Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Dr. Paul Elam serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at the Michigan Public Health Institute, and is responsible for leading Advance Peace.

Hear Dr. Elam and Jeffrey discuss Advance Peace, their efforts over the past 14 months and the event set for Monday, November 20th discouraging gun violence in the Lansing Metro in the SoundCloud Podcast shared below: 

Their conversation covered several topics:
1) Paul, welcome back remind us about your strategy work with Michigan Public Health Institute?

2) What is Advance Peace?

3) What are you hoping to accomplish through Advance Peace?

4) What successes have you accomplished since you implemented the Advance Peace Strategy?

5) Is there anything you would like to share about Advance Peace that the community should know?

6) You have an annual event next week, what are the details?

This initiative represents a groundbreaking, evidence-based intervention model aimed at putting an end to the destructive cycle of retaliatory gun violence in urban neighborhoods across the United States. Advance Peace is a pioneering effort within the community, with the goal of achieving a 40% reduction in cyclical and retaliatory gun violence over the next three years.

Dr. Elam did a recent editorial on the topic as well:

Cost of Gun Violence in Lansing is Too High to Ignore

Dr. Paul Elam, MPHI Chief Strategy Officer
Guest Writer, Opinion Editorial in the Lansing State Journal

When Lansing leaders are asked to fund initiatives to prevent gun violence, they are sympathetic and supportive. But the money is often slow to come. And our citizens continue to pay the high price for crime as bullets fly and people die.

The reality is taxpayers spend vast sums for what happens after gunshots are fired. Crime scene investigations, hospital bills, court costs and prison. We can and should reduce these costs — through community violence prevention strategies that have proven effective in interrupting cycles of violence.

How high are the costs? The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform conducted research to answer that question in several communities across the country.

In Detroit, the average cost of a homicide shooting is $1.6 million, according to the research. That includes $1.2 million for a 27-year prison sentence. Younger assailants are likely to live and be imprisoned many years longer, creating even higher costs.

Other shooting-related costs include a prosecutor, public defender and the courts. In the Detroit study, total criminal justice costs average $138,000. Hospital costs come to about $50,000. Victim support is roughly $27,000, and crime scene response about $5,500.

While a study in Lansing would be instructive, it is reasonable to assume costs are in line with Detroit. Studies in other cities paint similar pictures.

And that doesn’t quantify the costs of fear, of families devastated by the loss of a loved one, or the economic cost of businesses that choose to set up shop in places that are deemed safer.

It will take a multi-pronged approach to preventing gun violence. For instance, Advance Peace Lansing has been operating in southwest Lansing since October 2022, supported by city, county, state and federal funding, and operated by a non-profit partner. Four neighborhood change agents, who have had previous experience with gun violence, are supporting 15 Advance Peace fellows, young people who have been involved in gun violence themselves.

The results in Lansing and other communities are promising. Almost all of the Advance Peace fellows have stayed away from gun violence. The number of fatal shootings in Lansing has dropped from 17 between October 2021 and September 2022, to six in the first 11 months that Advance Peace Lansing has operated.

Community violence intervention programs like Advance Peace are bringing about meaningful change. They make us safer. They save federal, state and local tax dollars that are spent at the back end of shootings. Preventing just one fatal shooting can save $1.6 million or more.

Gun violence is the leading cause of premature death in the United States and the American Public Health Association has identified it as a public health crisis. We need our policymakers to not only invest more in gun violence prevention, but to be innovative and urgent in getting effective programs in place that will lower the high cost of gun violence and create safe cities.

Paul Elam is chief strategy officer for the Michigan Public Health Institute and has a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Michigan State University. He is a member of the Crime and Justice Research Alliance.

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