Originally Posted by
shovelhead
From my memories: STRESS=Stop The Robberies Enjoy Safe Streets.
The unit was created to stop attacks on citizens walking on the streets in targeted high crime areas. I won't debate on right or wrong as I don't have all the facts or first hand knowledge of all the incidents, just the theory of how it was to work.
The way it was intended was for teams of police to work, one as a decoy. Sometimes a drunk, other a old man, a old lady, disabled person. When the "victim" was attacked, the team swooped in and made an apprehension. In several instances, the apprehension turned deadly, not sure if any cops were killed but several alleged perpetrators were.
During Coleman Young's campaign, IIRC one of his promises was to disband STRESS, on the premise that it "lured" people so inclined to commit criminal acts, thereby making it "entrapment". In other words, the perpetrators would most likely NOT have committed the crime if the decoy had not lured them into the act. Well anyway, that was the reasoning given at the time.
Wasn't there a similar program during the Archer administration that ended fairly quickly due to public outcry?