by Scott McClallen
Michigan communities fed up with persistent retaliatory gun violence are turning to new solutions to stop homicides.
The cities of Lansing and Detroit will pay community-based violence intervention groups to reduce gun violence in targeted areas.
Advance Peace-Lansing is an evidence-based intervention model that aims to reduce gun violence by 40% in three years, according to Paul Elam, chief strategy officer of the Michigan Public Health Institute.
MPHI partnered with Advance Peace and the Ingham County Health Department to model the initiative after one in Richmond, California.
In a telephone interview with The Center Square, Elam said fewer than 25 individuals in Ingham County are at the center of cyclical and retaliatory gun violence, based on conversations with law enforcement and prosecutors.
The peacemaker fellowship aims to reach 15 of those 25 people in the program’s first year. So far, they have seven active fellows.
The Lansing program launched in September of 2022. Between October 2021 and February 2022, Lansing had six gun-related fatalities. Since the launch, there’s only been one gun-related fatality, which stemmed from a drug deal gone bad, Elam said.
“The theory is that if we do outreach, if we reach those individuals at the center of gun violence and engage them in mentoring, intensive case management, life skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, and get them access to legal subsidized employment, that those interventions will actually be effective in changing these individuals’ behaviors,” Elam said.
Currently, three full-time employees work with peacekeepers whose job is to engage these individuals and recruit them into the fellowship.
“We believe that community, information, intelligence, and insight are key to helping to identify potential threats, and dealing with those threats before they become fatal threats or gun-related threats,” Elam said.
Advance Peace helps individuals set life goals to escape the lifestyle, connect with social services and work, and meet community elders.
Detroit allocated $10 million for a ShotStoppers program to prevent violent crimes before it occurs.
“DPD [Detroit Police Department] doesn’t have the power to take the anger out of people’s hearts,” Mayor Mike Duggan said during his recent State of the City address. “So we’re giving violence prevention groups a chance to work with us to prevent violence.”
Detroit records say 309 homicides and 1,065 non-fatal shootings occurred in the Motor City in 2021.
The program will award two to four city organizations two-year contracts at $700,000 annually to reduce violence in targeted areas, likely between three to five square miles. If successful, the groups would continue to get $700,000 annually.
The program funding is part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Detroit Police Chief James White backed the program.
“I think that there’s going to be a great opportunity to disrupt violence at the level,’ White told the City Council on Monday, adding that some homicides start over minor disagreements, such as a garbage can placed over a property line.
The evidence on whether community violence interrupters work is “mixed at best,” according to a 2015 review written by a range of academics, which concluded:
“Each evaluation revealed at least some evidence in support of the approach at the level of jurisdictions or communities, but none of the studies could clearly disentangle the results from national and regional trends in violent crime…”
The study noted confounding effects, such as comparison neighborhoods and varied implementations that complicated measuring success.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 2024 budget aims to spend $8 million on a CVI program.
The proposal would offer $800,000 of ongoing money and two full-time equivalents to create the Office of Community Violence Intervention Services housed within The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
About $8 million would support CVI services. Another $2 million would fund grants to reduce firearm-related injuries and fatalities.
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Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square. A graduate of Hillsdale College, his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org. Previously, he worked as a financial analyst at Pepsi.
Photo “Gun” by Karolina Grabowska.
