DETROIT (FOX 2) - "Death is at our door anyway - all of us with this virus, people are dying anyway, stop the killing," said one Detroit resident.
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Detroit mayoral candidate challenges city’s handling of violent crime
Anthony Adams, who is running for mayor of Detroit, is challenging how the current administration handles crime.
Detroiters are wary of the increase in violent crimes with an increase of shootings in their neighborhoods - and on their freeways.
"This administration is doing absolutely nothing to address the issue of crime in the city," said Anthony Adams.
Adams, the former deputy mayor under Kwame Kilpatrick, is now challenging Mayor Mike Duggan in the upcoming election. Adams says the city needs to change its approach.
"We have to be seriously focused on intervening in crime before it occurs," he said.
2020 saw a 19 percent increase in homicides in the city along with a 53 percent increase in non-deadly shootings.
Anthony Adams is challenging Mike Duggan for mayor of Detroit.
"We need to hire more than 100 community intervention specialists," Adams said. "People who are trained in conflict resolution. People who have relationships with our at-risk youth, so that we can begin the conversation much more aggressively than what's going on today."
Detroit Police Chief James Craig says intervention is already part of their policing strategy and he says pre-pandemic, those policies were proving to be effective.
"He obviously doesn't understand what's going on in the city that he wants to lead," Craig said. "What we've been doing pre-pandemic was working.
"Everything he talked about is stuff that we're already doing - and have done - that we've been very public about."
Craig says the increase in crime has everything to do with the pandemic.
"There's so many factors - we know that there are compassionate releases from the jails, individuals returning to our community prematurely," he said.
Anthony Adams is running for mayor of Detroit.
People who should be behind bars are out because of Covid, courts cases backlogged.
"What the mayor talked about in his State of the City is spot on - we've got to open up the courts," Craig said. "We're backlogged significantly on felony gun crimes, and the individuals who have not gone to court, are out, and undoubtedly committing more crimes.
"But he doesn't talk about that - so that's the real deal. I actually feel pretty good that he wants to adopt all the programs that we're already doing."
Programs Chief Craig says will help curb this scary uptick in crime - once the criminal justice system is able to fully open - once again.