Detroit police: homicide rates drop for 2018, rapes rise

Detroit, (FOX 2) - During a press release held on Wednesday, Detroit Police Chief Craig James announced that the number of homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults are all down compared to 2017.

“When you talk about some of the strategies that we’ve deployed this year and the year prior, we’re convinced that they’re working,” said Craig. 

While some numbers have gone down, rape statistics have gone up but Craig says the increase is due to a change in how those statistics were reported. 

“What we’ve done post November 9th of 2017 was reported every notification we got as a rape,” said Craig. “So as the investigator that is investigating that crime and the determination is made that it is not a rape, we back that crime out.” 

Burglaries, larceny and stolen vehicles also went down since 2017. With the numbers constantly dropping, some are wondering if more police officers would help decrease the numbers further. 

“Even if we had 2000 more police officers, we’re still going to have a matrix of prioritization,” said Craig. 

While the lower numbers are indeed good, the chief said his job is not done. 

“We have too many violent offenders that should be and not necessarily in custody,” said Craig.