Crime rates in Baton Rouge are dropping at a steady rate thanks  to District Attorney, Hillar Moore III. On a midsummer's day on the LSU campus, Moore participated in a press conference for aspiring young journalists.

 

Moore explained his passion for justice and the  influences behind his style of achieving his goal of decreasing violent crime in Baton Rouge. He said the level of homicide increases and crime rate rises as the seasons change from spring to summer.

 

“That’s our killing season: summertime,”  D.A. Hillar Moore III said.

 

When Moore was first was elected, he said he was completely unaware of the gangs that existed throughout the city, but after conducting further research he discovered the disheartening news that Baton Rouge did in fact have gangs or unstructured groups.

 

Once he learned of this information he scrambled day in and out trying to efficiently and effectively remove the violence from the streets of the city he adores. Moore then decided to create the Baton Rouge Violence Elimination program or B.R.A.V.E.

 

The B.R.A.V.E  is an intervention or a “call-in” to reach out to juvenile group members responsible for violence and to help them leave the life the of crime. A letter is used to inform them that if they continue their actions their group will face the necessary consequences and to help them leave the life the of crime.

 

Moore stated that at the very first meeting 40 members were invited and 37 appeared at the call in. The B.R.A.V.E workers consist of volunteers looking to improve the community. After the B.R.A.V.E system was implemented Moore said that the level of homicide reduced by twenty five percent.

 

The book that inspired Moore to create the B.R.A.V.E plan is titled Don’t Shoot One Man, A Street Fellowship, And The End Of Violence in Inner-City America by David Kennedy.

 

The book entails details of the Operation Ceasefire strategy that David Kennedy used to reduce the violence in the Boston area.Kennedy’s strategy to research the most violent neighborhoods  and reach out to gang members one spot at a time had miraculous results that  influenced Moore’s B.R.A.V.E system.

 

“Why are people killing each other?” Moore said, “This is really stupid.”