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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Decreases in gun violence encouraging for Cedar Rapids and Johnson County violence intervention programs
Aug. 3, 2025 4:40 am, Updated: Aug. 5, 2025 4:43 pm
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Shots-fired incidents skyrocketed in 2020 around the country, but those numbers have been dropping in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and now are lower than pre-pandemic numbers. Social service workers in both cities say it could be a result of the violence intervention programs that have been active for the last few years.
Shots-fired instances down compared to last five years
In Cedar Rapids, there were 16 confirmed shots-fired instances — meaning shots fired calls in which the police department could confirm a gun was fired — in the first half of 2025, down from the 24 shots-fired cases in the first half of 2024. There were a total of 49 shots-fired cases in all of 2024, which was down significantly from the previous five years, when the lowest number of cases was 81, in 2023, according to 2024 crime data released by the police department. The drop to 81 shots-fired calls in 2023, from 120 in 2022, was the first year the cases dropped below pre-pandemic numbers.
“Realistically, any of the impact that (group violence intervention) had on shots fired in the city of Cedar Rapids really didn’t start until the period changing over from 2022 to 23, and that’s when we started to see more sustained reductions,” Kent Christen, a crime analyst for the Cedar Rapids Police Department, said. “The fourth quarter of 2022 is when we started to notice that drop was happening and it was starting to be consistent, but we generally don’t recognize that until somewhere one or two quarters later, because we have to have a sustained trend in order to identify it.”
Capt. Charlie Fields, who oversees the Cedar Rapids Police Community Services Division, said it’s hard to say exactly why the number of shots-fired calls has been decreasing, and that he puts more stock in community feedback than statistics when it comes to police department performance.
“I don’t weigh how productive our work is based upon statistics. It’s more about, does the community feel safer now than it did before?“ Fields said. ”People don’t complain when they feel safe. They complain when they don’t feel safe, so if we’re not getting a bunch of complaints … then we’re going to think that things are good.”
Iowa City has seen similarly low numbers, with only three shots-fired cases in the first half of 2025, and seven in all of 2024. That’s down significantly from the recent high in 2020, when the city had 57 shots-fired cases, but Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston said it’s important to note that 2020 was an outlier for gun violence in the city. In 2019, there were only 13 shots-fired cases.
“Because of COVID we were reducing the amount of contact that we had … so officers weren't out pulling cars over like they had been the year prior. I also think there was probably quite a bit of frustration in the community, with being cooped up with COVID, and then we can't forget the George Floyd murder and the protests around that,” Liston said. “I think there was just a lot of frustration in many communities, and I think it was a combination of several things.”
But Liston said he’s encouraged to see numbers now dropping lower than they were before 2020, and while it’s difficult to nail down an exact reason for the shift, he believes the violence intervention program is part of that change.
Other factors that Liston said may be contributing to the decrease include efforts from the police department to increase public education about gun violence, and efforts to push for federal charges for those involved in violence, because federal convictions have fewer parole options and are more likely to keep offenders off the streets.
“We’re never satisfied with any type of gun violence or violence of any other type, but we should be proud as a community for the downward trend, and I think Iowa City can feel like they’re a safe, responsible community,” Liston said. “We’re going to keep working closely with the community and closely with our community partners to make sure this downward trend continues.”
Cedar Rapids Group Violence Intervention
The Linn County program, called the Group Violence Intervention or GVI program, started in 2021 as a collaborative effort between the city of Cedar Rapids and multiple community nonprofits. It follows a research-based formula for preventing violence that involves identifying those who are at risk of participating in and being a victim of violence and reaching out to them through a personal visit, called a custom notification, from a group of social workers, law enforcement and other community members. The group will talk with the at-risk individuals about the risks associated with violence, and offer support and resources to help establish better patterns of behavior.
“Usually, the same person is both at risk of committing and being a victim of a violent offense. So, that might be being with someone that has a charge, getting a minor charge yourself, the Juvenile Court officers might refer, and as … relationships have been built, maybe a family member reaches out,” Casey Baustian, a program officer for the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, said. “It’s voluntary. They might come, they might go. The door is always open to be a participant and get these extra supports.”
Rachel Rockwell, formerly the Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities Fund program officer for the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, spearheaded the program in the city. In 2022, she left the Community Foundation, and Foundation 2 took over managing the violence intervention program, although the two nonprofits still work closely together.
The program has continued to grow since Rockwell left, expanding to work more with younger teens and kids and to include more community partners. Now, Foundation 2 usually has about 20 clients at a time who are part of the GVI program, according to Baustian and Emily Blomme, the Chief Executive Officer of Foundation 2.
“As these shots fired incidents and violent incidents decrease, it has opened up the ability to work on other, more proactive approaches to reducing community violence. One of the things is working with the schools,” Baustian said. “One of the changes that we’ve seen is being able to work with some of the middle schools, in addition to the high schools, trying to work with siblings of current clients that are younger, trying to intervene earlier, so we don’t see the same activity that we saw in prior years.”
One preventive program that Foundation 2 is working on implementing is Read to Rise, a pilot program through the Sylvan Learning center that will provide tutoring for middle school students with the goal of increasing literacy among young people who are at risk of violence.
“Our team has more time to focus on some of that upstream stuff, that reading program, being able to work with our clients and say, ‘Where are the gaps? What is it that they need?’” Blomme said. “How do we teach them to be contributing members of their community and really care and be invested in the community?”
Johnson County Community Violence Intervention
Rockwell, meanwhile, has become a known expert across Iowa on violence intervention programs. In 2023, she helped establish the Johnson County program, called Community Violence Intervention or CVI, which drew inspiration from the Cedar Rapids program. Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith, had seen the program working in Linn County, and reached out to Rockwell, who now works as the Executive Director of Neighborhood Centers, a nonprofit in Iowa City.
In the last year, Rockwell also has been working with Polk County to establish a similar program.
“Something that's funny is every community, when you get ready to start in a new community, and you say, ‘This worked in this community or that community,’ or whatever, every community says, ‘Well, we're not like them’, … but honestly, we're all alike,” Rockwell said. “When you hear the stories of the young people, or the adults, who are caught up in these cycles of violence, the stories are so similar every single time.”
Rockwell’s role in Johnson County is mostly as an adviser, but the day-to-day work in the CVI program is run by Jes Lang, who was hired by the Johnson County Attorney’s Office in 2023 to coordinate the program. The county also recently hired an outreach worker to work with Lang, who is housed under Johnson County Public Health and will be starting on July 28.
“I've been doing this all by myself,” Lang said. “Not only building the program, establishing relationships with all of the organizations and agencies and providers and resources that we have here in Johnson County, but also managing the participants and learning who our high-risk individuals are, and trying to maintain rapport with them and connecting them to services.”
Lang said she hopes the new outreach worker will be able to help expand the program’s reach as they look to expand and build relationships with more service providers in Johnson County.
“I’ve been here my entire life, in this community, and every day I learn about more services and resources that I had no idea were here,” Lang said. “It’s very individualized for the people that I work with. There are different goals and different dreams and different hopes and different barriers for each person. So, sometimes I have to be creative and really do some digging … in order to help them be successful.”
Decreased gun violence encouraging for social service providers
The violence intervention leaders for both the Cedar Rapids and Johnson County programs are excited by the drop in gun violence numbers, and are hopeful that the trend will continue.
“It's why we do the work. We want our community to be safe. We want these individuals to have successful lives. We don't want people to have to live in fear, and seeing the numbers go down is incredible and reassuring,” Lang said.
Blomme agreed, pointing out that while the violence intervention model is based off research from other communities, it’s encouraging to see numbers that can indicate similar success here.
“It’s so hard, when you’re working individually with a person or a family, to know that you’re making an impact,” Blomme said. “To be able to see system change and be a part of system change is motivating for our team. It helps. It helps, even when the work is hard, to remind them that it’s effective work. They are changing lives. They are saving lives.”
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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