Tagged: Detroit Police

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he’s moved the city in the right direction.

But in his State of the City speech, Bing also warned that Governor Snyder’s proposed budget would jeopardize that progress. Snyder attended Tuesday night’s speech at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has rolled out a new incentives program for Detroit police officers.

“Project 14” aims to pull some officers living in the suburbs into city neighborhoods. The phrase refers to a Detroit police code that means things are “back to normal.”

Bing hopes to restore something like normality to Detroit neighborhoods by making more Detroit cops city residents. Fewer than half are right now.

The project’s pilot phase will give officers chance to get a tax-foreclosed home for up to a thousand dollars. They’ll also be eligible for federal funds to fix them up.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee calls moving to the city a “highly personal decision” for officers. But he thinks many will consider it.

“I’ve fielded a number of calls to my office wondering what the incentives were. So now that they’ve been laid out I think we’re going to see a lot of officers take advantage of it.”

Project 14 will initially offer 200 homes in two relatively stable Detroit neighborhoods.

Bing says the program also complements his Detroit Works Project, which aims to strengthen the city’s more viable communities.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is expected to announce a program Monday to encourage more police officers to live in the city.

Detroit had a residency requirement until 1999, when the state Legislature outlawed it. Now more than half the officers on the police force live outside the city limits.

Mayor Bing has said he believes neighborhoods are safer when the cops who patrol them live there too. But Detroit Police Officer Carol Harris says she doesn’t agree.

"When I did live in that community that I did patrol, the people that I arrested also know who I was, where I lived and were to come after me, so… it’s just not a safe place."

Harris now lives in Wyandotte, and has an eight-year-old son. She says there’s “no way” she’d consider moving back to Detroit.

She says younger officers without families might be willing to entertain the idea. But Harris says cops who live elsewhere still have a vested interest the city, and care about its future.

The city of Detroit could soon lure more of its men in blue back within its borders. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is expected to announce a program on Monday aimed at encouraging police officers to live in the city.

John Mogk is a law professor at Wayne State University. He says it makes sense to want to keep public safety workers in the city:

"They’re closer to where their responsibilities are, they provide a degree of security in the neighborhoods in which they live, the compensation they receive, more of it stays in the city and circulates within city businesses."

Mogk says police officers are also paid middle-class wages, which helps a high-poverty city like Detroit.

Detroit had a residency requirement until 1999, when the state Legislature outlawed it.

Detroit Police have identified 38-year-old Lamar Moore as the man who wounded four officers with a shotgun at a northwest Detroit precinct Sunday.

Officers returned fire, killing Moore. The four wounded officers survived and are doing well.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee says police know one of Moore’s relatives is set to be sentenced for a double homicide, and was also a suspect in another crime.

But Godbee says it’s still too early to speculate about a motive.

“To get into this individual’s mind…I wouldn’t venture to do that. Suffice it to say we still have a lot of investigative work to do.”

Godbee says the department will immediately put metal detectors and other “interim security measures” in precincts.

He says the department will also mount a comprehensive investigation into new security protocols in the wake of the shooting.