Inkster police seeking community input on addressing violence in the city
After recent incidents of violence in the Inkster area, police are now asking for input from the community in a survey about what could be done to help address it.
"This is unfortunately par for the course," Tieree Beard said after an innocent bystander was killed in a crash on April 17 during a police chase.
Days before the crash, two teenagers were killed in a shooting blocks away. Residents have told CBS News Detroit that gun violence has become all too common in Inkster.
"There was one shooting right next to the rec center that happened two weeks ago. There was a gentleman that got shot at a playground," said Beard.
On Tuesday, Inkster police posted a survey following the uptick in violence. Sarah Hughey was one of the people who responded to that survey in part because she has already been working to combat the violence in the city.
"Alright, what do these families and children want? How do we get it to them? What kind of barriers exist? I thought that was really impressive and kudos to them for putting that survey out," said Hughey.
Hughey founded the nonprofit Inspire Inkster to help uplift the city's families and youth after she saw too many kids go down the wrong path while she was a teacher at David Hicks Elementary School.
"We have scouts going on, which is our most popular program right now; we have a swim program going on, and we're trying to do different things," Hughley said. "We're thinking about looking into 4H, for example. I think if we could all just work together to figure out how to get kids and families involved in more of the positivity that's going on in the city, I would love to see us avoid those situations in the future too."
