Detroit Free Press, January 19, 2011

Require police and firefighters to live in the city?


In the late 1970s, a time when city residency was required, I was a Detroit police officer. In 1980, after being laid off from the department, I joined the Los Angeles Police Department. In California, residency requirements are forbidden. I served the LAPD until my retirement. I now live, by choice, in the heart of Detroit.

From my personal experience, forced residency breeds resentment. It also hinders recruiting and retention. Precious resources get wasted on officers spying on other officers to make certain they actually live in the city.

Residency requirements divert attention from what our city leaders should be doing: making Detroit an attractive place to live. And a major component of making Detroit an attractive place to live should be a responsive, professional, efficient, aggressive and accountable police department. In spite of the efforts of many fine, dedicated officers, we don't have that kind of police department.

In spite of inferior, often nonexistent city services, I moved back to Detroit to participate in what I believe will be an urban renaissance without peer. Forced residency for police officers would be a return to the old ways that didn't work.

Thomas E. Page, Detroit