Standing with Chief Craig is Councilman Andre Spivey who said, “We can’t fight crime unless we give officers the proper tools.” Spivey was instrumental in getting the city ordinance passed. The stations have until Aug. 31 to comply; failure will result in licenses not being renewed and fines. (Photo by Harry Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

DPD rolls out new squad cars, hi-tech body cameras and safe gas stations ordinance

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - On Wednesday, the Detroit Police Department unveiled the remainder of the new scout cars. Twenty five Chevy Caprices hit the streets ready to patrol the neighborhoods of Detroit. These 25 vehicles are in addition to the 72 scout cars which were released periodically throughout the year. We are also please to unveil 2 Dodge Durango’s which were purchased by the City of Detroit for the Departments K-9 Unit.

The police vehicles were donated by Roger Penske from the Penske Corporation, Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, as well as the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Chrysler Group L.L.C. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

An ordinance was also announced by its sponsor  Councilman Andre L. Spivey, which will require all Self-Service Gas Stations within the City of Detroit to install and maintain high quality digital video surveillance equipment and take additional public security measures to ensure the safety of its customers. If a gas station has more than police assisted incidents in a prior year, they must hire private security guards to protect the safety of their customers.

“We can’t fight crime unless we give officers the proper tools,” said Councilman Andre Spivey, who was instrumental in getting the city ordinance passed. The stations have until Aug. 31 to comply; failure will result in licenses not being renewed and fines.

Chief Craig also announced that beginning Monday, April 14, 2014, the Detroit Police Department will pilot a body-worn camera and body system camera, at the 2nd Precinct as part of a 30 day study, to determin their value to the department. The program will look at how body worn cameras impact the duties of police officers. 18 officers and 2 supervisors will beta test the Taser Axon Flex Body-Worn cameras and Taser Body System Camera.

In an effort to service the community more efficiently, as of April 8, 2014, 67 civilians were hired, of which 34 are Emergency Service Operators (ESO) and 33 are Emergency Police Dispatchers and will go through vigorous training up to 16 weeks to ensure complete knowledge of their entity. The civilians were hired in an effort to place more officers into the community while adding more Civilians into jobs that were previously performed by police officers.