Lansing will soon have more help fighting violent crime by joining a statewide program that's helped Detroit and Flint.
Mayor Virg Bernero announced Monday that Lansing will join Michigan’s “Secure Cities Partnership.”
The partnership means Michigan State Police and the Lansing Police Department will work together to increase law enforcement personnel. Mayor Bernero says he believes most of the partnership’s efforts will focus on violent crime.
“It might mean traffic stops in a particular area where we think we would recover guns or drugs from vehicles for example," said Mayor Bernero. "It might mean assistance with stakeouts. But it will definitely be a help.”
The mayor said Lansing will be the 11th Michigan city to participate in the partnership.
“So I don't know if that means we're the 11th priority in terms of crime," said Mayor Bernero. "But it's something that we could deploy that is available that will help make our residents safer and we're of course going to deploy all available resources.”
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime decreased in Detroit, Flint and Saginaw since participating in the Secure Cities Partnership. A 2015 Uniform Crime Report cited on the partnerhip's website reported violent crime rate was reduced by 14% in Flint, 18% in Saginaw, and nearly 13% in Detroit between 2014 and 2015.