With pandemic restrictions easing, and temperatures rising, Detroit police are doubling their efforts to patrol large crowds, and are calling on concerned residents to help the department stop illegal activities this summer.
The Detroit Police Department is deploying additional patrols to prevent street racing, pop-up parties, and other large crowds.
Neighborhoods across Detroit have seen a rise of cars drag racing and drifting during the summer. Sometimes, those activities get posted online, drawing the attention of local law enforcement.
Officials with the Detroit Police Department say they’ve seized nearly 40 vehicles this year. Interim police chief James White says while Detroit is the “Motor City”, drifting and drag racing will not be tolerated.
“We couldn’t go to West Bloomfield and you and I drag race up and down a private street, putting the residents at risk, putting the kids at risk, I don’t accept that," White said.
White says Detroit police have about 150 staff at the real-time crime center monitoring social media for drag racing and drifting in the city.
As a result of the increase in illegal activity, the department has been allotted four-thousand hours of overtime to patrol areas like Greektown and the Riverfront. Police will be ticketing businesses that violate the city’s noise ordinances, like playing music outside after 10-PM.
Assistant Police Chief Dave LeValley says that’s also the time when the department will enforce a curfew on younger residents.
“Anybody that’s 17 and under, where the curfew applies to them, they should not be on the street late hours at night," LeValley said. "Parents have responsibility to make sure that they know where their children are, so we will also be enforcing parental responsibility".
Alia Harvey-Quinn is the director of FORCE Detroit, an organization interfaith, grassroots, and public sector leaders. She says her group is helping with the response.
“After the historic increase in gun violence throughout our city, we know that it will take a unique and vigorous, huge partnership with the community in order to build a safer Detroit, without imprisoning people, without locking people up, without fining people," Harvey-Quinn said.