More homicides, violent crimes occur in West Dayton; leaders call for action

Dayton leaders say these trends are alarming and disheartening and they want to help set up a new violence interruption program that they hope will prevent conflict from escalating into violent acts.

Crime is having a disparate impact on the Black community, said Dayton police Chief Kamran Afzal.

“It’s a story we have to recognize, and we have to figure out and see how we can address that,” he said.

Homicides

Last year, 21 of the 30 “unjustified” homicides that happened in Dayton (70%) took place in the Dayton Police Department’s West District, which covers everything west of the river, the police department said.

About three-fourths of the homicide victims last year were Black, and 90% were male, police data show.

The police department divides the city into three patrol areas: West District, East District and the Central Business District (downtown).

Through the end of June of this year, Dayton recorded 17 homicides and 15 of those killings took place in the West District.

Three-fourths of homicide victims this year were Black, and more than one-third of victims were 17 or younger (35%), the data show.

Between 2018 and 2023, about 13% of homicide victims were minors, and last year just 6% of homicide victims were juveniles.

“The numbers are quite alarming,” said Chief Afzal.

West District woes

The Dayton Police Department also recorded 548 aggravated assaults last year and 308 in the first half of this year. About two-thirds of those assaults occurred in the West District; about 70% of violent assault victims citywide were Black.

Dayton has about 137,645 residents and about 41% of the population is Black, says the U.S. Census.

Dayton police also received 222 reports of shootings into habitations across the city between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and 95% of those incidents occurred in the West District.

About eight in 10 residents who live in the West District are Black, according to city data. The East District is 70% white and 14% Black.

Violence interrupted

Dayton police said more often than not suspects and victims in violent crime incidents know each other.

Suspects and victims tend to have some relationship, even if they are not very close. Violent crime involving complete strangers is much less common.

Dayton police Major Brian Johns said some violence is retaliatory. He said unfortunately some people who are targets or victims of violence or who have friends or loved ones who are victimized do not cooperate with police. Instead, he said they decide to take matters into their own hands and seek vengeance.

Police say a fairly small number of individuals are responsible for most of the violence in the community.

Chief Afzal said he strongly supports a proposal to help launch a new program based on a violence interruption model used by Cure Violence Global.

This model consists of hiring and deploying community members who have similar life experiences as the people who are at the highest risk of committing violent acts, officials said.

These staff members will receive training in mediation, persuasion and changing behaviors and they will try to mediate conflict and stop violence before it happens.

The model seeks to change the thinking of people who are most likely to commit violent acts and the program would attempt to create social pressure to deter people from violence, according to information shared by the city and police.

Community-based violence interruption programs usually seek to meaningfully engage with the small number of people who tend to be at the center of gun violence.

These programs typically employ “neighborhood change agents” who try to build trust and form relationships with individuals most at risk of causing violence or being victimized by it, according to information from the Center for America Progress.

The center says change agents try to stop conflict from escalating and also try to change the trajectory of people’s lives.

Why this program

The city recently shared data that it claims shows that violence interruption programs have led to major reductions in shootings and killings in a variety of large and mid-sized cities across the nation. This includes New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

Chief Afzal said this is not a short-term initiative — it’s a “generational project.”

City leaders and police officials say a critical part of the proposal is that community members lead it and police and the city are not heavily involved.

“While we might be a major funder of such an initiative, it’s a really hands-off relationship that we have to establish in order to have our greatest results,” said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein.

The police department’s primary involvement likely would be to provide violent crime stats and other data to help identify areas of need and concern.

The city plans to develop a request for proposals (RFP) to try to identify a community-based organization to serve as a site leader. The city hopes to issue an RFP later this year and award a contract by early 2025.

Members of the Dayton City Commission said Dayton is going to struggle on many fronts if it cannot reduce gun violence and if the city is viewed as a violent community.

Police data show that there were 264 incidents of violent crime in the first half of this year, which was up 18% from the first half of 2023.

“I am very excited to know that we’re moving in this direction,” said Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss. “This is important to all of us — we cannot talk about economic development, we cannot talk about workforce development, we cannot talk about being immigrant friendly if we are not addressing these issues.”

Turner-Sloss said gun violence is a symptom of deeper issues like poverty, trauma and housing hardship and redlining.

She said people are products of their environments and residents are more likely to act out if all they see is blight and trash and terrible neighborhood conditions, which sends the message that no one cares.

City officials say helping establish a violence interruption program could cost $400,000 to $500,000 per year.

Commissioner Chris Shaw said coordination and collaboration between community groups will be keys to progress and success.

Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said he also wants to see greater engagement with local schools and churches to help provide conflict resolution training, especially for young people.

“It’s easier to prevent some problems with young kids than it is to fix a broken adult,” Mims said. “You see so many adults in this community who just don’t have conflict-resolution skills.”

Monnie Bush, founder and CEO of the Victory Project, said he thinks it’s a good idea to explore new approaches to reducing violent crime. He supports fresh ideas and embracing new leaders in this area.

“The proposed violence interruption program seems to be a promising initial step based on reports from other cities that have experienced a decrease in violent crime after implementing similar programs,” he said.

Bush lives in West Dayton and violence often hits close to home. He said last summer five people were shot near his home.

Bush said three homicides have occurred near the Victory Project’s West Dayton campus in recent weeks and a teenage student was grazed by a bullet just a few months ago.