Detroit Police Department (Michigan)



The Detroit Police Department serves the city of Detroit, Michigan. The department was founded in 1865 to serve the city's growing population. The department is broken into 6 districts, the central, southwestern, northeastern, western, eastern, and northwestern. The department has lost 6 officers between the years 2000 and 2007. The 1970s were hard on the department with 26 officers killed in ten years. On September 4th 2008 as court proceedings were going on for Kwame Kilpatrick, Ella M. Bully-Cummings annouced her retirement as the chief of police. She was the first female police chief in department history. During Ella M. Bully-Cummings tenure the rank and file of the police department experienced record low morale, due mostly to Bully-Cummings unwillingness to consult front line personel before implenting policy changes, and her administrations rampant disregard for employee contractual rights. Many experts in the law enforcement community consider her to be one of the worst to serve in the postion of Chief of the Detroit Police Department.

In 2000, the city requested an investigation by the United States Justice Department into the Detroit Police Department which was concluded in 2003 over allegations regarding its use of force and civil rights violations. Despite the critics, the city proceeded with a major reorganization of the Detroit Police Department; simply put, the city seized the opportunity to trim its budget saving $20,000,000. The reorganization has largely been hailed as a failure, with increased response times, higher call volumes, and less reliable patrol coverage.

Crime in Detroit, Michigan is unevenly distributed throughout the city. Overall, crime in the City of Detroit declined by 23 percent from 2000 to 2004. According to a 2006 study, crime in downtown Detroit is much lower than national, state and metro averages. The Detroit Police Department's Crime Analysis Unit has reported that crimes have dropped by 24 percent since the introduction of casino gaming to the city.

Demographics
Breakdown of the makeup of the rank and file of DPD :
 * Male: 73%
 * Female: 27%
 * African-American/Black: 87%
 * White: 11%
 * Other: 2%

The Detroit Police Department has one of the largest percentages of sworn black officers of any major city police department. Incidentally, reports and allegations of racism and discrimination against whites and other non-African backgrounds have surfaced, even between employees of the department. Currently, 12 of the department's 15 upper command members including the chief, assistant chief of operations, assistant chief of administration, and all six of the department's district commanders are black

Popular culture

 * The Detroit Police Department is featured in the movie Robocop. In the movie, the police has been privatized, serves the larger metro area, and is owned by the megacorpration OCP.
 * The Detroit Police Department is featured in the 1973 blaxploitation film Detroit 9000.
 * The Detroit Police Department is a major focus of the 2005 film Four Brothers.
 * The Detroit Police Department plays a major role as the police force featured in the film Assault on Precinct 13
 * The Detroit Police Department has its own edition of the A&E television series SWAT and has also been featured in the series The First 48.
 * Detective Axel Foley from the Beverly Hills Cop (film series) is an officer of the Detroit Police Department
 * Detroit Police Officers often appear on the Animal Planet show Animal Cops Detroit, to help Michigan Humane Society officers in cases regarding animal abuse and neglect.

Contact Information
1300 Beaubien Detroit MI 48226 Phone: (313) 596-2200