The National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) is a research center at City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

[2] The National Network's efforts are an outgrowth of the success of Operation Ceasefire, a Boston-based youth homicide intervention led by David M. Kennedy in the 1990s.

Operation Ceasefire was responsible for a 63 percent reduction in youth homicide victimization and is now implemented in dozens of cities as the NNSC's Group Violence Intervention (GVI).

[4] In 2016 the NNSC partnered with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to create the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution (IIP), which facilitates conversation among prosecutors across the nation.

The National Network’s process recognizes that a small minority of individuals drive the majority of serious violence, therefore law enforcement needs to employ a similarly concentrated response.

Although the basic strategy doesn’t change, the NNSC works with cities to understand the context of violence in their communities and to design a site specific implementation plan.

The DMI partnership brings together key stakeholders to make it clear that selling drugs openly must stop and the market is closed, that help is available, and that continued dealing will result in immediate sanctions through the activation of existing cases.

The institute uses executive sessions, strategic advising, practitioner learning, and research & evaluation to inform prosecutors and build a more effective criminal justice system.