Harvard researcher to assess Amarillo gun violence data | KVII

Excerpt

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) - According to an FBI crime report, Amarillo is the 4th most violent city in Texas per capita.

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — According to an FBI crime report, Amarillo is the fourth most violent city in Texas per capita.

One researcher from Harvard is now working with the Amarillo Police Department to find a solution to the problem.

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Harvard researcher to assess Amarillo gun violence data{ } (KVII)

“Gun violence in Amarillo is real, high, and expected to increase,” said Ryan Herman, a Harvard City Leadership Initiative researcher.

Over the last seven weeks, Herman has been assigned to research the gun violence trends throughout the city of Amarillo.

He has analyzed every reported gun violence case over the last nine months to find trends through geographical and statistical analysis.

“This predominantly affects Amarillo's northern neighborhoods, but also communities that face many other challenges. Namely, poverty and unemployment,” Herman said.

Over the last nine months, there have been 355 shootings in Amarillo, which is an average of 1.2 per day. The concerning statistics do not stop there. Herman says of those shootings, 50% have gone unsolved.

“APD has limited information on this gun violence, and that would not be expected to increase unless we rapidly improve our capacity to gain criminal intel, and or improve community cooperation,” Herman said.

Herman said he will spend the last three weeks of his 10-week study, examining the three neighborhoods in the city that see the most gun violence. Those are Hamlet, Eastridge and North Heights.

Amarillo Police Chief Martin Birkenfeld welcomes the input.

“We are going to use this as another tool to develop our strategies and perfect our strategies," Birkenfeld said. "I’m not willing and our communities not willing to just throw our hands up and say, well violent crime is up across the nation, there is nothing we can do. I really do believe we can really do some things in our city to buck that trend and that is what we are committed to do.”

When the study is complete Chief Birkenfeld will share the findings and suggestions with the city council to create a plan moving forward.