Crime and the Detroit Crime Lab letter. Detroit News, June 22, 2011

Hire new police chief

The double whammies of the release of crime statistics by the FBI and the scandal regarding the Detroit Police Department's former crime lab call in to question the basic competence of the Detroit Police Department ("Flint, Detroit top list of big U.S. cities for violent crime," May 23). Although downtown and midtown are generally safe for residents and visitors, our city as a whole once again leads the nation in serious crime. At the same time, the department's crime lab, which was closed because of incompetence in ballistics testing, was never adequately secured. Chief Godbee's response has been to apologize and acknowledge that he had been given the responsibility to close the lab. If the mayor is serious about revitalizing our city, he should recruit a police chief that has a proven record of driving down crime rates.

Thomas E. Page, Detroit

Letter on Detroit taxes, published June 9, 2011, Detroit Free Press

Taxes are the problem

I'm a returning Detroiter. After 25 years living and working in Los Angeles, I moved back to my hometown of Detroit. I certainly didn't move here because of the excellent city services. For the most part, and with few exceptions, city services aren't even adequate. City departments are rarely even minimally responsive to questions and complaints. In spite of these and other issues, Detroit is an awfully exciting place to be. I believe that those of us who choose to live here may partake in an urban renaissance without peer. The keys to that renaissance are not only the so-called big ideas, such as the Woodward light rail, but the individual, often entrepreneurial, decisions to live, play, work and create here.

Editorial Page editor Stephen Henderson's suggestion that Detroit needs to break its "high-tax habit" is right on the money ("Help Detroit break its high-tax habit," June 5). Even more important than improving city services, the mayor, Council, Wayne County, and the state should embark on implementing a policy of removing the disincentives for people to live and work in Detroit. In my opinion, city taxes and auto insurance rates are the primary disincentives. As Henderson suggests, the city's income tax for both residents and non-residents should be eliminated in gradients over a five-year period. In addition, the city's property tax rate should be pegged at the median for the metropolitan area.

Once the city-tax disincentives are eliminated, the trickle of entrepreneurs, new residents, and jobs will become a flood!

Thomas E. Page

Detroit

Here is the actual letter that was published on June 4, 2011. Talk about severe editing!

 How about a little outrage over the latest FBI crime statistics? Our city again leads the nation in crime. Our murder rate, for example, is 500% greater than the rate in Los Angeles. It’s time to seriously challenge the willingness and capability of the Detroit Police Department to fulfill its stated mission of protecting and serving our city.

   The latest example of incompetence comes from the disgraceful and probably criminal failure to secure the former crime laboratory — which, by the way, was closed because of incompetence in ballistics testing.

   Thomas E. Page

   Retired, Los Angeles Police

   Department