Shores sees drop in crime - Grosse Pointe News

GROSSE POINTE SHORES — Crime in the smallest Pointe dropped in 2017 after 2016 saw the highest reported crime rate the last five years.

Presenting public safety’s 2017 annual report, Director of Public Safety John Schulte said Part I crimes, the most serious according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dropped to 15 from 25 in 2016.

There are eight categories of Part I crimes: criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson.

“Of the eight categories, Grosse Pointe Shores reports no criminal activities in six of the eight categories, which we are very proud of,” Schulte said.

The Shores reported two burglaries, which include attempts, and 13 cases of larceny. Both also are reductions from 2016, dropping from 14 larcenies and seven burglaries in 2016.

The 15 total Part I crimes puts the Shores just over the five-year average of 14. The lowest Part I crime-rate occurred in 2014, with five total reported, and 2016 saw the most at 25.

According to the report, Part II crimes, considered less serious by the FBI, also were down in 2017.

“Grosse Pointe Shores is reporting a reduction of 36 from 155 in 2016 to 119 in 2017,” Schulte said. “Part II crimes are identified as activity largely generated by officer-initiated activity. Many of them are OWI and narcotics arrests.”

Both operating while intoxicated and narcotics arrests fell in 2017. Officers made 54 OWI arrests, down from 77 in 2016, and 12 narcotics arrests, down from 28 the previous year.

Fraud and identity theft was the third largest Part II crimes reported at 24, just under 2016’s 25.

According to the report, Shores officers issued 54 more hazardous or non-hazardous violations from 2016, totaling 1,745 in 2017.

According to Schulte, those violations generated more than $400,000 in fines and related costs. The department also recovered $87,300 in funds for the city through special event details, OWI arrests, towing fees, donations, federal grants and forfeiture.

“In the area of emergency medical services, our run volume in 2017 was down seven medical calls for service from 166 in 2016 to 159 in 2017,” Schulte said.

The most frequent run, 68 percent, was for medical or cardiac calls, with 31 percent for trauma and 1 percent for psych calls.

Schulte said also in the report he expects the number of EMS runs, specifically mutual-aid runs, to continue to decline because of the neighboring communities’ change to Medstar EMS service.

Before Medstar, the Shores’ EMS often would be called if there was a back-to-back run. Now, Medstar will use its own ambulances for the second run. Because of this, Schulte said, the Shores will see a “significant drop in our total mutual-aid runs out of the village, along with the loss of revenue associated from billing on these runs. However, our professional medic services will remain more available for Grosse Pointe Shores residents and several in the village have responded favorably to this.”

Schulte said the Shores reported five structure fires in 2017 and responded to six mutual-aid fires out of the city. Total fire loss in 2017 was $73,300.

Councilman Matthew Seely said he was very impressed with Schulte’s report.

“I read this cover to cover and it’s a beautiful report,” Seely said. “The amount of effort that went into this, it’s very impressive and comprehensive in every level. My compliments to you for your thoroughness and professionalism. This is outstanding.”

Seely did, however, bring up the issue of overnight parking citations and other violations he said residents have been calling him about. Seely said he has received 11 phone calls about parking citations since he was sworn into office in December. Seely said many residents do not feel public safety is looking out for them and now there is an adverse relationship.

“The overnight parking on the streets is a real issue,” Seely said. “Saturday night on Lochmoor Street, one of my neighbors, they’ve got four teenagers, they’ve got five cars now at the home and not enough driveway to accommodate all of the cars. From time to time, you’re dealing with teenage kids. If they don’t remember to make the phone call or Mom or Dad falls asleep and they forget to make the phone call, they are getting peppered with parking citations. They feel as though they are being harassed.”

Seely said ticketing Shores residents for parking on the street was not good public relations and asked Schulte if there was any way to give warnings instead, especially for cars parked in front of homes to which they are registered.

“Interesting enough, when we don’t enforce the overnight parking, I get calls that we are not doing our job,” Schulte said.

Schulte said the overnight parking ordinance assists the midnight shift in determining which cars belong in the neighborhood and which don’t, but, if council wished to rescind the ordinance it was within its purview.

“We enforce the ordinances, we think we do it fairly and we think we do it across the board,” Schulte said.

The 2017 public safety report will soon be available on the city website, gpshoresmi.gov.

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