DETROIT (WXYZ) — $3.1 million is being added to Detroit Police Department's crime prevention unit. The funding is part of the new state public safety plan.
Mayor Mike Duggan and Police Chief James White announced it at a press conference. They say the funds will help to hire a total of 25 additional officers, of which 11 will join the mental health unit, and 14 will join the neighborhood police.
"Today's announcement will take out a contingent from 19 to 30 of our patrol cars that will have mental health responders," said Detroit Mayor Duggan.
"We've responded now to 8,000 mental health runs this year. Last year same time, just under 7,000. So we see these things are here for us to deal with on a daily basis," said Chief James White, Detroit Police Department.
Mike Hashim is the owner of Simone's European Fashions as well as a hookah store. Mike says he deals with folks with mental health issues on a daily basis.
"Within a couple of seconds, things can go wrong. They can pull out a knife. They can pull out a gun. The thing that matters is the response time for 911," said Hashim.
As reported yesterday, the average response time for Detroit Police on a priority run is under 14 minutes.
"We want to get there as quickly as possible, again with a benchmark with the national standard. We have our own policies in place. We have a data set that I monitor on my phone. And anytime we are out of line, there is an immediate reaction as to what occurred," said Chief White.
Meanwhile, with the deployment of new police resources, Mike hopes the impact will be long-term.
"Especially when people want to invest in the city, they look at safety, if there is safety, people are willing to invest," said Hashim.
"The reason why as of today, the homicide in the city is down by 11%. The carjackings in the city are down by 25% from a year ago. It's because we have the resources to address these issues," said Mayor Duggan.
Plus, with the $10,000 pay raise, Detroit Police Recruitment has improved. Mayor Duggan says job vacancies have dropped from 300 in 2022 to 150 this year, and the department hopes the force will be fully staffed by 2024.
