DEARBORN – For Detroit business owners, staying afloat and keeping their operations safe and secure is a daily struggle. 

Accessibility of Detroit Police department heads is one of the most-cited issues from owners looking for answers to their concerns or help in the form of extra patrols.

A business owner poses a question to Detroit Building Division Chief Steve Leggat at Byblos Banquets over inspections and fees from former property owners.

But on Thursday, Sept. 29, about 100 business owners, most of them based in Detroit,were given the chance to interact directly with a variety of Detroit police representatives to address key issues in a meeting organized by the Tri-County Business Committee at Byblos Banquets in Dearborn.

Tri County, which was formed in 2010, helps bring business owners together in the area including Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties. A large number of members are Arab Americans who contribute heavily to metro Detroit’s business landscape. 

Detroit police, fire, and building safety officials were among those who spoke and fielded questions.

“Detroit is the heart of Michigan and we are in the heart of Michigan, and we have to figure out a way as a community how to make sure this heart does not stop, because if that happens everyone can be hurt,” said Tri-County Coordinator Chaker Aoun. 

“We know Detroit has issues and the economy is making them worse but our best solution is to get together and talk about them.” 

Deputy Chief James Tolbert of the Detroit Police Department held a wide-ranging discussion to begin. 

He acknowledged the mistakes made by the department in the past. 

“We apologize for the police not having responded at times, but we’re hoping to get a meaningful dialogue relationship going so if you have an issue we can help.” 

Detroit Police Deputy Chief James Tolbert speaks about safety issues.

Tolbert stressed the importance of having a quality camera system installed as it is one of the best ways to deter crime. He said that positioning of the systems is also very important to be able to get clear images to prosecute criminals and also to record license plates, although the latter are harder to obtain. 

He encouraged owners to get to know their command officers in the area and to meet with them and maintain contact to let them know about potential problems while also stressing the need to combat “crimes of opportunity.” These typically occur in places that aren’t well-lit or areas where there are blind spots that aren’t seen easily. 

Response times continued to be a hot-button issue throughout the talk, however, from the crowd.

Tolbert said that the 911 service gets about two million calls a year in the city and there are 80 patrol cars for Detroit which is about 137 square miles in land area. 

“Sometimes we simply have a call volume that can’t keep up,” he said. “We have to try to do things smarter,” he said. Tolbert referenced the Citizen Observer website which allows people to submit anonymous tips creating “threshold areas” that show where problems arise.  The Detroit site can be found for the text message alert-based system by visiting CitizenObserver.com and clicking on the communities tab to find Detroit. 

Detroit Police Deputy Chief James Tolbert.

A ‘secondary employment’ system is available for extra personal patrols according to Tolbert but they must be paid for at a rate of $50 per hour, and cover up to five stores in a mile radius. Many business owners seemed intrigued by the idea but a large portion of them thought the fee was not realistic for long-term use. Those interested can call the department at 313.596.5522, however. 

Business owner Sam Olabi, who has a car wash in Detroit, said that he would like to see new technology put in place so that store owners can press a button to alert patrols to come near them in the case of a situation such as a fight or suspicious activity that is not strong enough to warrant a 911 call but could escalate. He said cashiers are afraid of retribution after being seen calling 911 on cell phones. 

Tolbert also highlighted the importance of interacting with the neighborhoods and holding customer appreciation days to create better environments while Executive Commissioner of the Detroit Fire Department Donald Austin discussed ‘Angel’s Night’ activities and volunteer patrols to prevent arson. 

The dialogues were respectful and courteous but left many feeling as though positive change is simply not feasible without more money and more officers on the streets.

“I know you’re doing everything you can, but you can’t fix cancer with aspirin,” Aoun said, telling another speaker, Detroit City Councilman James Tate, that the problem lies with the lack of police, to which he received a round of applause. 

Tate responded by noting the massive budget deficit faced by the city and said he has continued to fight to keep the police and fire personnel the city does have. 

Aoun also said that the city needs more businesses more than anything and that attracting new ones should be the main focus, even if it means being a little more lenient on building fees for example. 

The final speaker was Detroit Building Division Chief Steve Leggat. Many business owners in the city have been hit with fees and forced to pay for the neglect of previous owners who did not maintain their properties.

Several of them voiced their concerns at the meeting to Leggat, who responded by saying that property owners are only required to pay fees for issues that arise after their purchases. Leggat gave out his email address, leggats@detroit.mi.gov, as others did on the evening, saying that he would look into specific issues himself. He also said that the city would aim to send out just one inspector for each business when possible to eliminate extra inspectors “nitpicking” and finding unnecessary fees to assess.

According to Tri-County Director Ghassan Hourani, inspections have been reduced to two per year as opposed to the original five in the city, which has helped tremendously. Every fourth year, the original five will be sent. The changes were accomplished due to a strong push from the organization. 

Leggat and the other speakers’ new pledges were welcome to many but others in attendance, including Olabi, said they’ve heard plenty of promising discussions in the past only to see problems like crime, poor response times, and lack of accountability continue to fester.

“It always sounds nice but we won’t know for two or three months if any real changes will happen.”