A community-led violence intervention program that Mayor Mike Duggan linked to a drop in violent crime faces an uncertain future.
The “ShotStoppers” community violence intervention program started in 2023 with $10 million in federal pandemic relief. Since then, six organizations operating in select areas have reduced nonfatal shootings and homicides more than the city as a whole.
A bill that would have created long-term funding for the program died in the Michigan Legislature’s Democrat-led lame duck session.
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Duggan said new Republican House Speaker Matt Hall supports creating the public safety trust fund, but Durhal said Democrats’ failure to pass the bill in 2024 was a missed opportunity.
“There were some key things that, as municipal elected officials, we wanted to see done,” Durhal said. “We were very vocal about the public safety trust fund. No one wanted to see that go down. Hopefully Matt Hall keeps his promise … but what does it look like then? It’s got to go through the Senate. Does that bill remain the same?”
Detroit ended 2024 with 203 criminal homicides, a 19% drop from 2023. That’s the fewest homicides in the city since 1965, but Detroit also had nearly 1 million more people then.
Detroit recorded 606 non-fatal shootings, which was a 25% drop from the previous year and a 48% drop from 2022. Carjackings also declined by 15% in 2024.
Duggan said community-led strategies go hand-in-hand with efforts by the courts and surveillance tools like Project Green Light, freeway cameras and gunshot detection equipment.
Community violence organizer Dujuan “Zoe” Kennedy was given a speaking slot in last week’s press conference announcing the year-end crime stats.
It signaled a significant shift. City officials now embrace community groups that had struggled for years to convince policy makers that their strategies would work.
Kennedy wasn’t allowed to enter the White House when advocates visited in 2023 because the Secret Service took issue with his felony record. But Kennedy says that same record is what makes him able to relate to youth and steer them away from violence.
Kennedy met President Joe Biden during another visit in 2024 and then took over as executive director of FORCE Detroit at the end of the year. The organization posted a 37% drop in homicides and non-fatal shootings in the last quarter of 2024.
Kennedy said he was able to celebrate the crime decline alongside Duggan because the city made the investment. He warned that investment is in jeopardy thanks to the failure in Lansing.
“We’ve been successful because metrics have been developed to measure our work and give us credit,” Kennedy said last week. “We’ve been successful because we’ve been acknowledged. We’ve been successful because we’ve been funded and all that is at risk. It is. We were funded for two years, and this is the last year.”
Kennedy said community violence programs should be permanently funded, just as police are considered essential government expenses.
“These reductions are happening because individuals want more for their life, and it hasn’t been available and they haven’t had access,” Kennedy said. “Once you give people access to alternatives, they take that. I got out of prison and took it.
“Our work needs to be funded in perpetuity so we can continue to build our community and redeem ourselves.”