In 2019, 43,686 crimes were reported in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. Crime statistics vary widely by location. For example,
Dearborn has a murder rate of only 2.1 per 100,000 while sharing borders with
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
(43.5 per 100,000) and
Inkster (24.2 per 100,000), some of the highest rates in the state.
State statistics
By location
Detroit
Detroit had the 2nd highest
violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
rate in the nation in 2015 among cities with a population greater than 50,000. In 2013, with only 7% of the state population, the city of Detroit had 50% of all murders recorded in Michigan.
Detroit recorded 295 homicides in 2015 down from the recent high of 386 in 2012. The number of homicides peaked in 1974 at 714 and again in 1991 with 615. By the end of 2010, the homicide count fell to 308 for the year with an estimated population of just over 900,000, the lowest count and rate since 1967.
[ ][ ] According to a 2007 analysis, Detroit officials noted that about 65 to 70 percent of
homicide
Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...
s in the city were confined to a
narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
catalyst.
The city has faced many cases of
arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
each year on
Devil's Night, the evening before
Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
. The
Angel's Night campaign, launched in the late 1990s, draws many volunteers to patrol the streets during Halloween week. The effort reduced arson: while there were 810 fires set in 1984, this was reduced to 742 in 1996. In recent years, fires on this three-night period have dropped even further. In 2009, the Detroit Fire Department reported 119 fires over this period, of which 91 were classified as suspected arsons.
Flint
The city of
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
has recorded murder rates higher than those of Detroit in some years. For example, in 2013 Flint had a murder rate of 48 per 100,000 compared to Detroit's 45.
Flint's population fell below 100,000 and it is no longer tracked among the statistics of major cities.
Benton Harbor
The small city of
Benton Harbor
Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...
, population 10,000, had the highest total crime rate and highest property crime rate in Michigan in 2012. Its murder rate was the third highest in the state.
Grand Rapids
The second-largest city in Michigan,
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
recorded a murder rate of 13.8 per 100,000 in 2020, more than double of the United States rate of 7.8 per 100,000. The overall crime rate declined by one-third between 2003 and 2011, but Grand Rapids set a record with 38 homicides in 2020.
Policing
In 2018, Michigan had 564 state and local law enforcement agencies. Those agencies employed a total of 25,742 staff. Of the total staff, 18,193 were sworn officers (defined as those with general arrest powers).
Police ratio
In 2018, Michigan had 182 police officers per 100,000 residents.
See also
*
Law of Michigan
*
List of homicides in Michigan
*
Crime in the United States
Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s (due to incomplete datasets and other factors), giving the false impression that c ...
References
External links
Michigan Crime at DisasterCenter
{{CrimeUS