Lansing Snyder has wide-ranging plan for beefing up safety

By Kathy Barks Hoffman Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Giving Flint the money to reopen its city lockup, beefing up the state forensics lab so crimes can be solved more quickly and equipping state police with the technology they need to do a better job are among the changes Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to discuss Wednesday when he delivers a special address on public safety. His plan is expected to include an additional $15 million for what he has called "enhancement" of law enforcement. Although he hasn't given specific details yet of his proposed changes, he has said they must include crime prevention and criminal justice reforms to help former criminals gain skills and jobs. He delivered the speech Wednesday at the Flint City Hall Annex. Snyder spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher told The Flint Journal for a Tuesday story that the Republican governor wants the state to give Flint $4.5 million so it can reopen its city lockup to free up space in the Genesee County Jail. Flint emergency manager Michael Brown has said opening the lockup is important because criminals are "laughing at the system." Snyder noted during his February budget address that Flint, Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw rank among the nation's top 10 in violent crime rates for cities with at least 50,000 people. "That's unacceptable," Snyder said. "We need to put a focus on that ... so I believe it's appropriate to make a significant investment in public safety." It's unclear, however, whether his proposal will do much to help local governments cope with steep declines in police and firefighters during the past decade. Shrinking state and local budgets have left the state with 3,400 fewer law enforcement officers since the terrorist attacks in September 2001, according to the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards. Michigan lost nearly 15 percent of its civilian and officer law enforcement employees combined from 2001 through 2010, the steepest percentage drop in the U.S., according to a review of annual FBI statistics. Many local officials point to fewer resources as one reason they can't get a better handle on crime. Arrests are down in some areas and citizens have to wait longer for police to show up or even file their own reports with police in some cases. So many children have been shot in Detroit recently that federal authorities have announced plans to increase their presence in some of the city's crime-plagued neighborhoods. Snyder told reporters last week he plans to propose a "comprehensive answer" that goes beyond simply hiring more police to "deal with the whole cycle of crime." The governor already has proposed boosting the share of the state police budget paid out of the general fund by 16 percent, which could include hiring more troopers. The total number of troopers assigned to posts had dipped to 949 as of late January, down from about 1,350 a decade ago because of annual budget cuts. But Snyder has appeared cool to Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette's idea to spend $140 million over two years to hire 1,000 new officers. Details haven't been worked out on where those officers would be located. Democratic Rep. Jim Ananich, a former teacher and Flint City Council member, is among those who say the governor's Flint address Wednesday should focus on restoring more police to the streets. "I hope he will take the time to travel around the city and see how an inadequate investment in public safety can destroy a community and make it nearly impossible to work, hire workers and raise a family," Ananich said in a statement. Published: Thu, Mar 8, 2012