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Belle Isle State Park. (Yelp photo by Tracie M.)
It's the law of nature. Squeeze off illegal activity in one spot and it's likely to pop up in another.
After Michigan State Police took over patrolling Belle Isle in February 2014, and stepped up enforcement, illegal activity that had flourished on the island has spilled over to Detroit’s other parks, reports George Hunter of The Detroit News. The city has more than 300 parks of varied sizes.
Last month, Detroit Police Chief James Craig resurrected a dedicated park unit, after disbanding a similar squad he launched in 2013. The idea is to drive out the criminal activity, which includes drugs and fighting.
“As soon as the state took over Belle Isle, we found people were going to Rouge Park and other places to act a fool," Craig says. "We put a park unit in place, but because of manpower issues I decided to try to put park enforcement back to the precincts.
"But that didn’t work out," he said. “It was my decision to disband the unit. But it wasn’t a good decision, so I went back to a dedicated park patrol.”
The new unit has stepped up park enforcement, the chief says. “So now they can’t go to Belle Isle and they don’t want to deal with our park unit, so I don’t know where they’re going to go,” Craig adds.
