Rising crime-What's being done to reduce it

MID-MICHIGAN (WJRT) -- (11/23/09)--Monday's release of the Flint crime stats and this weekend's deadly shooting in Saginaw has residents and civic leaders in both cities asking what -- if anything -- is being done to fight crime, create safe neighborhoods and entice economic development.

The answer is yes, there are several such efforts underway including one by the Michigan State police.

Mike Brown, the director of the Flint Area Reinvestment Office, and former Saginaw Mayor Joyce Seals not only believe urban revitalization in their respective cities is possible, they say it's already well underway.

"So now, we've had to reinvent ourself, and that has been happening," said Brown.

"A pipedream? Oh no. Never, never," Seals said.

"I think that's what you feel here is a sense of excitement that we haven't felt here in a long, long time," Brown said.

"We won't be the big town like we had with General Motors. But we will improve. I promise you. Because I have the vision for it," Seals added.

Part of that vision, part of the equation, has to do with creating a safe environment --  one that will attract and keep residential, business and commerce in the community. "Certainly crime is a big part of the equation. And I think people want to make sure they're safe. They want to make sure their children's safe," Brown said.

"We've literally had a reduction. One-third of our crime has been reduced. We've had that kind of reduction," noted Seals.

If that's true, both these cities are seeing a reduction in crime. Joyce Seals and Mike Brown say they have the numbers to back it up. Now the question is asked, "How is this happening?" The answer to that lies in a relatively new approach to fighting crime in Flint and Saginaw.

"You know, every step is an investigation. So, we delve into things," said Michigan State Police Sgt. Todd Mapes.

At the request of both cities, on any given day or night, squads of Michigan State Police are on patrol. They are not responding to routine radio calls. Their orders are to be proactive. "The idea is to concentrate resources in those locations where they are experiencing the worst problems, and trying to time them so that they're during the time frames when those incidents are most likely to occur," explained State Police Captain Dan Miller.

Captain Miller says his troopers are doing that by getting back to the basics of law enforcement, which include traffic enforcement, or what many would call "routine" traffic stops.

"Crime is a very mobile phenomenon. People are either en route to or coming from doing a crime. When you make a stop like that, an arrest, you're taking out one of the ingredients, or more, that could develop into a homicide. But it's hard to made that connection. How could this result in that? But it does," Miller said.

"Let them know, so if you owe tickets, if you owe any money to the city, if you've got a warrant out, something that you can take care of, you need to do it now because you are going to be stopped," Seals warned.

"It's much like with your own child. If you tell them to do something and they don't, and there's no consequences, you'll probably never get them to do the right thing again. I mean, there has to be some consequences. They have to learn to be responsible for their own actions," Miller said.

The state police squads have been in Saginaw and Flint for two and three years, respectively.

"Years ago we used to have beat cops who knew everybody, knew everything that was going on in a neighborhood," Miller recalled.

Today, the beat cop is pretty much a law enforcement anomaly. But the methods used by those officers decades ago are now being given a 21st century makeover.  "We have to regain the communication with the community which has been lost over the years," Miller said.

That makeover involves a crime fighting approach within the city limits of Flint and Saginaw that differs from the present day norm, squads of Michigan State Police troopers who are being told to be proactive, not reactive.

"If you don't handle the little things, they turn into big problems," Mapes cautioned. "If we're not able to arrest people on the misdemeanor warrants, driving while suspended, the traffic tickets, those kinds of things, if you let those go it steam rolls into something bigger. "

"It's like we're trying to hold a lid on a pressure cooker. And we're not going to be able to do it. You have to turn the heat off. And the way to turn the heat off is to prevent all this from developing in the first place," said Miller.

That, says Captain Miller, begins on the streets, in the neighborhoods, tackling the seemingly "minor offenses" often neglected or put to the back burner because of dwindling resources.

"We're in there, just proactive. We're not responsible for calls. We go in there and just pull over cars, get guns, get drugs, anything," State Police Sgt. Gerry Fowler said.

Among those in support of this two-year-old initiative in Saginaw is former Mayor Joyce Seals. "We can let you know right up front, in advance, that we're gonna do the stop. But what we're trying to do is find those people who got guns in their car, who like to do these drive-by shootings."

The approach seems to be working. The night we rode with the Flint squad, for example, three felony arrests were made in as many hours. 

Here is how one of those arrests went for Sgt. Mapes. "Well, I've got some bad news for you. You actually got a warrant out for your arrest."

All those arrested in Flint and Saginaw were held accountable in some way. Some had their vehicles impounded.  Others, like this arrest in Saginaw, went for their wallet. "He had the bond money in his pocket, so we let him bond out on the road," Fowler said.

Some were taken to jail, the end result of what is commonly referred to as a "routine traffic stop."

After a trooper's partner noticed marijuana on the passenger seat, consent was given for a vehicle search. After the troopers discovered the marijuana on the passenger seat of the car, the two men in the vehicle were taken back here to the state police post in Flint for further questioning.

Within a matter of a couple of hours, that led to the search of  a house in Flint and the seizure of more drugs and two guns.

"Everybody knows where the 'line in the sand' is now. If you have a warrant, you have to be held responsible. There has to be personal responsibility," Miller warned.

There is an economic upside for the cities of Flint and Saginaw for being responsible, both in the short term and the long term. 

"More and more people are saying 'I want to come downtown again.' And I think there's a real, genuine feeling that Flint is alive, it's changing and it's safe," Brown said.

That now leads us to another method employed by these inner city state police squads.  "One of the tactics that they use on patrol is they typically will go out with a handful of warrants, try to identify where the people are then, during their patrols, we expect them to stop in and knock on doors and to attempt to serve those warrants," said Miller.

Those warrants actually translate into income for cash-starved cities like Flint and Saginaw. Captain Miller cites a price tag of $4 million in total revenue already received.

If you'd like to see more of how the state police deliver those warrants, and the results, we've put together a "Web Extra" for you. Click the link in the related content box, above.

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crime, police, flint, saginaw, local, bill harris

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