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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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When Sheldon Neeley brought some of these facts up months ago some of his colleagues were less than complementary. Goood job Sheldon!
Flint's police officer per resident ratio low compared to other Michigan cities despite rampant crime
Published: Monday, July 25, 2011, 9:00 AM Updated: Monday, July 25, 2011, 11:39 AM
By David Harris | Flint Journal The Flint Journal
Flint Journal file photoFlint Mayor Dayne Walling (right) and police Chief Alvern Lock.
FLINT, Michigan — Once among the state’s leaders in the ratio of police officers to residents, Flint is now near the bottom.
The city, which saw a record-setting 66 homicides in 2010 and is the most violent city in the nation, according to FBI statistics, has just 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents.
That’s the second-lowest among Michigan cities with populations more than 100,000 residents. Only Ann Arbor — a community that ranked 214 out of 269 cities in violent crime, according to FBI statistics — has a lower ratio of police to residents.
Elsewhere in the state, Detroit has four officers for every 1,000 residents, while Grand Rapids and Lansing check in at 1.6 and 1.9 officers per 1,000 residents, respectively, according to a Flint Journal analysis.
Residents don’t need statistics to know that Flint’s remaining 124 police officers are stretched thin.
"It used to be paradise," said Virginia Hutchins, 65, who moved to Flint from Chicago 42 years ago. "When I came here, people weren't even locking their doors. Now you have to put bars on your windows."
After her north-side home caught fire June 22, then was burglarized June 23, Hutchins spent her days waiting outside the boarded-up house for more than two weeks before police were able to get there to take a report.
Hutchins, who was staying in a hotel, was not at the home during third shift, when officers are more likely to have time to take burglary reports. An officer finally came by during daylight hours July 8 to take the report.
"I'm too vulnerable," said Hutchins. "The criminals are the ones running this city and it's just ridiculous.”
As crime has skyrocked in Flint, the number of officers per 1,000 residents has plummeted. In 2008, Flint had 265 officers — 2.26 for every 1,000 residents, or one more cop for every 1,000 residents than today.
“There has to be some direct correlation between the staffing levels and the high crime,” said Flint Police Officers Union President Brian Burdy. “That’s an absolutely absurd staffing level for the violent city in the country.”
Burdy said officers are constantly playing catch up, responding to calls that the overnight crew was unable to get to, and spending all their time answering calls, rather than doing the preventative policing that could cut crime.
But Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said police staffing levels are only one piece of the crime-fighting puzzle and efforts such as making jail space, increased state police patrols and tougher sentences against gun-toting felons will have a stronger impact on crime. Walling has repeatedly said the city, with a deficit of nearly $20 million, has the biggest police force it can afford.
He cited a new policy announced this month that felons caught with guns in Genesee County will be tried in federal court, meaning they’re more likely to get prison time than in the overcrowded state prison system.
“The problem is too many criminals that have been allowed to go loose in the community,” Walling said. “Now, those criminals will be in federal prison.”
Flint police Chief Alvern Lock said he believes the police union just wants its laid-off police officers to return. The department has an ample number of officers, he said.
He said it will take local, state and federal officials to work together to combat crime.
“I don’t think it will do anything but help,” Lock said.
One effect of fewer officers has been drastically slower response times for some police calls.
Responses to highest-priority crimes are 8 percent slower than in 2007. For less-serious Priority 2 and Priority 3 calls, response times have increased by 80 percent and 140 percent, respectively, Walling said.
East-side resident Sheryl Ladd, 61, said she’s called police numerous times as thieves stripped aluminum siding and copper pipes from vacant homes in her neighborhood, but never saw a patrol car.
“They just rode off with everything on their bicycles,” she said of one July 4 incident. “I was hoping they would go and catch them so it would scare them a little. If we can get the kids when they are young, they won’t want to do (crime) because they would be too scared.”
Ladd said she and a neighbor confronted a group of men stealing scrap metal from a vacant home about a month ago. The group became hostile, and Ladd and her neighbor threatened to call police. But the thieves just ignored them and continued taking the scrap metal.
“They said police aren’t going to do anything about it because there are no guns involved,” she said. “The idea that they are so bold bothers me.”
A national expert on police staffing levels recommends that police staffing levels should be based on the number of calls a city police department receives, rather than on population.
Peter Bellmio, a Annapolis, Md., consultant, who has analyzed police staffing levels for police departments in Seattle and Los Angeles, said departments need to have enough officers to handle the volume of calls and be responsive to minor calls by setting up appointments with residents.
That can help a department become proactive, rather than simply reacting to calls, Bellmio said.
“If they don’t have the time (for community policing), there’s a lot of research that says the community really suffers,” he said.
Staff Writer Khalil AlHajal contributed to this report. |
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Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:24 am |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Sheldon does a great job, I have a lot of respect for him.
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:21 pm |
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