Progress is real. So is the baseline Detroit is improving from.
Progress is real. So is the baseline Detroit is improving from.
Property crime is down nearly 15%. Drug crime is down 16%. Violent crime is falling too. Those are real numbers, not spin.
But Detroit is also a city where reboarding abandoned houses is a standard 311 category — and where someone reports a dead animal to the city three times a day, every day.
The trend lines are good. The baseline is still a lot to carry.
Property Crime Is Down 15% — And That's Not a Fluke
Property crime is actually, genuinely falling
Detroit has logged 4,535 property crime incidents so far this year. That's down from 5,331 at this same point last year — nearly 800 fewer incidents.
This isn't a one-month blip. The drop has held across multiple comparisons, including month-over-month and year-over-year cuts of the data.
Fewer break-ins and thefts means fewer residents dealing with insurance claims, missed work, and the slow grind of replacing what was taken.
Detroit Drug Crime Is Down Big — But the Last Month Tells a Different Story
Drug crime down big — but March wobbled
Year over year, drug crimes dropped 16% — from 266 cases to 221. That's a meaningful decline, not a rounding error.
But March ticked up 17% compared to February. One month doesn't erase a year of progress, but it's a reason to watch the next few months closely.
Drug crime connects directly to neighborhood stability. A sustained drop matters more than any single month — in either direction.
Detroit's 911 Call Volume Just Jumped 23% — Here's What That Actually Means
911 volume is up — here's the real story
Detroit police fielded 26,669 calls last month. That's one call every 100 seconds, around the clock.
Volume is up 23% over last year — which sounds alarming until you factor in that more calls can mean more residents actually reporting things, not just more things happening.
Whether that's a sign of rising disorder or rising trust in the system matters a lot. The number alone doesn't tell you which one it is.
Detroit's Building Permit Pace Is Slower Than Last Year — But March Just Flipped the Script
Building permits are slow — except March
Detroit has processed 514 building permits so far this year — down 15% from this point last year. Slower permitting means slower renovation, slower investment, slower neighborhood recovery.
But March alone came in at 199 permits, beating last March by 13%. One strong month after a slow start isn't a trend yet.
Watch the next two months. If the pace holds, the year-to-date gap closes fast. If it doesn't, the slowdown is the story.
"Reboard House Request" Is a Real Detroit 311 Category, and It Averaged 95 Requests a Month for Six Months Straight
Detroit has a 311 category for reboarding houses
Most cities have 311 categories for potholes and graffiti. Detroit has those — and also a dedicated category called Reboard House Request.
It averaged 95 requests a month for six straight months. That's not a quirk. That's infrastructure.
The category exists because enough Detroit residents regularly need the city to re-secure abandoned buildings near them. That's the baseline this city is working from.
Detroit's 311 App Has Logged 960 Dead Animal Removal Requests in 2025. That's Three a Day. Every Day.
Three dead animal reports. Every single day.
Since January 1, Detroit residents have filed 960 dead animal removal requests through the Improve Detroit app. That's 3.2 per day, every day, without exception.
The city has a dedicated 311 category for this. It gets used constantly. That tells you something about what daily life looks like in parts of this city.
It's not a crisis headline. It's just the texture of what residents are managing — and what the city is quietly absorbing — while the bigger numbers improve.
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