Benny Napoleon talks about his five-point plan.
Before a receptive crowd in a church auditorium in northwest Detroit, mayoral candidate Benny Napoleon on Tuesday night unveiled a five-point plan to reduce crime his first term by 50 percent.
It's a Herculean task, and a goal that was questioned by national experts.
“We have been forced to accept crime in Detroit as a way of life and instead of dealing with crime, we have changed our behaviors to accommodate it,” Napoleon said before the crowd of about 100 at the Greater Emanuel Institutional Church of God of Christ at 7 Mile and Schaefer. “Crime has essentially become the new normal.”
“What we’re doing is not working. This new normal is unacceptable.”
Napoleon, who spoke on his 61st birthday, says as Detroit’s police chief, he reduced crime by 34 percent. So 50 percent, he said, is not a goal beyond reach.
The five point plan includes:
- Community Policing, which includes assigning an officer for every square mile of the city to get to know citizens and business people and garner trust.
- Data Driven Approach, which utilizes data to track crime patterns to resolve and deter crime.
- Crime Prevention, which includes teaching residents to reduce the likelihood of becoming crime victims. It also includes neighborhood watch groups.
- Directed Enforcement, which includes deploying extra officers to problem areas to increase enforcement.
- Problem-oriented policing, which includes looking at the city and neighborhood challenges and implementing strategies to address each specific crime-related issue.
“No one’s more determined to fix this than I am,” Napoleon told the crown.
Napoleon expressed skepticism about the new police chief, James Craig, ability to reduce crime. He noted after Craig vowed to make Detroit safer, there was a rash of serious crimes in the city.
“The truth is the chief will never be successful in Detroit until he has a mayor” who has public safety as a top priority, Napoleon said.
After the meeting, Napoleon conceded that homicides are a “sensitive” issue and that he may not be able to reduce them by 50 percent, but he will reduce crime by that figure overall.
“I have demonstrated proficiency in doing that,” Napoleon said. “In 2 1/2 years that my crime-fighting plan was in place in the Detroit Police Department, we dropped crime over 30 percent and we were headed toward that number. I know we can achieve that number because I understand crime and why crime is committed."
The five-point plan is likely to generate enthusiasm among some residents who see crime as the number one issue. But it may also trigger skepticism within and beyond the city limits.
“Fifty percent, that’s laudable but not likely,” said James Fox, a noted professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston. “Detroit is particularly challenging with its socio-economic issues. A 50 percent reduction by just changing police strategies is not a very likely goal.
“With the tax base, does he have the resources to do it? If he can bring down the crime rate by double digits, that would be an accomplishment.”
Besides analyzing data to fight crime, Napoleon’s five point plan relies heavily on some of the very basic police crime-fighting methods, particularly community policing, a practice that has long been used around the country with varying degrees of success.
His one-cop per square mile is a new twist on community policing. It includes cops doing a number of community tasks including fielding complaints and cracking down on blight and graffiti.
“I’m not asking the officers to take care of the whole city,” he told the crowd. “They got one little square mile...Together we will transform the city one square mile at a time.”
Napoleon talked of a major reduction in crime -- 34 percent -- while he was chief from 1998 to 2001. But that may be more challenging this time. If elected mayor, he’d have far few officers in his department. In 2001, while he was still chief, the department had roughly 4,000 officers. By 2011, the number had gone to about 2,770 sworn officers. That figure is even lower now.
Bryan Peckinpaugh, a Napoleon spokesman, said in response to the skepticism of the 50-percent figure that the one square mile plan will also address quality of life issues, which will impact crime. He said Napoleon plans to also unveil a plan to increase jobs in the neighborhoods, which will “also deter crime.”
Even with that, Lawrence Kobilinsky, a professor and chairman of the sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, expressed skepticism of the 50 percent figure.
“I think that sounds outrageous,” he said. “It sounds like an impossible task. I’m just not convinced the crime rate can be reduced by that amount in such a short period of time. Crime is a complicated issue. There are so many factors."
He said some crimes may be easier to reduce than others. He said in Denver, for example, police started using DNA evidence to solve burglaries and it had an impact.
But he said “I don’t hear him proposing that type of thing,” he said. “He should be happy with a crime reduction of 5 percent or 10 percent.”
Napoleon told reporters afterwards that he’s determined to get resources to fight crime. Some of that might involve “scrubbing” the budget to prioritize things.
“Public safety is not an option, we need to affirm this city as a safe city. If we don’t do that you can do anything else. We can build the greatest stadiums, we can build the greatest attractions. But if people don’t feel safe being there, they are not to come or stay. We must take Detroit being a violent city out of the national discussion.”
