Despite crime being down, Ann Arbor officials say cuts to police department must be avoided
Crime in Ann Arbor dropped 7 percent last year, continuing a long-term trend Mayor John Hieftje says proves the city is becoming safer.
"Crime tends to be coming down in a pretty definite trend," Hieftje said. "Overall, the trend is down 15 percent since 2003."
Police Chief Barnett Jones addresses the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
The Ann Arbor Police Department released unofficial year-end crime statistics for 2009 this week, showing a total of 3,182 crimes in eight major categories: murder, assault, arson, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, robbery and rape.
In 2008, the total for those crimes was 3,429, according to official statistics reported by the FBI.
Violent crimes came down by 18 percent from 2008, while property crimes came down 6 percent.
Another trend: The number of police officers in the city has been declining for the last decade. But city officials say that trend can't continue.
Police Chief Barnett Jones said the number of sworn police officers has dropped from 216 to 124 since 2000. He told the Ann Arbor City Council this week that any further staffing cuts could have serious consequences.
Specifically, he said, it could hinder proactive policing methods that have helped solve crimes in neighborhoods - like a rash of burglaries on the Old Northwest Side officers investigated and put a stop to this past fall.
"If we lose those police officers, I may lose my proactive ability to do things like that," Jones said.
Crime statistics for the city of Ann Arbor. The figures for 2002 through 2008 are official statistics reported by the FBI. The 2009 figures are preliminary and were reported by the police department.
The city's ability to maintain adequate police services dominated the discussion Monday when the City Council met for another budget session. The city is trying to close the gap on a $5.2 million deficit in the general fund for next fiscal year. Because public safety makes up half the general fund, police and fire services face the largest cuts.
"Obviously with any reduction, it's going to impact how responsive or proactive we'll be able to be," said Deputy Chief John Seto. "That's what the chief is talking about, and obviously everyone is concerned about what's going to happen."
The police department already has $3.8 million in savings worked into its fiscal year 2010-11 budget due to cutbacks last year - mostly by eliminating vacant positions and offering early retirements. The city offered buyouts to officers and expected 18 to go, but 24 took the offer, along with two dispatchers.
The department needs to trim an additional $1.98 million from its $26.5 million budget to meet a 7.5 percent reduction all departments were asked to make.
In the police department, that means the potential elimination of another 17 positions by laying off nine sworn police officers and cutting seven positions in the community standards division and one management assistant.
"I totally stand behind what the chief said the other night: We can't afford to lose any police officers," Hieftje said Wednesday, adding he can't recall Ann Arbor ever laying off a police officer and he doesn't want to start now.
Still, he said, layoffs in the police department aren't off the table.
An Ann Arbor patrol car sits outside city hall this week.
Ryan Stanton | AnnArbor.com
"Like other cities in Michigan, we have tough decisions to make," he said. "Safety services has been growing as a percentage of our general fund budget. We will again look to other areas and do our best to minimize cuts in safety services, but it is very difficult to control costs if you put 50 percent of the budget off the table. It would not surprise me if there were layoffs in the police department this budget year."
The jobs of hundreds of police officers are on the line all across Michigan as communities are hit hard with the realities of a bad economy. The city of Troy asked residents to approve a 1.9-mill tax increase on Tuesday, but voters defeated it by a 12,631-7,316 margin. About 47 officers are slated to lose their jobs now.
Voters in nearby Bloomfield Township approved a 1.3-mill public safety millage by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin, which will keep fire and police services safe from cuts for now.
Jones told Ann Arbor council members on Monday he's spent the last three years and seven months shifting officers around to keep an adequate number patrolling the city's streets. But he says he's running out of bodies to reassign.
The last official comparison of crime statistics between Ann Arbor and other Michigan cities was reported by the Michigan State Police for the first half of 2009. According the figures, Ann Arbor is the second safest of the seven largest cities in Michigan, trailing only Sterling Heights, where Jones used to work.
Ann Arbor had only a fraction of the crime that communities like Lansing, Flint and Grand Rapids experienced.
Deborah Cauffiel, neighborhood watch coordinator for the Ann Arbor Police Department, said residents can help keep the city safe by playing an active role in deterring crime.
"I would hope that people, on their own, would see the need in that, whether or not there's cuts," she said. "Either way, we like to encourage people to become involved in the neighborhood watch program. It's just a good thing all around."
Cauffiel said she works with more than 300 residents who serve as "block captains" for neighborhood watch groups. Each of them represents about 10 to 15 homes on average.
Residents can get a neighborhood watch group started by contacting Cauffiel at (734) 794-6900, ext. 49346.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.
Comments
KJMClark
Sat, Feb 27, 2010 : 10:03 a.m.
... And burglary. For the US, from 2007 to 2008, the rate change per 100,000 was +1.2. For the Northeast, +2.5; midwest +.9; south +2.1; west -1.5. Michigan's change was -1.0, our subregion change was +2.2. So the burglary rate in Michigan was down compared to the nation, our region, and our subregion as well. Maybe most of the thieves moved to Ohio and Illinois? But this website (http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/micrime.htm), which says it's data are from the FBI, shows the 1960 to 2008 figures. (The 2008 figure for burglary matches the FBI value, at least. This is the total number of crimes, not the rate.) 1975 was the peak year in this series for burglary, and has dropped by more than half since then.
KJMClark
Sat, Feb 27, 2010 : 9:39 a.m.
So let's look at robbery. For the US, from 2007 to 2008, the rate change per 100,000 was -1.5. For the Northeast, +.5; midwest -.6; south -2.3; west -2.6. Michigan's change was -2.7, our subregion change was +.3, mostly because of increases in Illinois and Ohio. So the robbery rate in Michigan was down compared to the nation, our region, and our subregion as well. The FBI's report doesn't break the data down further. Their statement on populations for the "per 100,000" rate reads: "For the 2008 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2000 decennial population counts and 2001 through 2007 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agencys rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2007 Census population estimate to derive the agencys 2008 population estimate." So they are attempting to adjust to current populations, but it's not as good as an actual count.
Gill
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 : 4:44 p.m.
Nothing left to steal in Michigan...
Dalouie
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 : 10:41 a.m.
I think the larceny category is made up of things like shoplifting, breaking into a car, etc. Burglary is when they break into your home. I have heard that university towns have more burglaries than other places because the students don't lock their doors and people walk in and take their stuff. Students also walk around in the middle of the night with their headphones on after 6 beers... Easy targets. I agree with Awakened, it does not seem like larceny or theft of any sort would be down around SE Michigan.
tdw
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 : 10:35 a.m.
When my father was a A2 cop he never mabe it past Lt ( he had 30yrs in )because the would'nt play policts(sorry can'nt find the right spelling on my spell ace) and stood up for his officers. In on case he got into trouble for refusing to write up a officer.He told a Capitian that if he ( the Capitian )wanted to have the officer writen up he would have to do it himself ( the Capitian )
Awakened
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 : 9:47 a.m.
Larcenies have dropped more in Michigan than anywhere else? Why do I smell a statistical problem? Rate is based on number of crimes per 100,000 people. Are they using the 2000 census figures? If they haven't figured in the decrease in population it would artificailly lower the state figures. Shouldn't make any difference to the Ann Arbor figures. I don't think A2 has had any loss of population.
Ming Bucibei
Fri, Feb 26, 2010 : 1:05 a.m.
cut spending; cut everything, cut cut cut cut road patrols to the bone live within the taxpayers means NO NEW TAXES!! ming bucibei
KJMClark
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 11:36 p.m.
Ok, so I did some digging. The FBI has all of this crime information, but they only have the semiannual (through June) report out for 2009. So I went back to 2008, specifically Table 4 from "2008 Crime in the United States" (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_04.html). I'm only looking at the category "Larceny", which seems to be legal jargon for theft. I'm guessing that's someone stealing your stuff when you aren't around. So for 2008 compared to 2007, nationally there was a tiny decrease in the rate (-.5 per 100,000) of larceny. The rate was basically unchanged in the south, rose substantially in the Northeast (+3.5), decreased in the West (-1.5), and decreased the most in the midwest (-2.7). We're in the east north central subregion, which saw larceny decrease by 1.8/100k. Of the states in our subregion, the change varied from -.8 in IL to -3.5 in Michigan. So the rate of larcenies dropped more in Michigan in 2008 than in the rest of the country, the rest of our region, and the rest of the states around us. I'll try and wade through this some more when I'm not falling asleep at my keyboard :-0
Workin for A2
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 7:45 p.m.
@ Dalouie...there is a competive process to become a Sgt. and same for Sgt. to Lt. While it is frustrating to see so many command officers (21) in ration to line level officers (99)...they would have to lay off the 9 line level officers before any demotions could take place...
Dalouie
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 4:35 p.m.
Awake: I bet the advancement in rank isn't because of merit but is based on seniority. That aside any jobs the city cuts would mean the lowest seniority people would go first. Some of the higher ranked would have to go on the streets but they would retain their high pay. Another reason the retirement idea was a good one and I remember it had a fairly short payback period.
Awakened
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 3:04 p.m.
@steve339. The city budgeted for 18 but ran over budget. Suprised?
Awakened
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 2:55 p.m.
I've been following the police cuts. Chief Jones has kept the response units at the same level up to now. He has cut everyone but road cops and investigators. So response time should be the same. Laying off 9 will now cut into that. So in the article he indicates that he will have to cut 'services' like responding to car crashes so that the units can still respond to emergencies quickly. Think about what services you want to lose. Having said that I still dont understand why we have almost a third of the PD in supervisory positions (according to the published positions)and why if we are cutting 9 of the supervised there is no plan to cut ANY additional supervisors.
Sarcastic1
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 1:17 p.m.
I believe the police and fire departments will always respond quickly to emergency calls, regardless of the staffing levels. Delayed responses will become an issue for service requests that are not emergencies. The question is: How long do you want to wait for an officer to respond to your home after you discovered it was broken into and your property is missing? Response times will most certainly increase with additional staff reductions. You may have to wait 1 - 2 hours before an officer is available to check your house and complete a report. I personally would find waiting 2 hours unacceptable. I called the police recently regarding a vagrant issue. I waited 30 minutes and didn't feel that was too long.
Griffen
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 12:19 p.m.
First, cuts to education and now to basic civil services?! Is A2 trying to get rid of people? Because it's working!
Dalouie
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 12:12 p.m.
Steve: The people who retired would have been the highest paid upper echelon. As I remember reading about it the chief wanted to keep the patrol officers on the street and reduce the number of officers and sargent's behind desks. I bet they were happy to see that many of the high salaries go, it shortens the payback period and it was a lot better than laying off the officers who are actually out on the streets.
steve339
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 11:39 a.m.
Like Awakened said in the first comment. Let's get rid of the Fire Department and we'll have no fires either.
steve339
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 11:38 a.m.
"The city offered buyouts to officers and expected 18 to go, but 24 took the offer, along with two dispatchers." Does this mean that the City was only planning for 18 to leave early and didn't have a plan in place in case ALL the eligible people left?
Dalouie
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 10:55 a.m.
Reading this article, it is clear that crime remains well under control in Ann Arbor. It seems to me that the city has done a good job handling the budget without raising taxes. It should not be a surprise that a city in Michigan is struggling, they all are. If anything A2 is in better shape than most and that's with 43% of the land as non-taxable.
baker437
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 10:21 a.m.
Does anyone know what AAPD's response time is specially to thing like violent crime or home invasion? It would be interesting to see how or if this has change over the past few years.
Awakened
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 10:19 a.m.
The aging of the population is a major issue in the drop in crime. The other is the incarceration rate and the change to giving repeat offenders mandatory time w/o parole. @in4mation. I agree that the scaremongering over poverty generating crime is overblown. I don't believe that an otherwise law abiding person who loses their job simply decides to suddenly go bonking people on the head with a bat to take their money. Or... John Dillenger didn't rob banks because it was during the depression. It just happened to be the depression when he was robbing banks. The war on poverty has its own rewards. All studies show that serious criminals commit serial crimes. And multiple types of crimes. As Captain D said the danger is if we start letting crooks out on the streets to save money in the prison system.
CaptainD
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 9:32 a.m.
If what Gov Granholm has threatened to do, releasing thousands of "non-violent felons" from our state prisons, you will definitely see the crime statistics rise. Even in the best economic times, the prison system is a revolving door. When the lawbreaker does not respect the basic tenets of living in a civilized society AND doesn't fear the consequences of breaking the rules and being apprehended/punished, chaos will result. Our goal should be to "harden the target" in our community, through citizen involvement, neighborhood watch participation, AND an adequate Police department. The criminal isn't going to "see the light" and all of a sudden become a productive member of society... Our goal should be to make him go some place other than Ann Arbor to commit his crimes. As the prison population is emptied back on the streets, with fewer staff to monitor those on parole, this is definitely not the time to reduce the number of police officers available to protect us.
Fred&Barney
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 9:18 a.m.
"growing as a percentage" This because they have robbed the general fund for all of their pet projects, earmarks and pigeon hole accounting. Remember the buckets, if you take all of the funding out of the general fund and hide it elsewhere, the percentage to fund the safety services grows. All part of the evil master plan.
Awakened
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 9:16 a.m.
They are 50% of the General Fund. All the other money you pay in taxes are in "untouchable" other buckets. The other buckets have multiplied over the last decade or so. Also, the Federal government has cut back on grants, as has the state. For several years last decade the townships raised their public safety millages to compensate. That means that now Superior Township (for example) is able to cut its public safety millage to help the folks in hard times. Having built and paid for the infrastructure. Ann Arbor, however, just kept spending on other things so now they are out of money.
Bridget Bly
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 9:11 a.m.
Awakened: thanks for the smile. There have been some really interesting articles on exactly this drop in crime over the past 20 years, one very recently in the NY Times. The Freakonomics theory was mentioned, as was the high per capita incarceration rates, a generally aging population ("Strongest impact on crime? 30th birthdays"), better policing, others... It's definitely not AA or Michigan -- it's nationwide.
halflight
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 8:53 a.m.
The police chief and the mayor's quotes in this story confuse me. Chief Barnett said: the number of sworn police officers has dropped from 216 to 124 since 2000. Yet Mayor Hieftje said: "Safety services has been growing as a percentage of our general fund budget. We will again look to other areas and do our best to minimize cuts in safety services, but it is very difficult to control costs if you put 50 percent of the budget off the table." If the city has reduced the number of sworn police officers by 42% since 2000, why has the public safety budget continued to rise as a portion of the general fund? You can't tell me that city revenues have dropped that much.
KJMClark
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 7:50 a.m.
Is anyone else puzzled by the drop in crime around here over the past decade? Supposedly it's not just here, though clearly we're experiencing less crime than other Michigan cities. I think it was Freakonomics that suggested it might be due to abortion, which would reduce the number of children born to families that weren't ready for kids. It seems like that effect would have disappeared by now. There are a few missing pieces of information that would help. Are the listed types of crime rising or falling nationally? In the midwest? In Michigan overall? In the other large Michigan cities? It points out that we're the second safest, but are crimes trending down in those other cities as well? Without knowing that, I'd have to give the full credit to our police department. Under Chief Jones and former Chief Oates, and due to the terrific work of officers over the years, I assume that Ann Arbor has developed a reputation as a town where criminals go to get caught. OTOH, that explanation doesn't make as much sense for violent crime. Given the Michigan economy, I'm expecting crime to increase at some point. Until there's a good explanation for why it isn't, I have to assume it's just lagging and will eventually rise. So either the police are doing a great job, the crime wave hasn't picked up yet, or some big social change has reduced crime. Until we know it's the third reason, we shouldn't consider reducing the police staff if we can afford it.
Awakened
Thu, Feb 25, 2010 : 7:27 a.m.
Actually if you get rid of the police department entirely the crime rate will drop to zero. Crime rate = Reported crime.