My Jean Paul Sartre "Hell is Other People" designation is awarded to the entire City of Detroit City Council for its failure to approve a Belle Isle lease agreement with the State of Michigan. The agreement would have resulted in the State of Michigan managing Belle Isle, at no cost to the City, for a 10 year renewable lease. The City of Detroit would have saved over $6 million annually. 

"More cops on the street:" not the answer to crime

Earlier this week, Detroit's Mayor Bing and Acting Chief Chester Logan announced a restructuring of the DPD. The primary restructuring consisted of closing done the gang unit and the Tactical Mobile Unit. The stated purpose was to put "more cops on the street." My letter to the Detroit Free Press is in response to this issue.

Re: Detroit Police Reorganization

Dear Editor:

Believing that putting more "cops on the street" will significantly impact our City's embarrassingly high crime rate is akin to believing that simply having more teachers will make students smarter. Just as it is with teachers in the classroom, it's what the officers do while "on the street" that matters. 

Do we continue with a failed EMS style of policing in which the police role is primarily reactionary, responding to calls for help or service? Or preferably, do we adopt a data-driven problem solving approach in which patrol officers and their supervisors seek out crime and criminals, and are held accountable for implementing strategies, including making arrests, to combat crime in their districts? 

The data-driven approach should also be partnered with so-called "broken-windows" tactics. in which crimes such as vandalism, graffiti, metal scrapping, and traffic violations are given a priority. As a police lecturer once said, criminals drive like criminals. Criminals do "drive-by" shootings, rarely "walk-by" shootings. 

The minor reorganization of the Department announced by Mayor Bing and Acting Chief Logan will have little impact on crime unless it is accompanied by real change in the tactics of patrol officers. Efficient policing has had a huge impact on reducing the crime rate in many U.S. cities. For too long, our city has been the outlier.

Thomas E. Page

A January 14, 2013 article in the Detroit News had the headline that 16% of Detroit murder victims are "visitors." http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130114/METRO01/301140319

Here's my letter to the Detroit News on this stunning misrepresentation.

Dear Editor:

As a veteran of the Los Angeles and Detroit Police Departments, I am a firm believer in accurate and honest crime reporting. But to call 16% of those murdered in Detroit "visitors" is not only misleading, it needlessly hurts our entire community.  Do you call non-Detroit residents who work at the Detroit News visitors? Or perhaps you call them "carpetbaggers?" Am I a "visitor" when I shop in Hamtramck? Of course not. Using the term "visitors" for those who have a primary residence in the suburbs, including Highland Park, Hamtramck, Dearborn, and others, recklessly damages our reputation, and creates the impression that tourists and true visitors to our town are being routinely gunned down.  And that's just not true.

Words matter. And if any institution should know and respect that, it's one of our major daily newspapers. Shame on the Detroit News. 

Thomas E. Page

"Retiring Boomers like college life"

USA Today article, January 15, 2013

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2013/01/14/retirement-community-saving-home/1817793/

This article isn't Detroit specific. In fact, it doesn't mention Detroit at all, save for Detroit's western suburb of Ann Arbor.  Certainly has relevance to our City.  The media constantly tells us how important it is to make our City appealing to young professionals. You know, the creative class. And I totally agree with that. But, I've felt for a long time that Detroit hasn't marketed itself to the retiring baby boomers and empty nesters.  Frankly, one of the reasons I was attracted to living in the Midtown/New Center area was the proximity to Wayne State, CCS, and the many cultural and entertainment options. It really is like living in a college town, but it's a real city too!  And even though I didn't attend Wayne State University (I went to what the South End many years ago referred to as "God's Little Acre" - that Catholic school (University of Detroit) on Livernois and McNichols.), WSU and CCS have become my neighborhood schools! I attend sporting events, cultural events, art exhibitions, and more. I think these schools and others ought to seriously consider building condos on/adjacent to their campuses to attract alums and others who desire to live close to energetic college campuses. 

Letter to the Editors of the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News regarding the Detroit murder rate.

Dear Editor:

Over the past twenty years, most major U.S. cities have achieved dramatic reductions in their crime rates, including the number of homicides.  Detroit is a major exception to this trend. Today, Detroit has a murder rate multiples of the rates in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and most other cities. For example, Los Angeles, a city of approximately 4 million people, has reduced its homicide count to fewer than that of Detroit, a much smaller city.  Not only is Detroit a much smaller city, it covers a much smaller geographic area. In spite of the cutbacks in the Detroit Police Department, Detroit has MORE officers per capita than Los Angeles. 

Yes, the causes of crime are many, and are arguably complex. Regardless, other cities have proven that effective and efficient policing can make a huge difference in the crime rate. The Detroit Police Department's continued response to the crime rate is to complain about a lack of resources, a lack of community support, and to point out underlying social issues about which the Department has little control. Proactive policing, on the other hand, includes a data-driven focus on crimes. It also includes aggressive traffic enforcement which increases the visibility of the police, and the likelihood of criminals actually being caught. 

The City has announced that it is conducting a nationwide search for a new Chief of Police. Clearly, promoting from within the Department's ranks will lead to the same, old, ineffective style of policing. It's past time to bring in a new Chief who has a proven track record of crime reduction.

Thomas E. Page