‘We can’t police ourselves out of it’ Birmingham mayor’s state of the city message stresses plan to address homicides
Birmingham city leaders are engaged in a multifaceted approach to address its most pressing challenge of reducing homicides, Mayor Randall Woodfin said this afternoon.
But the answer is not simple.
Woodfin, delivering his annual State of the City message before the Birmingham Kiwanis Club, reserved the majority of his talk to detail recommendations from the city’s crime commission to curtail record-breaking homicide numbers and tell what the city is already doing.
Woodfin noted that crime statistics represent real people and require complex efforts to resolve.
“It’s lives, its family members, its human beings,” he said. “It’s a problem we simply can’t police ourselves out of.”
Birmingham ended 2024 with 151 homicides, the highest number in the city since 1933.
As Woodin seeks a third term in August the issue of crime has already become a central political theme from critics and challengers.
Woodfin called public safety an issue that unifies the entire city.
The crime commission recommendations include several items including increased policing, seeking a ban on so-called Glock gun switches, and blight removal.
Woodfin detailed how his administration and the city council were also working to address each area.
He reviewed a more aggressive program to spend $16 million to recruit police officers by offering $10,000 sign-on bonuses and incentives for remaining on the force.
Birmingham’s police numbers, a subject of political debate, have dipped from 822 officers in 2017 down to 639 in 2023, according to the city’s 2023 annual comprehensive financial report.
Woodfin also discussed the city’s amended operating budget which includes $19.5 million for street paving, new sidewalks, weed removal, and demolition of vacant buildings.
Like the police force, Birmingham’s public works department has also shrunk from 840 workers in 2017 to 536 in 2023, according to city reports.
Woodfin in his presentation Tuesday said poverty combined with low education achievement and “a culture of retaliation” makes communities ripe for gun violence.
“That’s an equation that has caused long generational hurt,” he said.
Along with policing, Woodfin announced two new programs to address conditions that serve as incubators for crime.
“We have to restore hope to under-serviced neighborhoods throughout our city,” he said.
Some programs already exist to assist, he said. For example, the city-founded Birmingham Promise program, a public-private partnership, has provided scholarships to 1,600 students in the last five years.
The new initiative is designed to reach people most at risk of getting caught in a cycle of criminal activity.
Woodfin cited the commission report that said 1% of the city’s population has accounted for more than 50% of the violence.
“That’s why we are making it a priority in working with an external team to launch what we are calling ‘One Hood’ to break the cycle of violence through direct interaction with the people in our community most at risk,” Woodfin said. “By focusing on that one percent and injecting new life in all facets of our violence prevention and public safety sectors, we know we can decrease gun violence within our city.”
He also announced a new Office of Resilience and Sustainability, which will address environmental and quality of life issues such as lowering carbon emissions and creating healthy food opportunities within the city.
“Yes, I am optimistic. I am hopeful,” he said. “2025 gives us the opportunity to shine brighter. 2025 also gives us the opportunity to shine together.”
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