Saginaw’s rate of major crimes for the first five months of this year is down 19 percent from a similar time span a year ago, Police Chief Robert Ruth told the City Council.
He says a major reason for the decline is “technology” from an $850,000 federal grant five years ago finally is fully in place after covid-related delays, in particular surveillance video cameras, some with blue lights visible to motorists but some concealed.
Now entering his ninth year, the chief aimed for his report to state publicly that all the high tech finally is having an effect, without giving away secrets to the criminal element. Without details, he said videos have helped solve four of the city’s homicides this year, and he offered a specific account of a stolen car recovered even though it had been spray painted a different color, because the license plate has been photographed.
The three main categories that are down are car thefts, forced-entry burglaries and felonious assaults.
Councilman Michael Flores said the 19 percent decline is deceptive because murders, criminal sexual conduct and armed robberies all are up, although slightly. Ruth answered that the smaller numbers may vary randomly month by month, but overall homicides are down from the turn of the millennium, when totals annually averaged about 30.
Saginaw has 62 officers on staff, up from 50 a couple years ago but down from 155 two decades ago, and Ruth said, “We are doing more with less.”
Councilman George Copeland asked whether the high tech is intensive enough to allow officers more time for “community engagement,” such as walking neighborhood streets like in the old days.
Ruth said engagement nowadays often takes the form of increasing partnerships with sources that may range from the state police to the FBI to the county sheriff to AFT. He also spoke of working with the city’s dozen-plus neighborhood associations and conducting monthly “roll call” outreach and information sessions in residents’ front yards.
Officers also keep tabs with HELP, Healing Engagement Love Presence, a year-old mentorship featuring civic leaders who include Terry Reed, Ralph Martin and Pastor Kareem Bowen.
Councilman Michael Balls, also active with HELP, joined Councilwoman Monique Silvia in asking to restore a gang task force that was most prominent during the 1990s while Gary Loster was mayor. Ruth said the cost to pay and equip seven officers, including a sergeant, would exceed $1 million.
Councilman Bill Ostash reacted by noting that voter approval to lift 45-year-old property tax caps could generate $1.5 million a year by making the general levy 10 mills instead of 6.7, an increase of 3.3 mills. Council members still would have time to put the question on the November election, but they apparently will wait until a smaller turnout special election early in 2025, the same way they renewed a 7.5-mill public safety added assessment last February in quiet fashion.
Ruth also reported:
- Fights against heroin peddling have met widespread success and the drug is far more difficult to find these days, but fentanyl remains a major challenge.
- We don’t hear about as many problems in Birch Park Apartments as in the past, in particular on notorious Vestry Drive, because of interventions that involve community partners.
- In good humor, a Memorial Cup law enforcement incident involved a Canadian visitor who couldn’t find his car on the Civic Center parking ramp and assumed it had been stolen. Found on the fifth (top) level.
To view the 40-minute report and discussion, click here.
