Detroit is safer than you might think

A positive outlook for Detroit Detroit is on track to its fewest homicides within city limits in decades. Travis Fortnum reports.

The Motor City has topped “most dangerous” lists across the United States for years, but in 2023 it's on track to see the fewest homicides within city limits in decades.

Officials are in part crediting their work to clear court backlogs of more than 4,000 felony gun cases that had stacked up.

American officials say that work, as well as community partnerships, has resulted in a lower murder rate, fewer carjackings and fewer shootings, the lowest level since 1996.

This time last year, 278 people had been murdered in the city. As it stands right now, that number is 228.

“But nobody wants to hear about the numbers of arrests. What we want to hear about is the overall reduction in crime,” said Wayne County Executive, Warren Evans.

Other violent crimes are also lower in 2023 — shootings are down 13 per cent and carjackings have declined 36 per cent.

“We’re going to keep it going. The reward for good work is more work. We’ve got some really significant numbers to compete against. But it’s saving lives in our community,” said Evans.

Back in Winsor, police Const. Bianca Jackson said, “As we wrap up 2023, we’ve had three homicides this year, the three have been first degree murder charges. Last year we had four homicides. Two of which were manslaughter, the other two were first degree.”

Jackson told CTV News it’s impossible for investigators to gauge if Windsor’s murder rate is affected by Detroit’s.

For the first time, Detroit is diverting 10-million of it's crime-fighting dollars straight to activist organizations looking to make a change.

"This is the work of everyone, not just law enforcement. I would argue that law enforcement is a smaller part of the solution to this issue. It's the work of the people in the community who are organizing and working in addressing the root cause issues that contribute to criminal genic behavior," said activist Teferi Brent

When it comes to those community partnerships, the City of Detroit is giving that reallocation of public safety funds a two-year test run, budgeted through the end of 2024.

Officials and the community are hoping for continued success.