|
Building Bridges - Volume III, Number 2, 2004
An APRI Focus Interview: Community Prosecution in Wayne County, Michigan
Wayne County, Michigan, home to Detroit, is by far the largest county in Michigan.
It is also home to almost half of all Michigan’s convicted offenders. With more than half of paroled offenders returning there after prison, Wayne County has the highest rates of murder, robbery, and aggravated assaults in Michigan. However, Detroit has recently received national attention for its lower crime rates, and legal authorities predict that soon, on a pro rata scale, Wayne County will be as safe as any other county in the state. Detroit’s 30 percent drop in homicide rates in 2003 put it on pace to end the year with its lowest total homicides since the 1960s.1 Shootings are down by 40 percent, and all other major crime categories have decreased by 10 percent.2 Detroit residents and law enforcement authorities credit a new community-oriented prosecutorial approach focusing on lower-level crimes such as prostitution, deadbeat parents, graffiti, low-level drug dealing, and abandoned or run-down buildings as one of the determinative factors behind the city’s lower crime rates.
Wayne County’s community prosecution approach entails faster response times to crimes and an emphasis on enforcing quality-of-life offenses. By aggressively prosecuting crimes formerly considered to be minor and even dispensable, Detroit’s law enforcement community is sending a strong message to the community that all crime will be prosecuted. According to former Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Michael E. Duggan, “The message out there has been that law enforcement is not in charge. Now we have the bad guys looking over their shoulder.”
Interagency Collaboration
As with any successful community prosecution program, there must be collaboration between the prosecuting attorney and the police department, and Detroit is no exception. While Detroit Police Command staff credit increased participation by prosecutors early in cases as the key to Detroit’s success, prosecutors praise the police for executing the aggressive approach to crime. When the community prosecution program was first being implemented, the prosecutor’s office joined forces with the police to form action plans that addressed three major areas of crime/concern unique to each of Detroit’s twelve precincts. The prosecutor’s office then went to community groups for approval of these plans.
Community Exposure
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office ensures that the community sees prosecutors in their neighborhoods. Five full-time community prosecutors are assigned to police precincts, and seven part-time community prosecutors split their time between other prosecution units and a precinct. Community prosecutors are available around the clock in all twelve precincts. These prosecutors work directly with community groups and the police department to identify crimes that affect the community. For example, one precinct may be most concerned with larceny and breaking and entering, while another precinct has issues with street-level drug dealing by youth.
The community prosecutors then work with police to focus on the most active community offenders. By having prosecutors work directly in the precincts, prosecutors are able to respond quicker to crimes.
Proactive Community Prosecution Techniques
“We believe that when you do not address the small issues which affect quality of life, then you create a sense of lawlessness in your community and that breeds more serious crime,” Maurice Morton, Chief of Special Operations, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Detroit’s community prosecution approach addresses issues that affect quality of life by targeting (1) houses that are abandoned or used to sell drugs; (2) prostitution; and (3) graffiti artists. First, the prosecutor’s office has been particularly aggressive in its pursuit to rid Wayne County of drug dealers while rebuilding its communities. Community prosecutors, in partnership with the police department and mayor’s office, have initiated the Drug Property Seizure and Abandoned Properties Program to force slumlords to clean up or raze their buildings. The seizure policy has reportedly worked quite well for Wayne County prosecutors; they have litigated and won major cases, thereby setting precedent in the areas of nuisance abatement. Most of the cases they file result in consent agreements in which the landlord agrees to comply with a list of corrective measures. However, community prosecutors have also seized over 600 drug and abandoned houses, selling 80 percent of them on its internet auction site. All monies go into the Wayne County Prosecutor forfeiture account to fund the unit of about 50 staff. In addition, Wayne County has transferred the cost of demolishing blighted properties from the taxpayers to the landlords, saving the city millions of dollars.
Second, community prosecutors have also instituted a very strong response to prostitution. To help deter and punish prostitution offenders, Comcast Cable broadcasts the 30-minute program, Johns TV, which not only shows the names and faces of men convicted in prostitution cases, but also warns of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and teaches prostitutes how to get off the streets. Although there are no statistics to confirm an actual decrease in prostitution traffic, law enforcement has noticed a significant reduction. Early in 2004, prosecutors will also begin enforcing the “peace bond law,” an obscure 1800s law that would require habitual prostitutes to post steep bonds.
Finally, with enhanced investigations and prosecutions of the worst graffiti artists in the city—using investigative subpoenas and a four-person team of police and prosecutors to investigate graffiti cases—prosecutors are sending a clear message that no crime will be tolerated.
Conclusion
By utilizing prosecutors to proactively attack livability crimes in Detroit, Wayne County has made substantial progress toward reducing crime. Through monthly meetings in each precinct with community groups, the local police commander, and the community prosecutor in attendance, the community has grown to support its prosecutors. Community prosecutors work with local schools and churches to spread the word about their tough law enforcement policies. They also meet with the NAACP and other groups to address potentially divisive issues and ensure that their law enforcement approach is not hurting the very communities they are attempting to revive. With neighborhood-specific assistance and unique responses, Wayne County’s community prosecution program serves as a model to other jurisdictions.
For more information about Wayne County’s community prosecution program, please contact Maurice Morton, Wayne County Chief of Special Operations, at (313) 224-5777.
1 Maurice Morton, Chief of Special Operations, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
2 Id.
|
