I have noticed a great divide between our politicians and our neighbors. The nice thing about social media sites like Nextdoor.com and Ring Neighbors.com is that we are virtually coming out of our homes to talk with one another. But I think it is noticeable that the politicians are not listening to what citizens are discussing.

Yes we are definitely on our own. Detroit Police Department PR folks just made a post on Nextdoor.com tooting their own horn about some black market marijuana busts they made. One person commented that their car had been stolen 3 times in the past 8 months and his new auto insurance premiums are more than the cost of the marijuana Detroit Police recovered. The person’s post mysteriously disappeared from the thread. I guess the Detroit Police Department didn’t like their PR questioned.

I read Nextdoor.com community comments on crime. I notice the crime stats via Neighbors.com in my area and I look at a post from Detroit Police Department PR saying they aim to “… improve the quality of life for residents in the city of Detroit”. I just SMDH. I don’t believe we are seeing the crime enforcement we should. I never see DPD patrolling our neighborhoods. They just want us to set up citizen patrols and be paid cents on a mile for gas. What’s worst is that none of our elected politicians are addressing the increased crime we are seeing in our area.

Being watchful of our fellow residents is a good thing. Neighborhood patrols can be a good thing. But let’s not take our mind off the fact that we pay our income and property tax dollars to the city expecting a certain level of police protection. As we all heard, our property values have gone up in this area and our property taxes will go up at least by the state’s 2% requirement. There is money for the quality of police protection we need. However, we must take time to focus our politicians on the tasks of 1) Better management of the budget they have to make crime a priority, 2) Focus the budget on residential patrols, 3) Better resource management so we have police actually on our residential streets. 4) Bring the rates of the traffic violations, car theft and property theft down in our area in order to keep our auto insurance and home insurance from going up via “redlining with crime data”.

These are macro issues that if addressed would provide a higher return on investment in our community. If we focus the city’s resources on crime in our area, residents would feel comfortable going to the businesses on Livernois and other areas. The commerce would increase and more small businesses would want to enter our area. The increased economic base would give more funding to the city. We just need our politicians and residents to be more targeted in what we ask for in order to improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit.