Mayor Woodfin unveils PEACE Campaign to counteract violent crime
Flanked by families who lost loved ones to gun violence, Mayor Randall Woodfin unveiled the City of Birmingham’s PEACE Campaign Thursday, Feb. 28, to counteract violent crime.
The campaign is a coordinated effort between city, community and law enforcement to achieve change on multiple fronts. It includes a #IncreasePeace public service announcement campaign that features 30-second videos of mothers of gun violence victims telling their stories.
“Lately we’ve become desensitized to gun violence in our community,” Woodfin said. “These people aren’t able to go back to life.”
Woodfin noted that while 2,300 guns were removed from streets in 2018, reducing crime must go further than increased policing.
The mayor challenged the community to get involved – championing the work of neighborhood block watches and crime prevention officers as effective violence deterrents – and encouraged residents to download the Next Door app.
“Be the eyes and ears for your street and if you see something, say something,” he said.
Woodfin also announced Stop the Bleed, which trains residents how to stop severe bleeding from a gunshot, knife wound or other major injury. Training will be facilitated by the University of Birmingham at Alabama. Classes begin at Birmingham recreation centers next month; visit birminghamal.gov/peace to sign up.
In the law-enforcement arena, Woodfin announced that Birmingham police will soon be assisted by Predictive Policing technology. “Pred Pol” will improve patrolling by using years of date to indentify times and locations where specific crimes are more likely to occur. Also, a “Real Time Crime Center” will be established within the next year to help police monitor active crime scenes.
But Woodfin reiterated that “no amount of enforcement, no amount of arrests, will eliminate violent crime.”
“I would like to state and make very clear that gun violence in the City of Birmingham is a public health crisis,” he said, adding:
“When facing a health crisis, we must keep three things in the front of our minds – we need respect and sympathy for those at risk, we need coordinated efforts with trusted institutions who can help us develop solutions; and we need dedicated trusted media outlets to keep residents informed of the work being done to safeguard them and empowered with important information to make the city safer.”
Jefferson County Health Officer Mark Wilson echoed those comments, noting that “violence is an extremely complex problem with deep roots; there are no simple solutions.” Wilson said change will only come when multiple stakeholders – from police and community to the health and education sectors – unite to address the problem on all fronts.
“That’s not passing the buck … that’s saying none of us can do this alone,” he said.
In the coming days, the Mayor’s Office of PEACE and Policy, formerly known as the Office of Community Engagement, will share their findings in reducing violent crime using a public-health lens and a focusing on prevention, re-entry and enforcement.
