“In most American cities, a homicide costs the city about a million dollars, easily … That’s important when you start to think about the cost of this type of interruption approach versus the cost each unprevented shooting has on a city.” What if you could spend a lot less money and also prevent the homicide? That’s the goal of program that basically pays violent criminals to stay out of trouble. WaPo: In Sacramento, trying to stop a killing before it happens.