2 neighborhoods in Detroit's ShotStopper program tie efforts to drop in crime

It's been less than a year since the ShotStopper initiative began in Detroit and already community groups say they are seeing results.

FORCE Detroit has claimed the best results, with a 72% decrease in fatal and non-fatal shooting in its second quarter. The group works in the Warrendale and Franklin Park neighborhoods, also known as the Cody Rogue area, and cites the Detroit Police Department for the decrease in crime. The area, which borders Dearborn to the west and Dearborn Heights to the south, went from 14 non-fatal shootings and two homicides between November 2022 and January 2023 to no homicides and five non-fatal shootings between November 2023 to January.

In the Outer Drive-Hayes neighborhood, where Detroit Friends and Family, non-fatal shootings and homicides decreased 48% in the same time period, the group said, citing the Police Department. They went from 20 non-fatal shootings and three homicides from November 2022 to January 2023 to six non-fatal shootings and four homicides from November 2023 to January.

FORCE Detroit, began in 2015, and is one of six community organizations in June 2023 to receive funding as a part of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's $10 million, two-year ShotStoppers initiative to curb violence in the city. It received $700,000 each year for two years to address violence in the Warrendale and Franklin Park neighborhoods. The areas chosen are in the most chronically violent parts of the city.

Alia Harvey Quinn, founder and executive director of FORCE Detroit, said their ShotStopper work involves working with young Black men who are "either behind or in front of the gun" to help them reimagine their lives. They hired "credible messengers," people who were once involved in violence themselves, to lead the change.

People like Terence "C-Mo" Hampton and Todd "Wolf" Douglas, who are violence "interrupters" with FORCE Detroit, and work in the Warrendale and Franklin Park neighborhoods, mostly with men ages 15-21. They talk to the eight to 12 boys or men they are each working with daily, either by phone, FaceTime, texting or in person at their homes and monitor their social media. They attributed the decrease in shootings and homicides to this intense mentorship and monitoring of the people who are causing problems in the neighborhood.

"Want to know how that happens? That happens with each (violence interrupter) having relationships with guys that's strictly gun-orientated," Hampton said. "You wrap them up, you keep a tight leash on them and you give them some love. You guide them from that. And if you keep doing that, guess what happens? Those numbers will drop."

Kenyetta Campbell, founder and executive director of the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance, said the work FORCE Detroit has done is "absolutely amazing." The area had funding for a similar initiative under the Obama administration, she said, but when funding dried up, violent crime spiked again. FORCE Detroit helped change that, she said.

"Since FORCE Detroit has come back in, they have made a major impact because they're working closely with those individuals who are constantly causing havoc in the community," Campbell said. "Kids don't feel as unsafe going back and forth to school. There are a lot of seniors that even walk up to the community center. They're feeling safe because there are so many different activities going on."

How ShotStoppers is working in Detroit

Four of the six community violence interruption zones saw significant reductions in homicides and non-fatal shootings in the program's second quarter, Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison said in March.

FORCE Detroit, and Detroit Friends and Family have put the most staff time into the program, and they are the group spending the largest chunk of their time on ongoing mentorships, according to the city.

Bettison said city officials are excited to see strong results so early in the program.

“Mayor Duggan, with the support of our City Council, asked us to take a new approach to reducing violent crime by letting organizations that are known and trusted in the community implement their own strategies,” Bettison said. “While still early in the program, the results show immense promise. Every quarter is a chance for us to see which strategies are working and how adjustments can be made, and we are very encouraged by the results so far.”

In the same, areas of the city not working with a ShotStopper team also saw a 37% decrease in homicides and non-fatal shootings, according to data from Detroit police.

There were 25 organizations that submitted proposals to receive a ShotStopper grant from funded federal American Rescue Plan Act money;city officials chose six. The city intended to pick three to five groups, but Duggan said in June that the six organizations were strong enough to involve them all.

'We're able to measure the impact of love'

The violence interrupters will go to both parties, the aggressor and the person on defense, and try to, at minimum, slow things down, Hampton said. They'll tell them if it gets any worse, the police will find out about it and get involved, and they don't want that. Once they slow down, they can enroll them in conflict resolution courses, get them back into school or help them get jobs, Hampton said.

Harvey-Quinn said they have already seen success with their work. They've relocated five families who were engaged in cycles of violence who "no longer have to look over their shoulders or have fear that somebody is going to shoot up their house." They've supported 43 families overall.

A small number of people are committing most violent crime. Nationally, 80% of all crime identified to an offender is linked to "a felonious few" of just 7% of offenders, according to a 2019 study published in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing. The study recommended targeting a small number of repeat offenders to decrease crime.

"We really drive down the violence by leveraging social networks, building relationships with people at the center of the violence and giving them better options," Harvey-Quinn said.

They've heard from parents and children as well as young people who are in the program, thanking them for interventions, like relocation or providing basic needs, Harvey-Quinn said.

They don't have final results from the first quarter this year, Harvey-Quinn said, but the data again is trending low.

"It feels amazing," said Harvey-Quinn of the work they've done. "We're able to provide jobs to community members who would otherwise be considered unemployable, we're able to make an impact with people who otherwise would be harming people and we're able to prevent people from becoming victims."

She wants to see the ShotStopper strategy work at a citywide level, and hopes Detroit will commit to it long term and dedicate funding to it.

"The exciting thing about this work is we’re seeing the difference it makes when we actually lean in and care about people and back that care up with resources," Harvey-Quinn said. "We’re able to measure the impact of love. We’re able to measure the impact of consistency and relationships. We’re able to measure the impact of transformation."

Hampton said his and Douglas' wife are in the process of developing a similar program to mentor young girls.

Stressful, but important work

Hampton and Douglas grew up in the neighborhood and already have strong bonds with the community. They use those bonds to find participants.

It's stressful work, Hampton said, but important.

"It's needed, and nobody can do this work," Hampton said. "We come from that life, we once lived the life that they're trying to live and it's not cool. It leads you to two things. It leads you to death, and it leads you to prison."

Many of the children they work with come from homes without a father, Hampton said. So the kids look at them as big brothers or father figures.

"A lot of them choose the crime life and that lifestyle because they was not informed or taught (otherwise) because that male wasn't present," Hampton said. "So when you put a male that's present, who genuinely cares about you and loves you, it changes your whole mind frame about this, like 'OK, damn, maybe I shouldn't do this.'"

Douglas said the children they work with appreciate the work they are doing with them. They trust them, he said. One of the participants has called him and asked if he could come to his office to get away from his home, because he feels safe at the office. Douglas said he was proud the boy was able to recognize that and step away from the situation.

"That's all they want, they want to be loved," Douglas said. "I don't care how much violence that you're into. Everybody buckles when you get loved on. So when you're getting loved on, that gets your attention, and now that we've got your attention, then we can redirect your energy, your decisions, everything."

kberg@detroitnews.com