Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is thinking of ways to restore residency for public safety employees, police, fire, ems - he is wasting his time - that shipped has sailed, that train has left the station. State Law and Detroit's failure to include that demand in ACT 312 negotiations over 10 years ago - and the mass exodus of black and white police officers, firefighters and EMS techs should have shown the Mayor the truth about Detroit - its unsafe for City employees and their families, to live in Detroit.
Police Officers are especially vunerable to living and working in Detroit, because if they take police action - their families maybe endangered. If they lived in a neighborhood - their neighbors knew it - and so did the criminal element. Their neighbors would expect the 'neighborhood' police officer to help solve neighborhood problems - placing police officers families in danger if they helped or didnt help.
Detroit Police Officers - black and white - fled the City because it was unsafe for their families and because the Detroit School System is such a complete failure. Any reasonable person who has the means and the ability to move out of Detroit will do so to protect their families, and police officers were most vunerable.
Mayor Bing should concentrate on raising the standards for police applicants - raise the minimun hiring age to 21, raise the educational requirement to two (2) years of college (AA degree), and stricter criminal and driving background checks.
Bing should also, make sure the police and fire departments have better equipment - police officers should not be driving cars with 100,000 miles, with non working radios, sirens, and emergency lights. They shouldn't have to jump start their cars to begin patrol.
Bing should make police officers welcome in the City and should stand behind them - with good pay and support.
Bing should demand the Detroit Public School Board hold itself to a higher standard and demand that it work with Robert Bobb to improve the school system.
Public safety employees will move back to the City when its streets are safe and its school system educates its students by national standards - not before and they should not be asked or required too.
