Misspending Council
The Detroit City Council continues to confuse surveillance with safety. More disturbingly, their recent capitulation to the high-tech industry is coming from a lightly veiled fear of our young people who gather in public spaces. Since the takeover of Belle Isle by the State, young people, especially, have not felt welcome in that park with its visible State Police presence. Other city parks, especially Maheras Gentry, have become gathering spaces for younger people on warm summer days.
Last week the City Council, over only slight objections, voted to spend $2.7 million dollars for cameras and lighting in 4 city parks.
Over the years I have spent time in all four of the parks designated for cameras and lights: Chandler Park, Eliza-Howell Park, Maheras-Gentry Park and Rouge Park. Rouge Park was where I learned to ride the curves on my motorcycle. Eliza-Howell and Chandler Park are less familiar, but I have been to community celebrations and events in each of these. I am in Maheras-Gentry Park almost every day from early spring to the first snowfall. The walks along the river are spectacular even on a cold day. Fixing the damn road there would be a major improvement.
When I first heard of this initiative, I was struck by the notion of putting lighting along the walkways. In most cases, more lights mean more safety. But the thing is, these Detroit Parks close at dusk. In Maheras-Gentry Park, the DPD brings in cars about an hour before sunset and aggressively moves people out. There is no one lingering to watch the moon rise. People are not allowed after dark.
So, I suspect the lighting is a way to shift some money to a Detroit-based company, but it will not make the beavers and geese feel a sense of safety. The bulk of this money will go to surveillance cameras.
Most of the time, these cameras will watch family picnics, teen gatherings, and ball games. They will capture images of community groups holding spring gatherings and fall cider festivals. These are well-used parks, with many people around on a good summer day.
There is no reason to think that these cameras will be better at noticing a possible disturbance than the hundreds of people in the park. What they will do is put in place a surveillance system that will enhance the ability to track vehicles, follow individuals, and intensify the conflicts between police and people out for a good time.
The history of surveillance in Rouge Park is more sinister. For decades, Rouge Park has been a favorite spot for the queer community to connect. Up until the 1990’s, that Park was a major site of police violence against gay men. It took relentless action by the Triangle Foundation to stop the routine beating up of gay men by police officers.
There are so many other ways the city could spend this money and enhance safety in the parks. Instead of cameras, we could develop our capacity to do conflict resolution and de-escalation trainings. What if even 10% of the people in the park had a de-escalation training in their school, church, or community center? Or what if we actually offered recreational opportunities where young people could learn skills, have robust neighborhood ball clubs, and a city-wide soccer championship?
These are not wild ideas disconnected from community safety. Our community life means looking out for each other, helping each other get through differences, learning to play together, and enjoying the natural world.
The critical role of person-to-person connections was underscored by the recent announcement by Mayor Sheffield about the success of her Occupy the Summer initiative. Violent and property crime both decreased compared with this time last year. Among the most notable trends was an 89% drop in juvenile homicides during the summer months. Juvenile homicides fell from nine victims last summer to one this year between June and August. Nonfatal shooting victims also declined by 22%.
The effort by DPD to expand surveillance technologies diminishes our opportunities to provide support for advancing healthy community life.