Detroit officials say enforcement, prevention helped push summer crime rate down

Police enforcement and crime prevention, including the Occupy Summer project, helped push crime rates down during summer of 2026 as compared to summer of 2025.

That's according to reports that Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield and Police Chief Todd Bettison, along with other city officials, gave during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Adams Butzel Recreation Center on Lyndon Street.  

Detroit Police Department command staff, Chief of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood & Community Safety Teferi Brent, Community Violence Intervention group members and Occupy The Summer organizers also attended. 

A rising crime rate was a talking point in the metro area during 2025. Mike Duggan was serving his last term as mayor at the time.

"Last summer was a rough summer, everyone," Bettison said.

But all categories of major crimes that the city tracks, whether violent or non-violent, were down in the year-to-year comparison, Sheffield said. The data she cited included a 25% reduction in homicides and an 89% reduction in juvenile homicides.

Occupy the Summer ran for 10 weeks during this initial year, providing activities such as skate nights and basketball events to neighborhoods across the city. The city allocated $1.5 million in this year's budget to support the initiative. Sheffield said Occuy the Summer has been taking place for several years, but there was more emphasis on it this year.