Minneapolis' crime prevention department is facing scrutiny from City Council members and violence-prevention groups who say limited oversight and unpaid contracts suggest the city isn't committed to the work.

Of particular concern: Several organizations under contract with the city to provide street-level outreach have reported not being paid for months, forcing them to halt their violence-prevention efforts. Others say communication from the city's department of Neighborhood Safety has been erratic, at best. Meanwhile, the city is facing a lawsuit alleging that officials illegally and arbitrarily handed out millions of dollars in violence-prevention contracts.

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Over the past several years, Minneapolis has built a network of unarmed "violence interrupters": community-grown outreach workers who use street savvy to defuse conflicts before they turn deadly, and mentor teens. The Group Violence Intervention (GVI) model, which relies on decades of data showing a small number of individuals are connected to most shootings in American cities, has been credited with driving down murders in Oakland, Calif., and Pittsburgh.

For a while, the effort was growing. But earlier this year, several groups reported that they hadn't been paid and they'd stopped getting client referrals from law enforcement and probation agencies. City officials blame a staffing shortage and say they are working to add safeguards and structure to the effort.