Mayor Neeley announces renewed coordinated effort to fight crime; Flint Police cut response time nearly in half

FLINT, Michigan—Mayor Sheldon Neeley announced today that the city has reestablished important partnerships with other local police agencies to help fight crime.

Mayor Neeley also announced that the Flint Police Department has cut its average response time by 40 percent. Through an innovative new approach, the Flint Police Department is taking more non-emergency complaints over the phone, which is freeing up patrol officer time and allowing for dramatically improved response time.

While overall crime is down slightly in the city, there have been two more homicides this year over the same time period last year.

“Every single loss of life in our community is heartbreaking,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said. “Through the hard work of the Flint police and our renewed cooperative relationships with other police agencies, we are working proactively to do everything in our power to fight crime.”

The City of Flint has a longstanding relationship with the Michigan State Police, which continues today.

Adding to that, Mayor Neeley worked with University of Michigan-Flint Chancellor Debasish Dutta and Mott Community College President Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea to re-establish cooperative relationships with the college police departments to increase community patrols and mutual aid. This is renewing historic partnerships that had discontinued under the previous administration.

Michigan State Police Flint Post Commander First Lt. Yvonne Brantley, UM-Flint Police Chief Ray Hall, and Mott Community College Police Chief Michael Odette joined the press conference along with Flint Police Chief Phil Hart as a show of solidarity in this community’s commitment to fighting crime.

“The hardworking men and women of Flint Police Department solve crimes through the help and support of our residents,” Chief Phil Hart said. “We appreciate these partnerships that help strengthen our community.”

As of May 14, 2020, there have been 14 homicides in the City of Flint. That compares to 12 over the same time period last year (9 murder/manslaughter). Driving the increase, in part, is the occurrence of a triple and double homicide this year. In total, there were 43 homicides in 2019.

Crime stats also show a decrease in CSCs (14.29 percent), burglary-forced entry (19.03 percent), burglary-without forced entry (31.43 percent), and theft from a building (38.24 percent). Overall property crimes are down 9.07 percent over the same time period last year and total crime is down 2 percent.

The City of Flint releases weekly reports on its crime statistics at cityofflint.com/police-department/

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