Despite violent night, Detroit police encouraged by crime prevention

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Despite the stereotype of Detroit being a city tainted by crime and struggling to get a handle on violence, many of the headlines coming out of its borders are positive. 

Homicide rates have fallen to historic lows while the police department's partnership with the U.S. Attorney's office is yielding results. 

And despite two separate non-fatal shootings happening overnight in the city, DPD's deputy chief still believes they're witnessing progress.

"I believe it will continue to be quiet. I just think that last night was an anomaly," Jacquieline Pritchett said. "I think the officers are doing the work, they're putting the work in, we have more officers on the streets now which means there is more police presence, and the more police presence you have, the less crime you have."

One shooting scene that happened on Greenfield led Detroit police to a house about a block away at Belton. It happened around 2 a.m. and ended with an ambulance rushing a gunshot victim to a local hospital.

Two hours before that, another non-fatal shooting happened in a home on the Southfield service drive at Lyndon. The victim was a man in his 40s.

Often, when warm weather moves in, crime rates go up. Pritchett isn't sure if the latest warm spell is a factor.

"I can’t say that the weather itself is a correlation to the shootings that happened last night, cause you know in the city it could be 15 degrees below zero, and we could have two or three shootings," she said.

And along with police's work, they've also had help from community groups like Ceasefire Detroit.

"You know, a lot of these guys have the street credibility that these young people listen to, to prevent any violent crimes from happening and I think the mindset is changing, people are becoming more aware that you can deal with things other than using a firearm," she said.