Sacramento community advocates fear city's budget cuts could impact public safety

Sacramento community advocates are sounding the alarm over fears of deep city budget cuts that could impact public safety.

The city is facing a $66.2 million budget deficit and one solution proposed by the police is to liquidate the office of violence prevention funds that the police chief credits with lower crime rates.

"I was an ex-gang member from Oak Park, and I've been shot, stabbed, been to prison and I turned my life around to get back," said Clifford McDowell.

McDowell is with 916 Community Alliance, going inside underserved community classrooms to help keep the peace.

"We try to keep all the kids together, we try to bring communities together," Mervin Brookins said. "Well, it's concerning because I know that cuts to office of violence prevention are being considered to save money."

Brookins is the executive director of Brother to Brother, a program that relies on the City of Sacramento's violence prevention budget to run his program, which also helps reduce crime.

"I understand the city is in a recession, but violence prevention is not the place to look," Brookins said.

Sacramento police are putting the liquidation of the office of violence prevention project funds on the table as a solution to the city's money troubles, even as the chief has credited the partnership program with lowering crime rates in the past four years.

Since 2022, police say homicides are down 22%, thefts are down 25% and robbery is down 29%.

"The numbers are so low that although we've had some crime, we haven't had any major violence since this partnership began five years ago," said Prentice Wilson, who helps run the academic programs for athletes. 

The Sacramento violence prevention program started in 2022 after the K Street shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in Sacramento's history, in a year that saw gun violence reach an epidemic across the country.

"And so we're just praying, hoping for our community that these things stay in place," Brookins said. "And that these cuts aren't the first to go.

The city has to present its proposal to fix the $66 million deficit next month. City leaders will then vote on it in June.