Stockton mayor weighs program that pays people not to shoot each other

Stockton’s mayor says he’s exploring options to try to reduce violence in the city, including a Richmond program that pays people not to shoot each other.

Four people have been slain in Stockton since Monday, bringing the total number of homicides in the city for 2017 to 23, reports The Stockton Record.

Mayor Michael Tubbs posted a statement on Twitter late Wednesday calling public safety a priority for the community.

“All life is sacred and even one homicide is too many,” Tubbs wrote. “Overall crime continues to trend downward, but we must remain vigilant.”

Tubbs continues that he’s examining programs like Detroit’s Project Green Light and Richmond’s Advance Peace initiative to bolster public safety efforts in Stockton.

Project Green Light in Detroit installs real-time cameras in select gas stations. The high-definition livestream threads are monitored at police headquarters to deter crminal activity.

The Advance Peace initiative, pioneered in Richmond, essentially pays people with a criminal history of firearms use not to commit crimes. In exchange, they participate in a fellowship program including mentorships and job opportunity programs.

Since the program began in 2007, Richmond has seen a 71 percent reduction in firearm assaults causing injury or death. As of December, 94 percent of those enrolled in the program are still alive and 75 percent are not suspects in new firearm crimes, according to the Advance Peace site.

In an ABC News story from 2016, program founder DeVone Boggan said he disagrees with the notion that the program pays people not to shoot each other. He prefers to say it’s about paying them so they can “get their lives together,” Boggan said.

The Sacramento City Council is considering the same anti-gang program. The council’s expected to vote on the proposal in August.

In his message, Tubbs asked the public to help fight crime by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 209-946-0600.

“Together we can all work to take care of each other and make Stockton a safer place,” Tubbs says.

Tubbs was elected in November 2016 at age 26 as the city’s youngest and first African American mayor. He had previously served on the Stockton City Council since 2012.

Stockton has appeared on several Forbes lists of America’s most dangerous cities, but in April the city’s police chief told Fox40 that the city’s crime rate had dropped in 2016 and violent crime had dropped by 8 percent by that point in 2017 over the same period in 2016. Overall crime had dropped by 7 percent, Police Chief Eric Jones said.

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 10:32 AM with the headline "Stockton mayor weighs program that pays people not to shoot each other."