Over the past decade Richmond police have been trying different strategies for lowering crime, from trying to strengthen bonds between officers and local communities, to offering stipends to young men to stay out of trouble.
They’ve even started the Office of Neighborhood Safety, a department separate from the police that tries to connect with residents in ways that the police department couldn’t.
“A lot of people want to change but they’re not ready. We kind of function around their timetable. Whenever they get ready we here,” says Kevin Yarbrough, who is part of that group.
But what is it like to make that change? To go from living on the edge of the law to trying to make a life within the system? We hear from producers Sarah Kate Kramer and Joe Richman of the podcast Radio Diaries about one young man who went from dodging bullets to balancing spreadsheets. Listen to the podcast here.
