Dealing with crime in Detroit (Ann Arbor, Royal Oak: bank owned, low crime, house)

[syrnative]

Hi Everyone - its been a while since I checked in with this site. We moved to MI two years ago and have spent most of that time renovating the bank owned house we bought (what a disaster) We moved to Lake Orion and are very happy with this decision. The people have been very friendly and helpful and my son actually likes school again! Overall we are very happy with our current situation and the hubby is pretty sure there will be no more company transfers. So, this brings me to my question - how do all of you deal with the constant deluge of crime in Detroit? Just watching the news everyday is still a shock to us, and the violence of these crimes is off the charts. Neighbors have told us this is how things have always been and they don't usually watch the news. They focus more on the area they live in and what they can do to keep it safe. I realize crime is always higher near major cities and the news stations love to report on this, but I would like to know how others feel about it. Thanks for your input

[Republic of Michigan]

Welcome to the USA. Every area near a major US city will have the local news start off with the homicides and crimes of the day. You could be living in the most exclusive areas of Chicago's northern suburbs and you would hear about the homicides in south Chicago. Just as it doesn't affect them, the homicides taking place in the inner city of Detroit shouldn't affect someone way out in Oakland County.

[animatedmartian]

I stopped watching the news a while ago because of crime in Detroit. It takes a weight on you always hearing about another death and even worse when they show the crying families. In the end, it just feels like needless violence.

[zthatzmanz28]

Most people deal with the crime in Detroit by staying in their suburbia homes and organizing a Neighborhood Watch Program. Very few dare to venture out beyond their immediate community. That is possibly the number one reason the outlying counties have experienced such phenomenal growth over the last 2 decades.
As people watch their local news, it is blatantly obvious that 99% of all crime and 90% of all murders occur within Detroit proper. Most all crime that spills outside of Detroit is the result of the citizens of Detroit leaving the city on day passes.
Network news will tell us that, outside Detroit, the rest of Michigan is full of grandeur and splendor. Think of the news as a public safety announcement (PSA) intended to remind suburbanites why they really do not want to go into Detroit.
It can be difficult making this adjustment of accepting the facts as portrayed on the news--that Detroit is solely responsible for 95% of the crime in the state of Michigan. But rest assured, the 'burbs are insulated from such debauchery and very rarely does the revelry reach the white picket fences.

So sleep well suburbia, and know there is a new chief in town and that those mean and evil events of the past will not happen on his watch.

[fakkelsey]

The link I am providing is the best up to date site I can find, however, as all crime sites, only police departments that report to that site are listed. Therefore, in metro Detroit, though there are many communities that are listed, there are many which are not.

A couple things to note. First, you can find crime in almost any city to some extent. Crime is not limited to Detroit. However, on the second note, gun violence and robberies in Detroit are out of control. Most major cities do see robberies, but I know of no other city that I have checked thus far, where there is so many happening in mid morning, mid day and early evening. Most cities are mostly, though not always, more risky at night or early morning, while in Detroit it seems there is no safe part of the day.

It does seem crime is a bit less in the downtown region but I would not feel real comfortable walking around many of the Detroit neighborhoods. I hope one day Detroit takes back it's street, is New York has, and becomes the city it should truly be.

CrimeMapping.com - National Map

[mgkeith]

Yes, I remember feeling frightened for my family when we first moved to this area from WNY. The evening news programs seem to lead and emphasize bad news, because that's what gets increased ratings. This is true everywhere, but this is a larger metro area so there is more! They show a lot less "good news" features, like volunteers working to feed, clothe and house the poor--but that wouldn't hold the attention of the general public as well.
When you aren't accustomed to watching so much of this being emphasized on your local news, it's upsetting. Metro news here disproportionately feature angst-producing spots. Keep watching, folks!

[canudigit]

I met a lady at work last year who had just relocated to this area with her husband so that he could do his medical residency at U of M Medical Center. They moved here from Alabama and when we got to talking about crime in Detroit and what is on the daily news here, she said that so far she hadn't seen anything worse than what she saw on the local news every night in the Montgomery Metro area back in Alabama. She didn't seem shocked, frightened, or surprised in the least, and this was a fairly upper class nurse practitioner married to a physician and living in a nice area of Ann Arbor.

It's all relative, I guess, but there are other cities in the U.S. where the same types and almost the same numbers of crimes happen as happen in Detroit per capita. You live in Lake Orion, so like most of us who don't live in the city proper, you probably only go there on rare occasions to catch a major league sporting event, attend a theatrical event, or maybe visit the DIA or Greektown. I think that a lot of people deal with the daily barrage of violence on the news by a.) putting it into perspective and remembering that there are many dangerous cities in the U.S. with beautiful suburbs just like Detroit, and b.) just enjoying the nice life that we have built in a neighboring county and appreciating how nice and safe it is in comparison to Detroit.

The fact that there are suburbs that are virtually right next door to Detroit such as Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge (cirme index is only 52 when the national average is 319 and yet you could walk to Detroit from there!), and Royal Oak that enjoy low crime rates points to the fact that the vast majority of crime in Detroit is perpetrated by people against people that they know and that they don't normally venture outside of the city proper to find a victim. And if someone could solve the problems of drug addiction, unemployment, illiteracy, fatherless homes, and the overall breakdown of the nuclear family, even Detroit, and other major cities like it, would be safe to live in.

Also, like someone else mentioned, news stations are in the business of finding the worst of the worst to report because shock value = ratings. There are many, many, many good people doing great things in the city of Detroit, but the local news stations know that people will tune out if they do too many stories on people cleaning up vacant lots, getting involved in tutoring programs in the Detroit Public Schools, forming block watch groups, or otherwise doing kind, unselfish, things for the betterment of the community. The nastier and more violent the stories, the better the ratings, so the squeaky wheels get all of the grease.

[mgkeith]

canudigit you make some good points, but the person you discussed this issue with lives in a wealthy area outside of Ann Arbor! Of course she doesn't feel upset; that's pretty far away. And hers obviously isn't the average family. The OP lives in Lake Orion, for that matter. Good comparison in that regard. Both are quite far from Detroit.
What's sad is that such newscasts make life in metro Detroit sound dangerous for the average family. We all know that it is not. When one is contemplating a big move or newly transferred, there is already a feeling of vulnerability. We also don't want to scare away potential residents; people who are scouting the area and thinking of a transfer.

[canudigit]

Right, but my point wasn't that this person was upper class and didn't live in a dangerous area because neither does the OP and her reason for starting this thread was not because she feels threatened in her own neighborhood but because she is bothered by what she sees on the nightly Detroit news coverage.

My point was that a fellow newcomer to the area wasn't at all shocked or disheartened by what she sees on the Detroit news specifically because it is pretty much a mirror image of what she has experienced in a different city, which was my way of saying to the OP that this is not something that is specific to Detroit. I thought it would help if she knew that other people who had relocated to this area had experienced it elsewhere in a different state so that some of her "Detroit shock" might be alleviated and she would feel better about the situation, since her whole point was that she loves where she lives and is happy there but is disturbed and disheartened by what she sees on the nightly news coverage of Detroit.

[mgkeith]

Fair enough. Syrnative, take it from this Buf. native. Don't watch the local news--at least for a while. They can distort your perspective, and you're certainly not alone in that regard. I've heard it from many transferees. You are safe.