Detroit Police Department Restructuring Plan
1/23/2013 - BACKGROUND: Interim Chief of Police Chester L. Logan commissioned an internal committee made up of DPD Command Officers from both the Patrol Operations Bureau and the Criminal Investigation Bureau to complete a comprehensive restructuring plan for the department. The committee conducted a systematic review of the current roles and responsibilities of department members. Surveys were conducted with members who voluntarily chose to participate, which assisted in the overall determination of ways to maximize our ability to serve the citizens of the City of Detroit. The priorities were Officer Safety, Preservation of Life, Service to Citizens, Apprehension and Investigation of Criminal Offenders and Prevention of Crime.
GOAL: The primary goal of the committee was to reallocate manpower by either eliminating or consolidating specialized functions within the department. The department’s resources needed to be better aligned and primarily assigned to patrol and investigative entities within the department, to increase the overall safety of our citizens and members. Additional personnel reallocated to precincts/districts will be assigned based on data relative to crime and calls for service.
In addition to deployable patrol units added as a result of the implementation of 12-hour shifts, the first phase of the restructuring will immediately add approximately 100 or more officers to patrols and investigations. This will increase the department’s ability to proactively patrol neighborhoods and provide additional police presence to prevent crimes from occurring. Also, the redeployed resources to the department’s Homicide Unit should increase the department’s ability to close investigations and better link gun-related crimes occurring in the city.
PHASE ONE: Phase I will include the elimination of the Tactical Mobile Unit and the Gang Squad and the redeployment of resources to the Homicide Unit, Criminal Investigations Bureau and the Traffic Enforcement Unit.
The elimination of the Gang Squad will not negatively affect the department’s ability to investigate gangs in the city. Intelligence gathering will continue and will be better communicated in a decentralized format. Historically, Detroit has a non-traditional gang population with less hierarchical structure and identification. Most Detroit gangs are formed based on territorial neighborhood boundaries. Therefore, each precinct/district should be able to address the emerging gang issues in its respective area, and the added resources to patrol will help to ensure that this is accomplished.