Detroit closed out 2025 with historically low rates of violent crime. But a lot can change as shifts occur in city, state, and federal funding and public safety policy in the new year.
Among her early actions as mayor, Mary Sheffield has already signaled her confidence in the city’s existing public safety leadership, reappointing Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison and Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms.
Sheffield joined Wednesday with Bettison and other Detroit police officials at the city’s public safety headquarters to detail year-end crime statistics for 2025, which included 165 homicides – the lowest number recorded in a single year since 1965 (188). There were 18.7% fewer homicides than 2024, and nearly 100 fewer than 2023, Bettison said.
Carjackings had the steepest decline at 45.8% from the year prior, followed by nonfatal shootings (down 26.4%), motor vehicle theft (down 23%), sexual assault (down 13.7%), and robbery (down 21.2%).
“You will say, ‘Well, what are you really celebrating?’” Bettison said, “But I will tell you this Detroit, metro Detroit, and the nation, what we’re doing in the city of Detroit, with our plan, collectively, it’s working.”
Bettison and Sheffield reaffirmed the city’s commitment to double down on strategies and partnerships that have worked, while also continuing to invest in prevention and enforcement strategies, as well as technology.
Sheffield said public safety will remain a priority under her leadership and her administration plans to create an Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety that will focus on mental health, engaging youth in after school programs and job training, enhancing neighborhood-based strategies that “save lives in a data and resident-informed way.”
“Fewer families are grieving, fewer lives are disrupted, and more families can now feel safe in their homes and their communities,” Sheffield said during the morning press conference, stressing that the work isn’t over. “One life lost is far too many.”
The mayor’s transition team has seated dozens of business and nonprofit leaders, activists, educators and others to committees organized around her administration’s key priorities, including public safety.
Bettison was first appointed interim chief by former Mayor Mike Duggan in 2024 and confirmed by the City Council last February. The longtime officer previously served as Duggan’s deputy mayor, leading the city’s Community Violence Intervention initiative. In announcing Bettison’s appointment, Sheffield said “there’s nothing more important” to her and to the community than improving public safety. She also noted that she and Bettison share a commitment to launching Detroit’s first Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
The fire department, meanwhile, has delivered one of the fastest average EMS response times in the country under Simms, a 37-year veteran, according to Sheffield’s administration. Simms, who joined the department in 1986, was named interim commissioner in December 2021. He was appointed full-time to the role two years later.
Here’s more Detroit public safety issues to watch in 2026:
Will state and federal budget cuts impact Detroit’s historically low crime rate?
State and federal budget cuts will inevitably impact the city’s budget for the police department, but the exact dollar amount and where the impact will be felt the most are still unknown. Those details will become clearer as the city kicks off its budget deliberations in February and March.
Of the Detroit Police Department’s $455 million budget, $6.8 million is based on state and federal grant revenue, most of which is allocated to auto theft and specific enforcement or crime intervention programs.
Detroit’s ShotStoppers program is expected to continue with funding set aside in the state’s budget for the Public Safety Trust Fund, easing worries that reduced funding would harm the city’s progress after the program has been praised by officials for reducing violent crime. The initiative, which aids small organizations with community-oriented crime reduction strategies, started with an investment of $10 million in federal pandemic relief funds.
Additionally, organizations such as We the People Action Fund and Ginger Root are calling on the city to dedicate 1-2% of the police department’s budget for mental health resources.
Will the Board of Police Commissioners be more effective?
The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners has six new members — Henrietta Ivey (District 1), Lavish Williams (District 2), Darious Morris (District 3), Scotty Boman (District 4), Beverly Watts (District 5), and Victoria Camille (District 7).
Educating the community about the board’s role and improving the department’s relationship with the community are top priorities for the newly-elected commissioners.
The civilian board was created in the aftermath of the 1967 riots and amid public demands for greater oversight and stronger accountability measures in the Detroit Police Department.
Under the current City Charter, the board has “supervisory control and oversight” over the police department and is responsible for reviewing and approving the department’s policies, budget and organizational plan, resolving citizen complaints against sworn and civilian staff, imposing and reviewing disciplinary action and other responsibilities.
The impact of the board’s oversight on the department remains a point of contention among commissioners and the public.
The board has had challenges with commissioner absences and vacant seats, which, at times, left the body unable to conduct official business.
The number of citizen complaints has continuously increased, but most sat for months before they were investigated and closed, and the backlog grew to over 2,000 complaints over the last few years. Although progress has been made, little information has been provided to the public regarding the board’s process for investigating complaints, the outcome of complaint investigations, and what led to the backlog.
Compounding the challenge are limitations on the timeframe for an officer to be disciplined following a citizen complaint investigation, which means complaints that sat for a year without being investigated didn’t result in disciplinary action being taken.
How will the city address technology in policing under Sheffield?
In response to public concerns, Sheffield advocated for greater transparency around surveillance technology during her time on Detroit City Council, including championing the Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance, which requires a hearing before the police department can acquire new technology, establishes guidelines for its use, and creates reporting requirements. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in October that the city has repeatedly violated this ordinance.
Advancements in technology and AI present new opportunities for local law enforcement agencies to combat crime, such as “first responder drones” that allow agencies to obtain a “bird’s eye view” over critical scenes. It was reported in October that drones would be coming to Detroit in the next eight months.
Will DPD complete its policy overhaul?
The department continues to overhaul its policy manual as part of its broader effort to become a “world-class policing organization” and receive accreditation from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police (MACP).
The first step in this process involves updating outdated policies to align with current law enforcement standards. During its last meeting of the year, before the newly-elected commissioners took their seats, the board approved the department’s request to add the MACP’s standards to DPD’s policy manual as a supplemental provision, which brought the department into 100% compliance.
Several changes were reviewed and approved by the board before MACP’s standards were adopted, including the board’s citizen complaint policy. Commander Michael Parrish told the policy committee on Dec. 15 the department’s policies were only 66-70% compliant with MACP’s standards and noted the BOPC’s process of approving policies can take a lot of time.
In the next phase, the department will have to demonstrate to the MACP that it’s adhering to those policies before it can achieve full accreditation. It’s unclear what role or input the six newly elected commissioners and one incumbent will have in the process now that the department’s policies are up-to-standard, however, the process of auditing the department’s adherence to its own policies could provide valuable insight and lay the foundation for effective oversight in the future.
What’s to come with immigration enforcement?
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts have been felt across the country, with some major U.S. cities seeing a stronger presence than others.
President Trump said on Dec. 31 that he was withdrawing National Guard troops from U.S. cities following legal challenges, but threatened to send them back amid an uptick in crime.
Sheffield has rejected the notion that federal troops were needed on Detroit’s streets and strongly opposed “militarizing” the neighborhoods. Sheffield said during a fall debate with her former mayoral challenger Solomon Kinloch Jr. that she believes Detroit can become a national model for crime reduction, and emphasized the need for a coordinated strategy and partnerships with federal law enforcement agencies and the community.
There is limited data available about immigration enforcement, which makes it difficult to determine how many individuals from the Detroit area have been arrested, detained, and deported. According to the Prison Policy Initiative’s data analysis for ICE arrests, which doesn’t include arrests by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), arrests in Michigan doubled in the second half of 2025, with 778 arrests between Jan. 20 and May 20, and increasing to 1,628 arrests between May 21 and Oct. 15. Despite the increase, this still leaves Michigan among states with the lowest ICE arrest rate.
The impact has trickled down to youth, as several Detroit students have been detained, and many students opt to stay home from school amid the Trump administration’s enforcement effort.