Detroit's mayor and Michigan's governor stepped before microphones and cameras in Osborn High to announce an anti-crime move aimed at protecting neighborhoods.
Tom Greenwood, reporting from the school library for The Detroit News, writes that they spoke about using 36 local Urban Safety Corps members to recruit community volunteers who'll work with police in targeted area.
“Today’s announcement takes our efforts to another level on the grassroots level,” Mayor Dave Bing said. “By working together with residents, AmeriCorps volunteers will reduce crime in our neighborhoods.” . . .
“This is an expansion of an existing program in the city of Detroit,” Gov Rick Snyder said. “The real message to take out of here: This is how partnerships should work. People coming together at all levels.”
As part of the program, AmeriCorps Urban Safety Corps and key partners, including the city’s police, will evaluate crime hotspots and implement tactics to reduce blight, assaults, break-ins, drug dealing and vehicle crimes. Other tactics will include: crime mapping and analysis, improving neighborhood guardianship, reducing victim attractiveness and susceptibility.
These neighborhoods are targeted, Greenwood reports: Bates, Bagley and Bethune, the area around Osborn High, Morningside, the East English village area, southwest Detroit and near these five schools:
- Cody High
- Clark Elementary
- Gompers Elementary
- Harms Elementary
- Neinas Elementary
The city's AmeriCorps Urban Safety Project, part of a national network, is based at Wayne State University’s Center for Urban Studies. "We help create new block clubs and foster established organizations to help increase neighborhood community," an online description says.
