BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Bakersfield is on track to record its fewest shootings and shooting deaths in years, city leaders said at a City Council meeting.
Shooting trends across the board are mostly down as the city focused on intervention, according to data presented at the meeting.
"I mean, wow, we went from 60 in 2021 to about 10 or 12 this year, granted there's still two months left," said Larry Koman, Bakersfield City Councilmember representing Ward 5.
City Manager Christian Clegg said the city's primary strategy has been to prioritize intervention over prevention.
"We know that prevention has that long-term impact, but it also can take a long time, and so we have actually focused on intervention as our primary focus because it has that immediate impact, and it can also serve into the long term. We want to be able to work with community partners that can help benefit the entire community, but the first step is to stop the immediate threat that is in front of us," Clegg said.
Bakersfield Police Chief Brent Stratton said the problem is not widespread, requiring a targeted approach to curbing violence.
"It's less than 0.1% of the population that can account for as much as 60 to 65% of the gun violence in any community anywhere. So, we want to make sure that we are focusing our efforts on that 0.1% of the population to really work on the enforcement component of gun violence reduction strategies using community-based partnerships that can focus on intervention and preventing — when violence does occur — preventing retaliation and things from occurring, and then starting to focus some resources on prevention and really looking ahead and preventing gun violence from occurring in the first place," Stratton said.
According to the city's presentation, the intervention model focuses on individuals at a very high risk, tries to engage them, interrupt a potential pattern of violence, and provide options through community partners that can help create long-term stability in a person's life.
If the trends for 2026 hold, the data could put Bakersfield in a better spot, Clegg said.
"If just a straight-line projection of those numbers, that we would be at 15 homicides for this year, and that would put us for the first time in probably two decades below the state and national averages for gun violence in our community," Clegg said.
While the data is trending downward, city staff noted they are continuing to work on further decreasing shooting and shooting death trends.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
