Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield says city will address downtown teen takeovers
After several incidents in which large groups of teenagers took over downtown Detroit, city leaders say they are developing a plan to address it.
The viral trend is known as a "downtown takeover" — a coordinated effort to swarm city streets — and it's happening in its cities across the country, including in Detroit.
While there is some perception that Detroit officials and the Detroit Police Department have been somewhat silent on the issue of these downtown takeovers, since these events began, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield says a lot is happening behind the scenes to ensure that these takeovers don't get out of control.
"It's a comprehensive, interdepartmental, all-hands-on-deck approach to assure that we're addressing the needs of our young people," Sheffield said.
In a one-on-one interview with CBS News Detroit on Wednesday at DPD headquarters, Sheffield says the social media trend is top-of-mind with city officials, police and community intervention groups. Sheffield says the city is taking a holistic approach to addressing the issue and believes it's also an opportunity to serve the youth.
"We didn't experience what other cities did as far as safety," Sheffield said. "Kids came out; they wanted to hang out; they wanted a place for something to do. So we're trying to make sure that we're addressing that need of making sure that young people have a safe space to be occupied and engaged throughout the upcoming summer months."
Sheffield says curfews will be in effect and announced soon and says parental responsibility is a must moving forward. The mayor says it's also important that the entire community is involved so as not to overburden law enforcement.
"Intervention, prevention and enforcement; it's not just enforcement. I don't believe we can police our way out of it. I think our young people need more than just enforcement."
City officials were planning to host a meeting this week with the organizers of the downtown takeovers, police and community intervention groups.
Sheffield says she plans to announce a "summer strategy" on Friday to address some of the issues with the youth.
