Detroit Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. says crime prevention is priority No. 1

You won't hear Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. bragging about how many arrests the department makes. He considers them marks of failure.

He's right, but it's rare for a guy in Godbee's spot to say it. Or to lament publicly that our prisons and jails hold too many young black men who, as Godbee puts it, could have easily included him, without the right guidance and breaks he got growing up on Detroit's east side.

Godbee, who signed up at 19, is cop to the core. But he knows public safety includes a lot more than locking people up; it's about making the community an equal partner in preventing crime.

"For any chief to believe that bragging about how many people you lock up is the answer to the city's crime problem is really self-serving," Godbee told me late last month. "The arrest manifests where we've fallen short in so many other areas: mental health, job opportunities, Head Start -- everything that research shows reduces crimes but has been so disinvested in the city of Detroit.

"Our response to crime is not the measure of an efficient and effective police department -- it's a measure of how smart or trained we are. But an efficient and effective police department is one in which we start creating the environment where crime doesn't happen."

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