While other U.S. cities have experienced a rise in violent crime since the pandemic, Detroit is enjoying a drop.
As of November 30, the city reports an 18 per cent drop in homicides from a year ago. Non-fatal shootings are down 13 per cent, and carjackings have fallen by 36 per cent.
A jump in violent crime elsewhere in the U.S. is blamed, in part, on the disruption of the criminal justice system during the pandemic. Over-crowded jails released prisoners, and vacancies in police departments and prosecutors offices went unfilled.
However, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan formed a coalition in late 2021 to restore the criminal justice system to pre-COVID-19 conditions.
The coalition oversaw the relocation of Wayne County Prosecutors to the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters, improved communication between the Detroit Police Homicide Unit and the prosecutor’s office, hired hundreds of police officers, secured pay increases, utilized technology, and implemented data-driven deployment strategies.
Detroit Police hired 200 police officers last year, while the Wayne County Sheriff filled 200 vacancies.
The State of Michigan supported those efforts with $2.5-million in funding in 2021 and $12.5-million this year.
“That supplemental funding was critical to our success,” said Evans. “The additional appropriation allowed strategies like virtual dockets and visiting judges to handle more cases, and is now being used for additional prosecutors and court personnel.”
The Michigan Department of Corrections identified those on probation and parole who were most likely to have guns illegally and carried out more searches and compliance checks. Director Heidi Washington said those arrests helped take guns off the streets.
“We are seeing record drops in gun violence in Detroit because every single part of the justice system is getting past Covid obstacles and is now working again,” said Duggan.
By the end of November, there had been 228 homicides in Detroit, the lowest number since 1966.
The previous low was 261 in 2018.
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