Detroit Police centralizing their criminal investigators

Not enough officers to go around.  It started with "virtual precincts".  Now there will be more consolidation.

"What we need to provide is a timely response to any crime that happens so that the citizens are served at the level they're used to be served," said Commander Robert Ennis.

The question is how do you do that when crime is up and manpower is down in a city that's broke.

In 2005, there were 231 detectives.  Now there are just 89, not enough investigators in each of the city's precincts to cover the shifts.  So, Detroit Police came up with a plan to centralize their resources.

Ennis claims investigators will now be split, half housed in the Central District and the rest at the Schaefer station.

"In order to prevent them from having to come in to the station, our detectives will be responding out to their locations.  If you are on the west side of Detroit and you can't get to your detective, then we will come to you."

This is just one more part to the virtual precincts plan that pushes people to report their crimes via phone after 4:00 p.m.  Police response based on priorities has clearly changed, but Ennis claims DPD has reorganized its resources and residents will notice a difference.

"East, west, central, the entire city, so that any point in time that you call, first of all somebody will answer the phone, and second of all, your questions will be addressed."

Specialized crimes detectives such as homicide and sex crimes will still housed somewhere else.  Detroit Police plan to review this change as time goes on to see if it even works.  If not, they do plan tweaks.