White House official praises Detroit police for using Rescue Plan Act to reduce crime

The White House’s top domestic policy official touted the Detroit Police Department as a national model in using American Rescue Plan Act funds for tools to reduce crime, and city leaders say the investments have helped reduce violent crimes.

Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden visited police headquarters Wednesday to see a helicopter and scout cars purchased by the department, as well as the Real Time Crime Center. During a tour of the equipment with Tanden, Chief James White said the vehicles are used by the department’s code enforcement team and civilian employees who respond to low-level, “quality of life” oriented calls for service and have the ability to do some writing. quotes.

The Real Time Crime Center allows the department to monitor live information, such as information from ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system used in some parts of Detroit, and surveillance footage from Project Green Light, a partnership with private companies and residential property owners.

“Detroit has really led the way in using those dollars effectively,” Tanden said during a news conference Wednesday. She said the Real Time Crime Center is “doing truly groundbreaking work … to ensure that the DPD has the best-trained police force in the country.”

Detroit has spent about $28.2 million of the $48.8 million in ARPA funds it received for public safety, according to a dashboard on the city’s website.

Mayor Mike Duggan said at the news conference that in 2023 the city had the lowest recorded number of homicides, 252, since 1966.

He pointed to the use of newly installed cameras on highways to capture drive-by shootings when perpetrators committed shootings outside the range of city surveillance cameras. Duggan also said police have started using their helicopter to detect and stop illegal racing as an alternative to dangerous high-speed chases to arrest drivers. As a result, drag racing and drifting are down significantly from two summers ago, he said.

“You saw very little last summer. We change behavior through tactics,” Duggan said.

However, metrics that serve as indicators of crime are often inaccurate measures of actual crimes. Data sources such as calls for service, arrests, and police reports are influenced by a variety of factors other than the actual number of crimes committed, such as police resources, priorities, and willingness to report crime.

White said the department is looking at “a little bit of everything” to understand what seems to be happening with crime.

“We know that if we use the data to tell us where we need to be at any given time, we have a higher rate of success, which allows us to get a commitment that can potentially change behavior,” White said. “We do not have to make the arrest, but we look at the data daily.”

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