You will have to take the long way around:
"Detroit slashes precinct hours to enable more patrols; Effort to boost safety without spending more" by Corey Williams | Associated Press, January 13, 2012
DETROIT - Fighting crime is a 24-hour job, but Detroit police stations will be sticking to business hours.
The department is rolling out a plan to close precincts and district headquarters to the public after 4 p.m. It’s an effort to put more officers on patrol, especially in the most besieged neighborhoods, without adding to the city’s $200 million budget deficit....
Closing precincts to the public by late afternoon is not expected to save money. It just reassigns officers and their duties....
Like many police departments, Detroit’s force is under severe financial constraints. The city has about 2,700 officers, down from 4,000 a decade ago. Another 100 officers could be laid off by next month without federal grant money.
There are few areas to make cuts other than jobs, something the police chief and Mayor Dave Bing are loath to do, particularly in light of the city’s violent crime rate, one of the highest in the country, and a spike in murders....
Bing, who is trying to keep Detroit from being taken over by an emergency financial manager, is cutting 1,000 city jobs in the next few weeks. Services like fixing lights and sidewalks and cutting grass are being reduced. The mayor is also seeking medical and pension concessions from city unions....
Related: Detroit's Damn Unions
Compounding matters is Detroit’s size: 139 square miles. Although the population has fallen from 1.8 million in 1950 to 700,000 today, officers must still patrol a large area.
“We have done a disservice to our community by spreading ourselves thin, giving citizens the belief that we will respond to things that are not an emergency,’’ Police Chief Ralph Godbee said. The changes are mainly “for those brave men and women that are overtaxed out there’’ answering calls for service....
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