TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz touted his administration's progress on combating gun violence and pitched new initiatives aimed at making the Glass City safer during his annual state of the city speech Wednesday evening.
Kapszukiewicz noted that after spiking rates of gun violence and other violent crime, recent weeks have been relatively peaceful.
"We have not seen any gun violence in the city of Toledo -- no homicides -- since Feb. 3," Kapszukiewicz said.
There have been six homicides in Toledo so far this year, including a stabbing death on Feb. 25. But the mayor noted -- while knocking on the wooden podium at the Frederick Douglass Center where he delivered the 2023 speech -- that there have been no homicides so far in the month of March.
Tackling rampant gun violence is a big challenge, the mayor said. His administration has been willing to try new and innovative strategies, including creating a violence interrupters program for the city.
Kapszukiewicz said the group's work is not well understood and its accomplishments are not always acknowledged.
"I still believe that people don't understand what they do and that's probably my fault for not explaining it well," he said.
He praised the program for working in city neighborhoods to intervene before clashes become violent. Now is the time, however, to expand anti-violence efforts in Toledo by adding a partnership with Cities United, a group that would work with the city on coordinating existing, local public safety groups in a renewed effort to reduce gun violence, the mayor said.
The city's combined anti-violence efforts should be aimed at what Kapszukiewicz described as a small group of people in the city who are responsible for gun crimes and other violence.
"We know the number isn't large," he said. "We know the names of most of these people."
The mayor said the group is as small as 100-200 people. Addressing the city's violent crime issue requires working harder to reach those people.
"That number is gettable," the mayor said. "I think we can identify these individuals in our community and do a deep dive in their lives and make sure their ecosystem is working."
He described an ecosystem as various local entities -- school systems, police, social workers and more -- that need to work in tandem to improve the lives of individuals who interact with multiple of those entities.
Kapszukiewicz also praised the efforts of the Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods, a group led by four former mayors who have called on Kapszukiewicz to do more to make the city safer.
"They have a lot of passion," Kapszukiewicz said. "They have organized neighborhood meetings and I am so thankful for the effort and the ideas they've brought forward. Maybe the ideas aren't new. The city is already doing 10 of the 12 ideas at least, so some people dismiss their efforts. Not me. I'm thankful that we have people in the community who care so much."
Kapszukiewicz also announced that the city would have a new police chief soon. He plans to announce a successor to Chief George Kral, who retired in January 2022, at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Also during his speech, Kapszukiewicz touted the number of roads and sidewalks the city expects to repair and reconstruct this year and said he hopes residents will be so pleased by the improved infrastructure that they will renew the 0.25% income tax levy dedicated to road repair when it hits the ballot again in 2024.
The mayor also lauded improvements in youth programs in the city, along with burgeoning economic development.
Finally, the mayor used the State of the City address to honor Toledoans with the Irene Drouillard Award, which was created in 2022 in honor of a Toledo girl who put $21 in the bank a century earlier, directing that the money be spent 100 years later for the betterment of her city.
The mayor first honored Samantha Boyle with the Young at Heart award for her work to help the city's youth. Boyle created the Luken T. Boyle Campaign for Kindness in memory of her son who had been a victim of bullying, the mayor said.
And he honored teenage community journalist Jaden Jefferson with the Youth Award.
"Jaden is the best reporter in Toledo," Kapszukiewicz said. "He makes Toledo proud."
Watch the full address below.