Birmingham is putting a five-year strategy behind its effort to reduce gun violence, with city officials setting a goal of reducing homicides and nonfatal shootings by 10% every year through 2031.
The Birmingham Violence Reduction Strategic Plan, unveiled during a press conference Monday, comes as the city already saw a significant decline in homicides.
Birmingham Police reported a sharp drop in killings during the first half of 2026, continuing a decline that began after 2024, when the city recorded about 150 homicides. City officials said the recent progress stems from a combination of focused policing and work by community organizations.
The new plan is intended to build on that progress and create a coordinated approach that can be sustained over the next five years.
“Safety is more than policing,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said. “It is more than the men and women in blue. It’s people.”
What the plan is trying to accomplish
The strategy operates on three different timelines in an attempt to reduce violence quickly while also trying to change some of the circumstances that can contribute to violence over generations.
In the near term, the city wants to identify people who are at high risk of producing violence and intervene before someone is shot or killed.
Over five to 10 years, it aims to prevent violence through youth development, mentoring, education and supportive programs.
Over 15 to 20 years, the plan calls for addressing conditions that can contribute to violence, including through education, economic opportunity and neighborhood revitalization.
The strategy, coordinated by the city’s Office of Community Safety Initiatives, is organized around four areas: supporting safety and wellness, engaging and empowering the community, strengthening policy and oversight, and increasing youth safety.
Pillar 1: Supporting Safety and Wellness
The first pillar focuses on intervening when violence is most likely to happen.
Officials said they'll strengthen the city's gun violence reduction strategy and create a more coordinated network of community violence intervention organizations.
Community Safety Initiatives Director Uche Bean said to find those considered at high risk of being involved in gun violence, Birmingham will focus on people between roughly 15 and 35 years old who may have significant involvement with the judicial system or connections to groups involved in violence.
The city wants to reach them before they become victims or perpetrators.
That work can include violence interruption, conflict mediation, case management and other support.
A key part of the approach is the use of credible messengers — people with lived experience who have established trust in the communities they serve.
The pillar also includes coordinated responses to domestic violence and overdoses.
For the first year, the plan calls for mapping existing community violence intervention organizations, identifying gaps and connecting the city with community groups.
Pillar 2: Engaging and Empowering Community
The second pillar focuses on people and organizations already working in Birmingham neighborhoods.
The city plans to hold regular community listening sessions and give residents a role in shaping violence-reduction efforts.
It also calls for strengthening community organizations and connecting residents with services such as housing, employment, mental health care and other assistance.
Another focus is reentry.
The city wants people returning home from incarceration to have better access to employment, treatment, mentorship and other services.
Deborah Daniels, executive director of the Offender Alumni Association, said her organization served 147 justice-impacted adults, 110 victims of violence and more than 200 young people at risk in 2025.
Daniels said reentry is part of public safety because people need support after returning to their communities.
“Public safety doesn’t stop at prison gates,” she said.
The plan also calls for expanding conflict-resolution programs and services for victims of violence.
Pillar 3: Strengthening Policy and Oversight
The third pillar focuses on how the city measures and manages its violence-reduction efforts.
Birmingham Police will continue using data to identify where violence is concentrated and which people or groups are most likely to be involved.
That information is intended to guide both police enforcement and community intervention.
The plan also calls for maintaining BPD staffing and improving recruitment, retention, equipment, technology and infrastructure.
The Office of Community Safety Initiatives plans to standardize reporting from organizations receiving city funding and improve data sharing among city agencies. The city also wants better information about whether its programs are producing results. The office will be responsible for overseeing implementation and tracking the plan’s performance.
Bean said the city will use data to determine where resources are needed and hold programs accountable for their results.
The city plans to review its progress annually and adjust future strategies based on the data.
Pillar 4: Increasing Youth Safety
The fourth pillar focuses on preventing violence before young people become deeply involved in it.
Woodfin called youth safety his favorite part of the plan. The city wants to expand programs that provide young people with:
- conflict-resolution skills;
- life coaching;
- mentorship;
- caregiver support;
- youth justice services;
- gun-safety education.
The plan builds on RESTORE, Birmingham’s existing program for justice-involved and other high-risk youth.
The city also wants to reach younger children and engage their caregivers.
Another component is firearm safety. Birmingham plans to distribute gun locks and provide families with information about safe firearm storage.
Building on work already underway
The strategic plan does not create a new violence-reduction system.
Rather, the city is bringing together programs and partnerships that already exist, including street outreach, violence interruption, hospital-based intervention, RESTORE, reentry services, victim services and BPD’s data-driven crime-reduction efforts.
The goal is to make those efforts work as part of a broader citywide strategy with impacts felt on the individual and neighborhood level.
Some benchmarks are direct measures of violence, such as homicides, shootings and case clearances. Others track whether the city is building the system it says is necessary to reduce violence — including services delivered, organizations trained, partnerships created and residents engaged.
The Office of Community Safety Initiatives is expected to report on those measures annually. The Birmingham Violence Reduction Strategic Plan runs through July 31, 2031.
