Are Krasner’s violence prevention grants politically targeted?

Public data show that the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office under Larry Krasner, may be leveraging violence prevention grants for political capital, raising troubling questions about transparency and accountability, especially surrounding the surge in funding to so-called “violence interrupters.” These groups,  composed of faith-based organizations, nonprofits led by former felons, and other community groups that promise to use their roots in the community to intervene in “beefs” before they escalate to violence, gained national traction following the 2020 “defund the police” movement. The evidence shows that the vast majority of the grants to violence interrupters was dispensed outside normal city auditing mechanisms, and aligned suspiciously with municipal and federal election cycles.

After the 2020 upheaval driven by calls to “defund the police,” cities like Philadelphia poured public resources into grassroots organizations pitched as solutions to gun violence. These “violence interrupters” are typically nonprofits, often led by respected community leaders, tasked with mediating disputes and deterring crime without law enforcement’s direct help. While their efforts have been praised for innovation, they are largely supported by progressive politicians in high-crime urban centers and, crucially, have operated with minimal oversight or tangible performance metrics to demonstrate actual impact. 

A study by the University of Pennsylvania in 2023 found that while Philadelphia’s Group Violence Intervention strategy showed isolated successes, the city’s overall gun violence trajectory remained unchanged, due in part to lack of management infrastructure and coordinated oversight. Philly’s approach, like many others, was for  the city to fund organizations outside the audit jurisdictions of the Inspector General and City Controller — meaning that unlike in public agencies once dollars are awarded there’s virtually no transparency in how money is spent.

The system by which these grants are distributed is, itself, opaque. The Philadelphia Foundation manages the District Attorney’s Forfeiture Fund grants, prioritizing nonprofit groups with budgets under $5 million. Grants typically range between $10,000 and $50,000, but with scant reporting requirements after funds are disbursed, grassroots organizations are left to operate unchecked regarding effectivity and efficiency. 

Initiatives often branded as “community partnerships,” such as anti-crime marches, youth programs, and addiction recovery, lack centralized evaluation. In fact, some organizations have appeared on grant award lists multiple times, and monitoring mechanisms for their effectiveness remain largely absent. 

Unlike public departments, these nonprofits fall outside the reach of city auditors and controllers, as Brian Hart, a local media commentator, observed: “...as they are awarded grants from the District Attorney, a row office, they are outside the audit jurisdiction of the Inspector General and City Controller...there is virtually no transparency as to how these public funds are used once grants are awarded, in sharp contrast to public agencies.” 

Election-Year correlations

A deep dive into awarded grants, as shown by the attached spreadsheet data, reveals a distinct pattern: violence prevention grants spike dramatically in election years and taper off otherwise, strongly suggesting a connection between funding and political cycles. Consider these yearly grant totals: 

Grant distribution reached roughly $700,000 during Krasner’s 2021 re-election bid, lulled to a paltry $310,000 following his election, then soared over $2 million in 2024, coinciding with the Presidential election, and climbed to approximately $2.5 million in 2025 as Krasner faced his primary (and now general election) challenger, Pat Dugan. Notably, the largest single round — $1.1 million — was issued in April 2025, just weeks before the Democratic primary, a period of heightened political activity. 

Timeline of Philadelphia DA Krasner's Grant Disbursements and Major Election Dates (2021-2025)

This cadence breaks from what would be expected of a public safety initiative aimed for continuity, suggesting instead the grants were “timed with election cycles rather than crime reduction needs,” according to Hart’s research. He relates:

“...the patterns became unmistakable. Launched during Krasner’s 2021 re-election bid, the grants spiked dramatically in election years — totaling around $700,000 in 2021, over $2 million in 2024 amid the national cycle, and a staggering $2.5 million in 2025 during his second re-election push. The largest single round, $1.1 million in April 2025, came just weeks before his primary against Pat Dugan, amid Dugan's strong early fundraising. This wasn't isolated; the distributions slowed in non-election years: just $310,000 in 2022 and less than $1 million in 2023, painting the picture of a calculated use of forfeiture funds as a political tool to build alliances in key communities.”

Transparency and Accountability Issues

The opaque nature of grant distribution and the lack of independent audit is particularly concerning, considering the sums involved. 

While the Philadelphia City Controller has published several analyses and data releases about these unorthodox anti-violence efforts, the Controller's office consistently notes the limitations of its oversight: most violence interrupter groups funded by the District Attorney are private nonprofits, so grants issued by the DA’s office are largely outside the Controller’s direct audit jurisdiction. Therefore, reports show that few, if any, violence interrupter programs in the city have published rigorous outcome data or cost-effectiveness studies.

At local events, critics note a lack of open participation or dialogue. Brian Hart explained:

“I first started digging into Krasner’s violence prevention grant program after attending his so-called ‘town hall’ in Germantown on September 17th. Right from the start, attendees were instructed to write down questions on paper and submit them for review — that was a red flag — and when the program got started, it became clear this was more like a partisan rally masquerading as a ‘town hall.’ Digging deeper, I noticed the timing of this three-day series — from September 16th to 18th — conveniently aligned with the application deadline for Krasner’s next round of violence prevention grants on the 18th. What he branded and sold to local media as an initiative to prepare communities for potential federal overreach started looking a lot more like a strategic move to rally community organizations ahead of his November rematch with Pat Dugan, and perhaps one last opportunity to engage before grant decisions. Even more telling, several speakers at the events were leaders from groups that had previously received grants — tens of thousands in prior distributions.”

The timing and lack of transparency in Philadelphia’s violence prevention grants under Krasner highlight serious concerns, both in the stewardship of public funds and in the integrity of urban crime prevention policy. 

With grants surging around crucial election dates, distributed mainly to nonprofits operating outside the reach of standard municipal audits, the DAO’s violence prevention initiative increasingly resembles a means for cultivating political loyalty rather than a targeted, metrics-driven public safety program. As calls grow louder for evaluation and reform, only rigorous oversight and regularized funding can restore confidence in such vital community efforts.

Based in Philadelphia, A. Benjamin Mannes is a consultant and subject matter expert in security and criminal justice reform based on his own experiences on both sides of the criminal justice system. He is a corporate compliance executive who has served as a federal and municipal law enforcement officer, and as the former Director, Office of Investigations with the American Board of Internal Medicine. @PublicSafetySME