Covid has some effect on public safety

By Charles Sercombe
The Covid pandemic and quarantine may have had one unexpected effect.
Both the number of crimes and the number of fires in the city were reduced this past year, which may coincide with many people staying home to quarantine themselves from the pandemic.
During the past two years of the pandemic, there have been over 4,600 cases reported here and, so far, 73 deaths.
Did Covid really effect crime and fire incidents? It could be speculative at this point, but Police Chief Anne Moise thinks it had some influence.
“I believe we saw some fluctuations in the numbers as a result of Covid,” Moise said.
The police and fire annual reports were submitted to the city council a few weeks ago.
According to the police department’s statistics, in 2021 there were 492 arrests, of which 195 were for felonies, while over 300 were for misdemeanors.
In the year 2000, there were 597 arrests, with 225 for felonies and 426 for misdemeanors.
Even traffic tickets were down.
In 2021, the department issued 12,766 traffic tickets (some motorists received several at one time). Of particular concern for many residents are speeders. In 2021, officers issued 1,800 tickets for speeding.
The year before, 11,598 traffic tickets were issued. That year, 2,420 speeding tickets were issued.
Overall, according to FBI crime statistics, Hamtramck’s crime rate has been declining since 2018.
Also, according to the FBI, in 2000, there were 157 violent crimes reported here, which include 10 rapes, 35 robberies and one homicide.
In property crimes for 2000, the FBI says there were 64 car thefts and 61 break-ins.
FBI crime statistics for 2021 are not available yet.
During 2021, five officers were hired, but also in the last year three officers resigned, one who retired, and one was fired.
The department received two grants, one for over $100,000 to purchase body cameras, and another for over $400,000 to hire three officers to “create an enhanced community policing program that will be launched in 2022, when officers are hired,” said Police Chief Moise.
Fire Chief Dan Hagen (who retired this year) started off his annual report to the city council with some good news for property owners.
Hagan said the city’s insurance classification rating improved from 4 to 3.
“Nationally, of the 39,850 cities rated, only 9% reach a Class 3. This change is expected to reduce insurance costs for city businesses,” Hagan said in his report.
During 2021, the department reported 314 fires, down from the previous year when there were 376 fires.
In an automatic aid agreement with Detroit and Highland Park, Detroit firefighters assisted Hamtramck 27 times, down from 42 assists in 2020.
Highland Park assisted Hamtramck 17 times.
Hamtramck, in turn, assisted Detroit 194 times, down from 255 in 2020. About 20 percent of those calls in 2021 turned out to be false alarms, Hagan said.
Hamtramck assisted Highland Park 26 times.
Hagan also reported that the city administration began talks with the firefighters’ union for the department to return to providing ambulance service.
Posted March 25, 2022