I like Chief Godbee’s attitude, and I was heartened by Inspector Dwane Blackmon’s criticism of the criminal justice system, for routinely sentencing the city’s most violent predators to probation, whereupon they commit murders, but that mix of numbers doesn’t pass the smell test.
For the basis of my skepticism, regarding the odd mix of crime stats in Detroit’s newest report, see my VDARE investigative report,
“‘Disappearing’ Urban Crime.” Note, too, the first three reader comments I saw, which I reposted below.
Tue. 11/08/11 05:30 PM
Godbee needs a PR person to speak to the press
How can violent crimes be down if killing is up, I would think that is the ultimate violent crime. It state they are trying to get their arms around the number of guns, wake up!! Otherwise law abiding citizens are buying guns for protection because the PD will not protect them. Case in point, 2 weeks ago an employee of mine was frantic at work after she received a call that her estranged husband was stalking her apartment with a gun, DPD's answer when I called to let them know and mind you the PD is right around the corner from her residence. The dispatcher stated if we responded to every call like this one we would never get our work done. When I asked, does to protect and serve, mean some one must die first she said I was out of line. I was not trying to be smart just trying to establish what the threshold for response was. Believe it or not the estranged husband was arrested that night after firing shots at his sister. He was later released because the sister did not press charges, and since returned on several occasions to torment my employee at her residence or by phone. She has a PPO but that does no good when no one will respond. She did call Dearborn PD who responded in 5 minutes, the place of employment is in Dearborn filed a report and issued an arrest warrant but that was all they could do because she lives in Detroit. The comment made to my employee after being beat by her estranged husband, when the cops arrived 5 hours later was "You can thank your Mayor"!! In my eyes it is not a mayor issue it is a Godbee issue and the Mayor issue if he does not do anything about Godbee. Godbee is the chief not the Mayor and he needs to protect and serve the people and quit making idiot comments like I cannot figure out why so many guns in Detroit. Godbee wake up and smell the coffee, they are buying guns to protect themselves not to commit crimes, geesh does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
boo2000, livonia, Mi
Tue. 11/08/11 04:49 PM
Is Overall Crime Rate Really Down
I really hate to burst the Police Chiefs bubble or rain on any ones parade but the "Overall" crime rate is not really down. What is really "Down" instead is the rate at which people are reporting crimes. If you are "jacked" on the street corner for example, it is a guaranteed waste of time to wait 3 or 4 hours for an officer to arrive and another 3 0r 4 hours to be interviewed by a detective, neither of whom will actually do anything to try and locate the culprit as they to know that they will never find them any way, so why waste the time? Ask any of the residents in high crime neighborhoods about how effective "reporting a crime is", it is not, and therefore, very people will actually report, unless of course, there is a dead body in the bedroom or lying in their driveway, hence, the higher murder reporting rate and lower, overall, crime rate. Just the Facts Jack.
Arachnid, taylor, mi
Tue. 11/08/11 03:56 PM
Detroit overall crime down
Of course it is down. Detroiters who commit crimes are doing it in the nearby suburbs. That's why it doesn't show up in Detroit's crime statistics. As proof, pickup any near Detroit suburban newspapers and look at list of crimes. Amost all are committed by Detroit residents. But even more dramatic, a lot of the crime in the suburbs listed as a suburban resident, is only because they recently moved from Detroit into the suburban City. When they say exported from Detroit they mean it.
Reggie, Detroit, Michigan
Last Updated: November 8, 2011 5:42PM
Detroit Police chief: Homicides spike 31%; overall crime down
Mark Hicks
The Detroit News
Detroit— The Detroit Police Department's crime figures released Monday for the third quarter show 23 more homicides compared to the same period last year, a 31 percent increase.
The latest crime figures show a nearly 19 percent hike in murders so far over 2010, with 301 homicides citywide through Sunday.
Overall crime is down about 7 percent from July 1 to Sept. 30, Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.
The department is having "a bear of a time getting our arms around" the widespread number of guns in the city, resulting in more violent conflicts, he told residents at the Breithaupt Career & Technical Center on the city's west side.
Some of the homicides also involved suspects who were on probation for other previous crimes, said Inspector Dwane Blackmon of the homicide unit.
"It's important to note those who are constantly causing havoc in the community… have been placed on probation," he said.
In the third quarter, there were 97 homicides, or a 31 percent increase, from the same period last year, police said Monday. That's down from 106 homicides reported for the second quarter, from April 1 to June 30.
Violent crimes including assaults dropped in the third quarter about 11 percent year to date, police said.
Other crime figures released Monday show that through Oct. 30:
23,787 assaults, or a 10.4 percent drop from the same time in 2010.
14,457 burglaries, compared to 16,204 in that span the year before — a 10.78 percent decline.
6.2 percent decrease in rapes, from 901 to 845.
But the homicide level has drawn scrutiny.
Last summer, a crime wave gripped the city, with at least 38 people shot and eight killed from June 21 to Aug. 21 in the 48205 ZIP code area, which had more shootings and deaths than any other ZIP code in the city, a Detroit News analysis found. To some city residents, suspects on probation who are committing other crimes reflects a need for changing the culture of the city, including cooperating with police officers and being more proactive when it comes to watching out for their neighbors.
Police "can't do it alone," said Diann H. Malone, a lifelong resident who attended the meeting Monday. "The community has to wake up and see the importance of protecting their community. The community has to get involved."
Cecil Clark, who runs a club near Joy and Evergreen, saidlearningabout the crime trends helps residents protect themselves."It's a good education," he said.
To help quell violence in the city, the Police Department this year unrolled a new program to put more officers on the streets.
Last summer, Godbee launched "Operation Inside Out: Night Angels," a program that re-deploys desk officers to patrol one eight-hour shift per week. The program has put an extra 40-50 officers on patrol each shift.
Godbee also has called for using cutting-edge software, called ShotSpotter, to combat violence in the city.
The technology uses sensors placed throughout the city to collect and filter sounds to locate gunshots so officers can be deployed efficiently, he said. The City Council postponed a vote on the $2.6 million pact until today.
On Monday, Godbee pushed the technology as a "tremendous tool to have in our arsenal" while combating crime citywide.
"We can have a significant impact on what we do relative to gunplay," he said.
mhicks@detnews.com
(313) 222-2117
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC.]
1 comment:
I wonder if it also has to do with the changing geographic definition and population count of Detroit.
More and more parts of Detroit, as I understand it, are being abandoned by both citizens and the government. So if a section of town no longer counts as part of Detroit, neither will its crime statistics.
Likewise, if the city is bleeding people (excuse the pun), then crime could go down as an absolute number even as it is rising as a percentage of the population. Where would you rather live: a city with 50 murders a year with a population of 10,000 or a city of 200 murders a year with a population of 1,000,000?
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