The gun violence indicators in King County have been declining for the first time since 2021 due to community-based intervention and violence de-escalation.
The King County Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention is part of the frontline effort to continue reducing the rate of gun violence in King County. It was established in Oct. 2023, but many of its projects date back to 2020. The ROGVP uses a holistic approach to reduce gun violence. Their primary jobs include funding, organizing and coordinating movements between different nonprofit groups, law enforcement and the county government.
One of ROGVP’s most successful initiatives is the Regional Peacekeepers Collective, a group of nonprofit organizations dedicated to preventing gun violence from occurring; intervening in situations that may spark gun violence; and restoring communities impacted by gun violence. Eleuthera Lisch (she/her) is the current director of the ROGVP, but her work within King County began in 2020 as a consultant for the department that evolved into the RPC project. RPC involves people who have been personally impacted by gun violence and are members of the communities they will be serving, enabling them to connect to those who need their services on a deeper level. RPC engages in a practice called community violence intervention, or CVI, recognized as the best practice across the nation to complement law enforcement and other traditional public safety work. Many of the organizations involved in the collective employ street outreach workers and “violence interrupters” — members of the community who try to stop others from committing gun violence by reaching out when they become aware of a threat.
“They reflect the community,” Lisch said. “They have credibility in the communities they serve, and are able to form relationships with people who are closest to the issue of violence and help walk them away to better choices and opportunity.”
Lisch said this effort is effective because of the standing that workers hold in their communities. They use data and their own personal experiences to understand where the biggest needs for protection are in the community. They also benefit from being community members themselves, as it helps them build trust and understanding.
“They know who’s involved,” Lisch said. “They make sure that people are getting down to the transit center, getting on the bus, getting home. Fights are de-escalated, if needed.”
To prevent gun violence from occurring, violence interrupters identify people who are at risk, after which RPC personnel form relationships and engage with them until the danger is mediated. Then, preventative measures such as safety planning ensure that those involved are secured from immediate danger. Workers connect those thought to be at risk of committing violence to cognitive behavioral therapy, to aid them in controlling their emotions and to support peaceful and healthy problem resolution. Additionally, participants set individual goals to motivate themselves, encompassing everything from education, to acquiring an ID to continuing counseling.
“Law enforcement is a reaction, a response that comes after something happens,” Lisch said, “These workers prevent things before they happen, or stand in the gap after something happens, and helps connect people as they deal with the consequences of what happened.”
Some of these organizations also work with law enforcement during active shooting situations. They help by mediating damage and responding to those who have been affected, along with providing hospital-based support to injured victims and families. The goal of these violence interrupters is not to replace law enforcement, but to aid them in ways that require a community, which is something that law enforcement may not be able to do. Workers are referred to as “credible messengers” because of their firsthand experience with the struggles of community violence. Suitable applicants are rare due to this need for experience and credibility.
“We can’t utilize volunteers because it’s high-sensitivity safety work,” Lisch said. “People have to be trained. They have to be employed. They have to be compensated.”
As an emerging field in crime prevention, CVI work is often misunderstood, according to Lisch. This approach is now being utilized by as many as 85 organizations nationwide.
“We are bridge builders. We walk the space between government and community. Even though we sit in government, we’re bringing our experience of working in community,” Lisch said. “The most important thing we can all do is be willing to work together.”
Data indicates that gun violence is finally settling down to pre-pandemic levels.
In the first half of 2025, King County had 556 “shots fired” incidents. Over the same time last year there had been 766, and 822 in the first half of 2023.
“Shots fired” incidents are non-suicide-related events where law enforcement responded to gunshots being discharged. A “shots fired” incident does not necessarily mean anyone was killed or injured, although incidents with non-self-inflicted deaths are considered to be “shots fired” incidents and counted in this report.
This graph shows the year totals, removing the fluctuations caused by seasonal factors such as weather.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, violence began to increase up to a peak in 2023. It has been decreasing since then, but no data could be displayed for 2025 since this year is not yet over.
