Detroit Police Department Divides Into New Districts

[seamusg]

A new restructuring plan for the Detroit Police Department went into effect Monday morning, with changes to precincts.

The department's 12 precincts are now divided into six districts: central, southwestern, northeastern, western, eastern and northwestern, Local 4 reported. The restructuring plan, led by Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings in an attempt to save the city $20 million, went into effect at midnight.

Local 4 reported the following districts would replace the former precincts:

* Central District: Former first and 13th precincts.
* Southwestern District: Former second and third precincts.
* Northeastern District: Former seventh and 11th precincts.
* Western District: Former 10th and 12th precincts.
* Eastern District: Former fifth and ninth precincts.
* Northwestern District: Former sixth and eighth precincts.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/wdiv/20050926/lo_wdiv/2959736

 

[MacombMonitor]

Any way they slice it, there is still not enough bread! :lol:

 

[Combustion]

What did we have before for districts:
1,2,3 together
2,10 together
6,8 together
11,12 together
13,7 together
5,9 together

So, they combined the fourth with the third to eliminate the extra precinct. They have six new "districts", but they had six before. The former Detroit system was very logicially laid out by good tactical people many years ago. The precinct borders and districts (pairings of precincts) used boundrys, mostly man made, as borders where the would be a tendency to inhibit fleeing suspects, while pairing up areas that had long connecting borders under the same dispatcher. I see noimprovement with the new plan. I cannot see the rationale where the announcment saves money other than closing buildings. If you are going to close a precinct that's fine, but if you look at the pairings it could have done and left the districts alone. Its along way from the second precinct (a newer building in a really rough area) to the third which is, where they are going to be coming from now. The 10th is a lot closer but I guess the cars can drive by and wave on their way up Livernois, or take I-96 out to their territory. More transit time, less patrol time. Less utilization of resources.

They save some money closing buildings but the rest of it is just smoke and mirrors as far as I am concerned. This is the same kind of joke as when they went to the trial 12 hour shifts a while ago, they didn't have enough cars for all of the officers, so staff had to hang around waiting for a car. In the meantime, the word is put out to the press that they are making great strides taking a bite out of crime.

Let's face it with high crime Detroit handles more radio traffic and communicates better within itself (between districts) than any other department around. They have a strong central dispach with proper protocals established for the business at hand. Maybe they can mess that up to save some more money too.

I guess I feel better now!

 

[seamusg]

Maybe they can mess that up to save some more money too.

I guess I feel better now!

I bet they will. Feel better where you live.

 

[MetalManMI]

Its along way from the second precinct (a newer building in a really rough area) to the third which is, where they are going to be coming from now.

In some instances, yes...the responding officers may be coming all the way from the station to a run...but in most cases, the location of the station has no bearing on response time since officers respond from the last run in their assigned area.

 

[Combustion]

In some instances, yes...the responding officers may be coming all the way from the station to a run...but in most cases, the location of the station has no bearing on response time since officers respond from the last run in their assigned area.

I agree 100%. Once the cars are out there it will be business as usual. Just certain districts will have longer transit time from precinct to patrol district. This will cause more time to be used for anything that demands a car come back to the precinct. Usually that is for prisoner lockups, cars called out of service for picking up prisoner's prescriptions, other errands for the precinct ,and the beginning and ending of a shift. Now, if the precinct errand list for two precincts is combined into one car run, they have a better utilization of labor. That is kind of the info I look for in the news announcement of something like this.