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Montgomery official unveils 'Together We Rise' violence-reduction plan as city cites falling crime rates
Summary
A Montgomery city official outlined the Together We Rise initiative to reduce violent crime through outreach, mental-health services and technology while noting year-over-year drops in violent and nonviolent crime; the remarks also criticized federal grant cuts to community violence intervention programs.
A city official for Montgomery announced a new initiative, Together We Rise, aimed at reducing violent crime by addressing root causes and expanding prevention services, and said city statistics show year-over-year declines in several crime categories.
"Together We Rise is a city wide effort to reduce violent crime by targeting its root causes, especially in neighborhoods that have caused, so much pain and seen so much of the suffering," the city official said, adding the plan will fund street outreach teams, mental-health services and crime-intervention partnerships.
The official placed the prevention work alongside traditional policing, saying the city had increased recruitment incentives, added training capacity and planned to expand the definition of public safety to include social workers and crime interventionists. The official also said the Montgomery Police Department had improved case closure rates and credited community tips for recent arrests.
The remarks included cited crime trends: violent crime “is down more than 30% compared to this time last year,” nonviolent crime “is down at 16%,” nonfatal shootings “have dropped by more than 25%,” and “overall crime is down more than 18%.” The official characterized those as positive trends while adding that the city will not be complacent.
The city official criticized recent federal funding changes, saying Department of Justice cuts to grants for community violence intervention programs were “short sighted” and risked undoing progress. The official said Helping Alabama Food Bank and other local programs had also been affected by cuts at the Department of Agriculture and urged continued advocacy with the congressional delegation.
On enforcement and technology, the official described plans to expand camera systems, speed cameras and drone use, and said the city is exploring a contractual partnership that would field a unit focused exclusively on traffic incidents to keep sworn officers available for other calls. The official said such a private partner proposal had been discussed with the police chief but had not been presented to the city council.
The official urged residents to report crimes, saying better reporting improves police response and data-driven deployment. "I would encourage each and every citizen, to do just that regardless of how minor it is," the official said.
Discussion: Council members and staff asked follow-up questions during the public Q&A portion; the official answered but no formal motions or votes were presented during the remarks.
The official said the initiative will combine immediate enforcement actions with long-term investments in social services and community partnerships and that further details and funding plans would be announced in the coming days.
