Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin presented a plan to the City Council on Tuesday to expand community safety and violence reduction efforts.

The move comes as Birmingham reels from an extended string of murders and mass murders in the city this year, including one in which four people were killed and 17 others shot in line at a popular Five Points South establishment.

Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond has come under fire and in the past week has faced calls for his resignation from a cofounder of the Birmingham Black Lives Matter chapter and state Rep. Juandalynn Givan because of increased violence in the city.

In another move aimed at reducing violence, the council also Tuesday approved a $15.9 million program the mayor presented last week to help recruit and retain police officers

In Woodfin’s newest proposal, he told the council that gun violence is a public health crisis and needs to be addressed at all levels, not just through arresting people.

“What we want to do is amplify the work we’ve already built on related to our community safety initiatives and violence reduction programs,” the mayor said.

He said his plan, called the Community Safety Initiative Immediate Response Action Plan proposes four new or expanded programs.

• Working with One Hood, which uses former violent offenders to reduce violence and organize advocacy in the community.
• Expanding an existing program that now partners the city with UAB Hospital to connect with people who have been admitted to the hospital as a result of violence. The idea is to reduce the drive for retaliation and reduce the chances the patient would continue to be involved in violent incidents. Woodfin proposes to expand the program to include people treated in the emergency room but not admitted to the hospital, whom he said are more likely to leave and pursue retaliation. The expansion would add two service providers to address gun violence victims and their families.
• Joining in the Gun Violence Reduction Strategy with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. The program aims to provide technical assistance and train teams that then focus intervention efforts on those most likely to be involved in violence in the community. Woodfin said that here, that first group would be black men, with young black boys coming next. Training would begin within a week of the funding being approved, he told the council, and teams would be active on the ground in 30 days.
• Working through the Birmingham Street Team Alliance to respond to gun violence incidents and provide high-risk case management on the scene. Woodfin said that those involved or witnessing an incident often are not inclined to share what they know with police, but alliance team members might relate with them better and get more information.

Woodfin said the additional programs would cost about $1.5 million. The city already invests about $7 million a year on prevention services aimed at mental health, school and housing factors, along with a program that works with juveniles being released from detention.

The council heard more details on the programs during a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon and will decide on it soon.

Recruitment and Retention Plan

The police funding plan proposed by Woodfin and approved by the council Tuesday would appropriate $15.9 million from the General Fund’s balance reserves toward recruiting and retaining police officers. Woodfin also has pushed for hiring 172 additional patrol officers. The plan specifically:

• Increases the recruitment bonus to $10,000.
• Establishes a quarterly retention bonus of $2,500 for officers with two or more years at BPD.
• Creates a take-home vehicle program with 75 vehicles.
• Starts a part-time reserve officer program to ease staffing demands during large events.
• Invests in recruitment marketing and officer recruitment consulting.
• Launches a police trainee program that allows BPD to hire immediately and begin academy preparation for recruits.
• Offers $5,000 in relocation assistance for new officers living more than 80 miles away from Birmingham.
• Provides a $1,000 referral incentive for officers with BPD.
• Begins a mental health observance leave policy for officers for eight hours per month.