Not in My House” is partially modeled after “Operation Ceasefire,” an anti-crime and gun take-back program rolled out in Boston in 1996. A study by the National Institute of Justice found the Boston initiative has been successful. But the gun amnesty portion was just one part of a larger strategy to reduce crime and violence in the New England city. Part of that strategy included targeted policing against gang activity.
In Toledo, Chief Kral cited similar measures the city has taken and will be taking to reduce violent crime, including a kind of targeted policing based on the department’s own crime data. Essentially, in neighborhoods that have recorded a lot of recent shootings, Chief Kral said officers will talk to neighborhood residents, meet with community leaders, and establish more of a presence.
The department also recently received a grant to purchase ShotSpotter, a software that detects gunshots and immediately sends the location of the shots to police. In circumstances where gunshots might not be reported to police for hours, the technology has the potential to lead to more arrests and save more lives, Chief Kral said.
Mayor Kapszukiewicz said there is no one solution to reducing gun violence.
“Our approach has been to try everything. ... Some of these are going to work, some of them aren’t going to work,” he said.
Even if “Not in My House” were to bring in any firearms, officers have no way to track how much contraband the program is netting, Chief Kral said. It’s a question of anonymity — police reports are public records, so there’s no real way to collect guns or drugs without at least marking the original location of the items, even if officers don’t record the names of the people involved.
“We’re talking about how to figure it out,” he said of tracking the program. “We probably should have had these questions answered beforehand.”
Chief Kral explained how the “Not in My House” program is intended to work: People talk about the program and tell their neighbors, friends, and family members about it. As more Toledoans become educated about the program, they can take a stand against gun violence in their own homes. Plus, the program gets police officers out to neighborhoods and interacting with the public, which helps to foster more trust between the police and the community.
“My goal is I walk around the neighborhood and see a sticker in every window,” Chief Kral said.
After the initial canvass to houses near the Frederick Douglass Community Center, police distributed stickers at Toledo Block Watch meetings and in some patrol areas, Chief Kral said. Officers plan to do another canvass before the end of the year. The stickers -— the sole expense of the program — cost the city $600.
Toledo City Council members offered differing opinions about “Not in My House.” Councilman Chris Delaney, a retired Toledo police officer, supports the ideas underlying the program. But he was disappointed to hear there’s no way yet to track how many illegal guns or drugs are turned over to police as a result.
"I think it's a great idea and I'm glad the chief came up with it, but it would be nice to be able to show the citizens how well it's working," Mr. Delaney said.
Councilman Larry Sykes said the program was flawed from the start. He believes the name “Not in My House” is too close to the phrase "not in my backyard," which is often used when residents oppose low-income or communities of color moving into their neighborhood. The term carries a negative connotation, he said.
There are better ways to improve community policing, he said, and suggested the police department consider adding substations at Wilson Park, Savage Park, and perhaps near the Mott Branch Library, an idea he's pitched before.
"It would be a lot better if they would put a police station where they could have an ongoing relationship," he said. "Nobody is going to turn in guns to an officer because they're fearful they're going to ask them, ‘Where'd you get it from?' Nobody is going to do that."
Briana Smith, 27, lives on Lewis Avenue, just down the street from where Stevona Turner-Sandridge, 26, and Richard Villolovos, 29, were fatally shot in November at the intersection of Lewis and Sylvania avenues.
That case remains unsolved, and a witness to the crime who spoke with police was seriously wounded after he was shot in the central city a few days later.
Part of the problem with violence, Ms. Smith said, is the community’s relationship with police. She’d never heard of “Not in My House,” but thought it wouldn’t be successful because many people are wary of law enforcement.
She believes preventing violence has to start with children. If children are engaged in quality activities and given something to do and goals to achieve, then fewer of them will get involved in criminal pursuits, she said.
Ms. Smith and her family had moved to their current home from North Toledo specifically to get away from gun violence, and now she and her husband are considering moving again.
“We’ve already started looking at places on the outskirts [of the city],” she said.
Thomas Herold, of the 4100 block of Thornton Avenue, said he also had never heard of the program. He also didn’t think that type of program would be conducive to reducing violence in the city.
“That’s not the solution,” he said. “Guns are not the problem. The problem is the people.”
Staff writer Sarah Elms contributed to this story.
First Published December 21, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
