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Michael del Rosario
Honors1000
Ms. Hudson
December 1, 2014
Struggles of a Neglected City
According to ABC News, “Only 8.7 percent of violent crimes are solved and Detroit has
the highest crime rate in the US of large cities” (ABC News 2013). This is a growing problem in
Detroit, and those living in the city are scared. According to a poll issued by The Detroit News
funded by the Thompson Foundation, “49 percent of residents don’t feel safe in their
neighborhoods (Hunter 2012). When it comes down to it, the main thing contributing to this
problem is the fact that there are not enough police officers on patrol that are there to answer the
pleas for help. In the same poll issued by the Detroit News, residents agreed that “41 percent of
residents identified a lack of police on patrols as the biggest safety problem, followed by
abandoned houses, 23 percent, and gangs, 10 percent” (Hunter 2012). In order to begin to solve
this pressing problem that we face in our community, we must first look at why this problem
persists, how other places are dealing with the same problems, and also ways in which the city of
Detroit is dealing with this problem and how they’ve dealt with similar problems in the past.
With the recent struggles of Detroit dealing with filing bankruptcy on July 18, 2013, it
becomes very difficult for police officers to find reason to stay with the Detroit Police
Department. Even the most dedicated men and women working for the force are being tempted
by outside job offers who offer more pay than what Detroit can pay their officers. During the
initial reactions to the city’s bankruptcy, “the force lost roughly 400 rank-and-file officers in the
past half-dozen years because of budget cuts, attrition and early retirement” (Klinefelter, 2014).
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It seems that the only officers left are highly skilled, experienced professionals, as stated by the
head of the Detroit Police Officers Association Mark Diaz (Klinefelter, 2014). These officers are
being noticed by other cities, and with how low of a salary they receive while working in Detroit,
recruiters are offering more generous salaries in order to bring these men and women to their
police force and entice them to abandon their lacking Detroit offices.
Not only is there a lack of officers in the police force of Detroit, there is the presence of
corruption and lack of information in general. Reports of active patrol officers have never been
completely accurate in all cases, and many officers take this lack of control as an excuse to take
advantage of the privilege of being an officer. City officials stated that “only 33 percent of the
police department's (2030) employees were involved in patrolling the city. The rest were
involved in ‘ancillary administrative functions’ such as payroll” (Gantert 2013). According to
data collected by Governing.com, there are only 32.1 police officers on patrol for every ten
thousand people in Detroit (Governing, 2014). To think that only a small portion of the already
limited amount of patrol officers was doing their duty is unsettling. With very few officers on
patrol, it does not take much for every patrol car to get caught up in emergency calls. In a city
like Detroit that has a very high crime rate and criminal background, this lacking amount of
active available patrol officers will never be sufficient enough for this city. It cannot be blamed
all on the lack for officers in general, but can be blamed on the fact that of the hired officers,
only a portion of them are available for patrol and are available in general to answer the
numerous emergency calls received by the residents of Detroit.
Detroit is becoming a fearful place to live to even those outside of the city who do not
experience it for themselves. Throughout the years, Detroit receives so much negative publicity,
whether it is deserved or not. It is seen as a city of gangs, thugs, and death. Homicides have
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increased by 10 percent in 2012, and residents just do not feel safe anymore. They do not even
believe that the city can bounce back from this constant struggle. In a poll taken by Detroit News
funded by Thompson Foundation, “63 percent (of residents) say city leaders have no plans for a
turnaround” (MacDonald 2012). Another statement made by this survey was brought up when
asking residents about how they felt about living in Detroit. The survey tells us that “more than
half, 50.9 percent, say they would live in another city if they could, while 39.9 percent plan to
move in the next five years” (MacDonald 2012). With these many problems, it is not looking too
well for the future of the city of Detroit. Can this once great city come back from this downward
spiral? How can the city ensure the safety of its residents, make patrol officers more readily able
to respond to criminal activity and emergency calls, and ultimately reduce crime rates which fuel
the hatred for Detroit?
Some suggestions and ideas to solving this question have been proposed for Detroit, and
some even for other cities facing this same issue. Towards the later months of 2012, officials
stated that crime rate had gone down 12 percent from the year 2010 to 2012, contrasting the
picture illustrated by the media over the years. This decrease in crime was credited to new
policies set by the Detroit Police Department, which included that “police no longer respond to
burglar alarms unless security companies verify the need for officers… (and) ‘virtual precincts’
close some precincts at night, freeing officers from desk jobs” in order to make more patrol
officers available for violent crimes and emergencies (MacDonald 2012). While this did make
an impact on the crime rates present in the city of Detroit, more must be done so that others can
see that it truly is a safe place to live. Another policy was in question during 2012 that had the
potential to improve the situation in Detroit, however, it was shut down by the City Council
before it could even reach the residents of Detroit. The policy “would have raised property taxes
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9 mills for five years to raise $56 million and hire 500 more officers,” theoretically putting more
officers on hand for patrol. Not only does this plan seem plausible in retrospect, but at the time,
60 percent of Detroit residence said “they would pay more in taxes for more police and
firefighters” (Hunter 2012). The people of the city are willing to participate in new policies in
order to make Detroit a safer place, so why should city officials refuse them that right?
A situation similar to that of Detroit takes place in Buffalo, New York. The police in the
city are so tied up in their calls and duties, they cannot answer to every distressed citizen in dire
need of police assistance. According to an article from Real World, “data on an average summer
night using the current system indicated only three or four patrol cars out of 33 available for
immediate dispatch… The remaining patrols are tied up at calls” (OR/MS Today 2003). With
these odds, many people would find themselves out of luck once those several patrol cars are
already held up and busy with other calls. This almost directly mirrors the problems faced in
Detroit. These methods of policing portray a city that lacks concern for the safety of its citizens.
The police should be something the people can turn to for safety. If they cannot provide this
protection of basic human rights, why would people be attracted to the city and its business?
Buffalo is proposing plans to fix this problem that they are facing, such as the “Math Model” to
increase police patrol while decreasing police officers. Thanks to a study done in part by Ken
Chelst of Wayne State University in Detroit, using this model “Buffalo, N.Y, expects to
significantly increase police patrols throughout the city with 25 percent fewer officers ultimately saving local taxpayers an estimated $12 million a year.” The core of this plan is
changing from a patrol car with two officers with three 10 hour shifts to a patrol car with one
officer with five 8 ½ hour shifts (OR/MS Today 2003).
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Looking at these policies that could be possible solutions to Detroit’s problems, one can
make reasonable judgments that we can use these in one way or another to help better the
community as a whole. If we look at the situation in Buffalo and how they were able to resolve
the issue with promising results, one cannot help but believe that we can do the same for Detroit.
However, Buffalo was not facing an issue that is somewhat critical to the situation in Detroit, and
that is bankruptcy. Not only that, but Detroit police officers are becoming scarce, so lessening
the force any more might have more negative effects than positive. This leaves the policies put
into effect already, and the policy that was turned down by city officials. The policies that
attributed the decreases in crime rate already should continue to be thoroughly carried out and
the policy that was once rejected should be re-evaluated by the city officials, and should be
presented to the residents of Detroit to decide amongst themselves, for it is they who must deal
with this constant risk of crime. It is also the majority that openly voiced their support for this
tax. An increase in officers would in turn increase the amount of active officers on patrol, thus
decreasing crime rates and creating a more comfortable place for previously fearful residents to
live. It was stated that the reason for the denial of this issue to be presented to the residents on
the ballot was because “Detroit's tax rate is among the highest in the state” already, and they
stated that the council “needed more specifics before putting the issue on the ballot and wanted
police to answer whether ‘we are doing everything we can with existing resources’” (Hunter
2012.) That statement was made in 2012. Now reaching the end of 2014 two years later, I
believe that the city council should have found their “specifics” they were looking for by now,
and can apply this new tax to get Detroit out of the darkness that it has fallen into and back into
the dignified city that it should be.
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Works Cited
Desan, M. H. "Bankrupted Detroit." Thesis Eleven 121.1 (2014): 122-30. Web.
Gantert, Tom. "How Much Has the Detroit Police Force Really Been Cut?" [Michigan
Capitol Confidential]. CAPCON, 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
Hunter, George. "Detroit's Biggest Crime Problem: Lack of Police, Poll Finds." Detroit News.
The Detroit News, 9 Oct. 2012. Web.
Klinefelter, Quinn. "Other Cities Poach Police From Detroit's Low-Wage Force." NPR. NPR,
22 July 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
"Law Enforcement Officers Per Capita for Cities, Local Departments." Law Enforcement
Officers Per Capita for Cities, Local Departments. N.p., 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
MacDonald, Christine. "Poll: Crime Drives Detroiters Out; 40% Expect to Leave within 5
Years." The Detroit News. N.p., 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
"Math model: fewer cops, more patrols. (Real World)." OR/MS Today 30.3 (2003): 18+.
Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
News, Abc. "10 Biggest Dilemmas Detroit Has to Face." ABC News. ABC News Network.
Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://abcnews.go.com/Business/top-10-dilemmas-facingdetroit/story?id=19710933>.