The other path

The Detroit we could build

Every dollar spent on a camera, a drone, or a data center is also a dollar not spent on something else. That's not an argument against technology — it's a reminder that a budget is a set of choices, and the people of a city should get to make them.

Here's the hopeful part: the thing that actually works is also the thing that builds a life worth living.

It's already happening

Detroit's violence is at a 60-year low — alongside real investment in people, not just in watching them.

165: homicides in 2025 — Detroit's fewest since 1965
252 → 165: the three-year fall (2023 → 2024 → 2025)
~½: the drop in nonfatal shootings over the same period

Causation is hard to prove and no one tool deserves the credit — but the turn came as Detroit leaned into community violence intervention and investment in neighborhoods. The evidence for what works is on What works instead and Does it work?

The other ledger

What the same money could also buy

None of this is exotic. It's the ordinary infrastructure of a place where people are trusted, not tracked.

Schools that are alive

Funded classrooms, libraries open late, counselors in every building.

Real options for youth

Jobs, apprenticeships, sports, art, music, and mentorship that meet kids before crisis does.

Mental-health care

Trained responders for mental-health calls — not a camera in the sky.

Housing & stability

Keeping families housed and water running is public safety.

Conflict resolution

Community violence-intervention that interrupts harm without surveillance.

Neighborhood spaces

Rec centers, parks, and gathering places where people are trusted, not tracked.

Safety isn't only the absence of harm. It's the presence of things worth protecting — and those are things a city chooses to build.

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