DETROIT (WXYZ) — After last year's achievement of reaching the lowest number of homicides since the 1960s, the city of Detroit is touting an even better summer, showing homicides and non-fatal shootings are again trending downward.
As summer winds down, the trend could be a sign that the city will hit yet another milestone not reached in decades. However, officials and community members say there’s still too much violence and more work to be done.
Related video: Violent crime in Detroit down this summer compared to 2023: US attorney
The 9th Precinct on the city’s east side is one of the most violent areas in all of Detroit, according to law enforcement. It's also one of the areas targeted this summer by the One Detroit Partnership, with a goal of reducing crime.
Inside Heilman Recreation Center, U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison highlighted those efforts to community members, hoping to set the record straight that despite multiple headlines of violence this summer, overall crime numbers are down.
“I know you feel like crime is up — it’s not," Ison said during her presentation. "You hear about violent crime every single day, but I'm here to tell you violent crime is down. But it's still not down enough and we still have work to do.”
According to Ison's presentation, as of Labor Day, homicides in Detroit are down 21% compared to the same time in 2023. 2023 also marked the lowest homicide rate in the city since 1966. Non-fatal shooting were also down in the city compared to 2023.
“The numbers are impressive and I'm grateful for them, but we still have a lot of work to do,” resident Sandra Turner-Handy said.
Turner-Handy has called the 9th Precinct home for 30 years and says crime had progressively gotten worse, but now residents are removing blight and keeping watch. She is president of the 9th Precinct Community Relations Council and says they've organized 25 new block clubs just this year alone.
“We're organizing people because we want to make sure it's sustainable," Turner-Handy said. "That neighbors will say: not on my block, you need to take that somewhere else, not here.”
“I used to hear a lot of gunfire, a lot of gunfire. Anytime day or night," 9th Precinct resident Michelle Goss said. "I must say in the last two years, it has not been as frequent.”
Goss joined her local block club that just launched six months ago.
"I think a block club is really key to letting people who might want to come on your block to do something wrong to let them know people are watching,” Goss said.
She was thrilled to learn at the meeting that in less than a year, more than 30 illegal guns that had been used in crimes were taken off her neighborhood streets.
“That's real key for me because I have six grand kids — five boys and one girl, everybody under 9," Goss said. "So I worry about their safety. I wanna make sure they’re going to be OK.”
While residents say the results are promising, they aren’t celebrating, saying the same efforts must continue.
“Numbers are good, it’s going down, but one shooting is one shooting too many,” Turner-Handy said.
"The mere fact that gun violence is down, you don't hear that,” Goss said. “I can tell the difference. I really can.”
Another community meeting will also be held next week in the 8th Precinct.
