Last month, the Detroit Police Department announced historic lows in the total number of violent crimes, and White House officials are pointing to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act as helping cities like Detroit address gun violence.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was signed by President Biden in 2021 after months of congressional negotiation. The law includes enhanced background checks for gun-buyers under 21 years old.
It also earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars for mental health treatment, including the National Suicide Hotline and school mental health initiatives. In addition, the bill provided funding for anti-gun trafficking efforts and barred dating partners convicted of domestic abuse from buying guns.
Gregory Jackson Jr. is the Deputy Director for the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was established in September of last year. He said the act has contributed to declining crime rates in cities like Detroit.
“It is the largest investment in youth mental health in American history in response to the crisis of gun violence,” Jackson said. “A great deal of those resources are coming directly to Michigan.”
Jackson attributed a recent dip in U.S. homicides to an increase in emphasizing community violence intervention. “We invested in communities and programs that we know can save lives,” Jackson said. “Whether that's victim services, community violence intervention programs, hospital based violence intervention programs and efforts that are focused on engaging those who are in crisis due to mental health or some other challenges.”
Jackson mentioned FORCE Detroit as an example of a community organization doing important grassroots work. Jackson said the administration is “investing in community violence intervention strategies and prevention programs like FORCE Detroit.”
Groups like FORCE Detroit “are working hard and tirelessly every day to intervene conflicts, to work with those who are most at risk but most importantly, negotiate ceasefires between individuals or large groups before they become fatal,” Jackson said.
Alia Harvey-Quinn is the executive director of FORCE Detroit. She said her organization has received funding from the state and city of Detroit that was allocated by the federal American Rescue Plan Act, though the group hasn’t directly received any federal dollars.
Harvey-Quinn said FORCE Detroit’s work is focused on addressing the mental health needs of Detroit residents. FORCE Detroit offers case management, cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation support for those impacted by gun violence.
“So from my lens, I'm around a community of people that are working to reduce the trauma that is driving violence,” Harvey-Quinn said. “I see and hear the stories on a daily basis of people choosing to not to act out their aggressions and instead choosing a higher path.”
“So certainly, the decrease in violence is due to, from my lens, people choosing not to drive those numbers up and instead accepting the cognitive behavioral support that we're offering," Harvey-Quinn said.
Still, she said, more work needs to be done to contribute to a safer environment. She cited root causes like lack of affordable housing, job insecurity as contributing factors for violence. She called for more wide ranging community violence intervention. Harvey-Quinn cited successful efforts in schools to address students that make threats online as an example of an innovation keeping communities safe
“I think we need to think about the value of community violence intervention and how these partnerships lead to these, historic lows in violence. We need to commit to them beyond the ARPA timeframe,” she said.
