Muskegon Heights’ police chief believes the city’s declining crime rates are a clear sign of its new direction.
People living the city questioned the newly released statistics from Michigan State Police when 24 Hour News 8 reported them earlier this week. In response to the skepticism, Chief Joseph Thomas, Jr. said they must let go of crimes of the past and open their eyes to the change he said is happening now.
“You’re looking at a new normal,” Thomas said.
The chief said the negative perception from some longtime residents and people living outside the city may hold back momentum in crime prevention.
“They’re not looking at what’s happening now,” he said. “They’re looking at what happened three, four, five years ago.”
He agreed with state police figures that Muskegon Heights’ overall crime fell 20 percent. Thomas also said residents may not be aware of a 35.4 percent decline in property crimes. Armed robberies ticked up a bit, Thomas said, but most categories of crime stayed steady or fell.
The Muskegon Heights Police Department began a joint effort with MSP in 2015 aimed at decreasing crime. Thomas, who took over as interim chief in early 2016 and was hired to the permanent position later that year, said that the partnership is working “well.”
“We got special patrol programs in the Heights now and we augmented that with state police,” he explained.
Thomas said most of the crimes in the past were committed by people who didn’t live in the city and many residents have stepped up to keep those bad visitors out.
“(The decline in crime is) a direct correlation between the police and the public. The public helped us do this,” Thomas said.