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Health & Fitness

Crime in The Pointes: Nixel Alert System Not Being Used

There's an increasingly alarming trend in Grosse Pointe of crimes involving home invasions and armed suspects. It's time to hold the police accountable for their inactions.

I'm an avid reader of Patch and I pay special attention to crimes in our community.  If you haven't been living under a rock for the past five years, you probably have noticed a strong surge in crimes involving guns, home invasions and robberies.  Most recently a Detroit youth accused of home invasion just last week who escaped from police custody in Grosse Pointe Park and two young teens who were robbed at gunpoint while enjoying a nice early morning walk on a Sunday morning.  Now I know Grosse Pointe isn't well known for it's dramatic police situations but when you have a K9 unit and multiple police on the ground going through backyards, I have to say that it was a dramatic police situation. If there's a manhunt going on in your backyard, shouldn't you be notified about it if you took the time to sign up for alerts for exactly this reason?  The police always say that we are the best deterrent of crimes because we know what's suspicious and what doesn't belong.  Had the alert gone out when the manhunt was in progress, a few hundred extra eyes looking out for the suspect probably could have gone a long way and he might not have escaped back into the Detroit abyss.  About six months ago I took the time to sign up for the Nixel Alert service so that I could be warned when there's an immanent danger in my community.  I am a Grosse Pointe Farms resident and the only alert i've had thus far is about leaf collection.  Am I to believe there hasn't been anything going on in my community for the last six months?  What about all of the home invasions over the summer, all of which were within a half mile of my home.  Why didn't I get an alert about the robbery on Lakeland which is six blocks from my home?  Being that I am a father of a 16 month old, I would of liked to have known that there is a giant gun wielding criminal on the street before I decided to take him on a Sunday morning stroll through what I thought was a safe community.I know police can't be everywhere at once which is why the Nixel system is so important.  The citizens are your eyes and ears when you can't be there.  If I should be looking for someone who is dangerous, let me know what he looks like and where he might be so that I can take precautions.  I don't need my family outside enjoying the day when there's someone on the loose with a gun.When the Chief of Police in Grosse Pointe City gave his reasoning why there wasn't a Nixel alert sent out, his reply was they sent it out Monday night.  That's great and all but that's 36 hours too late and quite frankly it's inexcusable.  He also said the cop who usually sends them out was off duty.  Well, maybe the police should delegate that duty to someone else who is on duty.  The excuse he gave really rubbed me the wrong way and if I've learned anything from it, it's that there is a complete incompetence in our police agencies.  The Police and City Managers work for us, are paid by us and should be held accountable by us.  If the current administrations can't perform the job to a level that we expect, then they should be replaced with someone who can do the job.  I want to know when there's danger in my community and I want to know what they're doing to combat this epidemic of home invasions, car thefts and middle of the day robberies involving firearms. There's a thing called technology and i'm pretty sure it's here to stay.  It would be nice if it was used by our police departments since we took the time to sign up for it.   

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