Chapter 8: Safety in the City

Detroit has combined advanced technology with community partnerships, creating trackable progress, cutting crime up to 83%, shortening EMS response times and setting a national example with its Real-Time Crime Center. Detroit is defining a safe city.

How Detroit Flipped the Script on Crime, Light, and Emergency Response

In 2013, emergency response took nearly half an hour. More than 40% (of 88,000) street lamps were out. Residents were wary and visitors only came to the city for the ruin porn tours.

Fast Forward to the summer of 2024. Detroit has become a national model for measurable crime reduction and is among the nation's fastest emergency responses.

Its transformation to a safer city required policy change focused on technology integration and community buy-in to sustain the gains. So how does a city go from living in the dark and virtually dead last in response time to safer communities and some of the fastest EMS services in the nation? Here is how Detroit turned things around.

"We know that the world is watching. And that when we get it right here, we're going to lay the foundation and standard, to be able to give that blueprint to the rest of the country."

— Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison, ShotStoppers program leader

Detroit's Community-Led Approach to Gun Violence Stops the Cycle

Community-led partnerships have been crucial to Detroit's transformation

Detroit needed a targeted approach to reduce violence within the neighborhoods and to continue building alliances with the residents. In the summer of 2023, the DPD created the groundbreaking ShotStoppers initiative, a $10 million American Rescue Plan Act program that operates in six zones across Detroit. As part of the Shotstoppers initiative, six Community Violence Intervention(CVI) groups formed, focusing on intervening with high-risk individuals those already involved in violence—using data-driven approaches to identify hotspots and at-risk populations.

The CVI program relies on community partnership, emphasizing collaboration with local organizations, community leaders and residents to build trust and create a unified, supportive environment to address the root causes of violence.

Community Violence Interrupters Becomes National Model

Detroit People's Community members engage with residents as part of the ShotStoppers initiative

Building trust through consistent community presence

Part of the CVI success rests in their comprehensive services to at-risk residents, including access to education, employment opportunities, mental health services and other support resources to help individuals transition away from violent behavior and improve their quality of life.

"Everybody we've seen die, every mother that we've seen cry, every balloon that goes up in the sky, every shirt that got pressed with our family members on it, it ain't in vain. We've got a purpose now."

— Dujuan Zoe Kennedy, ForceDetroit Mentor

Detroit Dollars Drive Crime Prevention and Resolution

Detroit Invests in Technologies to Lower Crime Rates and Increase Safety

In 2016, Detroit launched its $10 million Real-Time Crime Center. Funded through municipal bonds, the high-tech center monitors and analyzes live surveillance footage from sources such as Project Green Light cameras.

The Project Green Light initiative involves businesses installing high-definition cameras, enhanced lighting and signage with a flashing green light to signal participation. These cameras are directly connected to the Detroit Police Department's (DPD) Real-Time Crime Center for live monitoring

Real-Time Crime Center Operations

Detroit's Real-Time Crime Center monitors thousands of cameras across the city in real-time

The Real-Time Crime Center employs 60 staff members, including crime analysts and intelligence specialists. It houses a 32-by-9-foot video wall for real-time monitoring. Detroit's ShotSpotter is an acoustic gunshot detection system deployed across select precincts to instantly identify and gunfire locations, enabling police to respond faster and more accurately to shooting incidents. Also, the DPD turned its attention to the neighborhoods. Police officers needed to form meaningful relationships within Detroit's communities in order to build lasting change. These partnerships required visionary planning. Their neighborhoods were littered with blighted properties, their cars were being stolen and they didn't feel safe walking down their sidewalks. Additionally, the community's trust in the police force was at a historical low.

Rebuilding from Within: How Detroit Reshaped Emergency Response

In July 2021, Mayor Mike Duggan, Fire Commissioner Eric Jones and the Detroit Fire Fighters Association (DFFA) ratified a transformative five-year labor agreement covering 1,118 firefighters and EMTs.

This blend of policy, compensation, training and leadership elevated Detroit's emergency response—establishing the city as a national model for rapid, efficient public safety services.

Detroit Fire Department's rapid response has become a national model

Moving to a City where Everyone Feels Safe

Detroit transformed into a national model for public safety through strategic leadership, expanded police ranks and deep community partnerships. Detroit's safety efforts have influenced the city with four measurable outcomes.

'Mental Health Crisis' Officer Training

In pursuit of balanced, calming response and crisis de-escalation training, the Detroit-Wayne Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) partnered with the DPD on community wellness education, crisis resolution, de-escalation techniques and connecting individuals to community-based services.

The team—wearing bespoke uniforms signifying their distinction from the DPD police force uses mobile crisis service vans to provide therapeutic behavioral health support, which assist the police, 911 dispatchers and homeless outreach workers when responding to mental health calls.