LANSING, Mich., May 24, 2023 — Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) and state Reps. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) and Nate Shannon (D-Sterling Heights) held a press conference today to discuss upcoming legislation to address crucial public safety and violence prevention priorities. The legislation would keep Michigan’s people and communities safe by providing local communities with additional funding. They were joined by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit Police Chief James E. White, and Grand Rapids Deputy Chief Joe Trigg, who spoke about how the legislation would positively impact the residents in their communities and across the state.
“Public safety is a top priority for House Democrats,” Tate said. “We have already taken steps to help reduce gun violence in our state with the passage of laws to expand required background checks; create a process for courts to impose extreme risk protection orders to keep guns out of the hands of those intent on harming themselves or others; and require safe storage of guns in homes where children are present. Today, we announced legislation that expands on our commitment to help build safe and strong communities by increasing funding for areas that experience the highest crime rates in our state. I want to thank Reps. Farhat and Shannon, Chief White, and Mayor Duggan for coming together for the shared goal of keeping Michiganders safe.”
“We have listened to our communities and violent crimes are on the rise. That’s why House Dems have introduced comprehensive, meaningful legislation to increase public safety. That includes the set of bills we just introduced — House Bills 4605 and 4606. This set of bills will set up a new avenue of community violence intervention and prevention funding. What that means is that municipalities will be empowered to fund resources to hire more police officers and more mental health care workers — that’s the kind of approach we need in order to prevent violence.”
“A safe and crime-free Michigan is always the goal. As too many of us know, violence is an unfortunate reality in our society. Public safety is a top priority — and I intend to do everything I can to continue to protect communities from violence,” Shannon said. “This bill helps create safer and better-equipped communities. I am proud to support these bills for our families, children and communities and their futures. We are here to continue to serve the people, and this bill does just that.”
“Communities with consistently high rates of violent crime need more consistent resources to keep residents safe,” Mayor Duggan said. “These bills achieve that by providing Detroit and similarly situated cities with additional revenue sharing funds to put more officers in neighborhoods and address other systemic issues that contribute to the violent crime rate. And it does so by treating cities fairly and without taking anything away from existing revenue sharing allocations. I thank Reps. Farhat and Shannon, as well as Speaker Tate, for their leadership on this critical legislation.”
“This proposal would help the Detroit Police Department increase neighborhood patrols to suppress crime and assist Neighborhood Police Officers with combating quality of life issues,” Chief James E. White said. “This support for law enforcement from state and local government is necessary to keep communities impacted by violent crime safe.”