COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thaddeus Alexander knows all too well about the devastating impacts of gun violence.

He’s the administrator for intervention with the VOICE program in Columbus.

“We need to give direct attention to individuals that have been victimized,” said Alexander.

What You Need To Know

  • The Columbus Office of Violence Prevention and the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform shows gun violence in Columbus costs taxpayers more than $500 million each year

  • That same report also shows that taxpayers pay over $2 million for every fatal shooting and over 700,000 dollars for every non-fatal shooting in Columbus

  • The VOICE program is a program in Columbus trying to reduce gun violence by providing assistance to victims 

“The hospital does a great job of making sure that they get patched up. They're taking care of things like that. But when they're going back to their environment, who's able to give the direct attention and service to those victims? And that's where the voice program comes in,” said Alexander.

VOICE stands for violence, outreach, intervention and community engagement. For the last three years, the program has been helped about 100 gunshot victims avoid becoming victims again.

“They're no longer being victimized, but now they're the victor or they have overcome their obstacles, their barriers, and now what's in the past stays in the past and no longer has to go with them in the future," Alexander said.

And while saving lives is the ultimate goal, their work is saving money, too. A new report from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform shows gun violence in Columbus costs taxpayers more than $500 million every year.

“We recognize that we're losing lives left and right. This happens to be the taxpayer costs associated with that,” said Director of the Columbus Office of Violence Prevention Rena Shak. 

The Columbus Office of Violence Prevention is a group that helped commission that report. That report shows each fatal shooting costs more than $2 million while each non-fatal shooting costs nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

“Everything from crime scene response, crime scene, clean up. If an individual in a homicide is their body is taken to the coroner's office, the costs associated with that medical examination, you're talking about trauma, hospital costs, air mass, all of those government institutional pieces,” said Shak. 

And while the numbers might seem staggering to some, Shak hopes that information will lead city officials to spend more money to prevent those crimes.

“We can take a really hard look at it and see what we want the investment to be on the prevention and intervention side so that we can hopefully shift where these dollars are going,” said Shak. 

Perhaps sending more money to programs like voice to help make sure no crime victim gets left behind.

“I've worked in high school settings, I worked in crisis shelters, different things like that. And I've had my own personal losses with individuals I've worked with, and that really motivates me to make sure that we're not losing anybody else that I come across with,” said Alexander.