In the last month, Lansing has seen seven homicides. For the year, they\u2019ve had 19 victims in 16 homicide cases.<\/p>\n
That is six more homicides than the\u00a0capital city saw in 2019, and eight more than they saw in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, we as a community need to come together so that we can send that message to violent offenders that we will just not tolerate them terrorizing our neighborhoods,\u201d Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green said.<\/p>\n
Green said the LPD currently has five open cases but many of the cases have solid leads.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a good team, a good violent crime initiative, those are the positives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The negatives? It is not just homicides that are up in Lansing. Violent crime as whole is up, Green said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can look at the percentage increase of stolen firearms, up 22 percent,\u201d Green said. \u201cLast year around this time we were around 143, we\u2019re at 175 right now. That in itself is concerning to us. Many of our violent offenders are using stolen firearms, and so I can\u2019t advocate enough for people to lock and store their firearms accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019ve been two violent crimes just this week. Last night, a woman\u00a0was shot on the 700 block of West Willow in Lansing and was hospitalized. This morning, two cars were involved in a shooting in the area of Marion Ave & Loraine Ave. The video was caught on a local resident\u2019s doorbell camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarion, I heard about that incident, the good thing is that we were able to get some leads, that\u2019s probably as much as I should say about it at this point, but it is trending in the right direction,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
Marion Ave was also the location for a homicide on Nov. 11. When Green was asked about possible changes in plans for 2021 and if they will increase patrol on Marion Ave as part of that, he said they do the best they can with the resources they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur resources, just like everyone else\u2019s resources, are limited. We have to use them effectively and efficiently. And when you have an area that\u2019s experiencing an increase we do our best to attack that area with an increased amount of directed, invisible patrols.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said COVID-19 has presented many challenges for the LPD and also for the people of the area, but it shouldn\u2019t be used as a reason for increased crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to allow us as a community to use COVID-19 as an excuse for the tragic numbers we\u2019re seeing involving violence,\u201d Green said. \u201cI\u2019m just not going to allow that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said one of the biggest challenges for the LPD has been trying to maintain and build relationships in the community while following COVID-19 protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely our interaction with the community has been lessened,\u201d Green said. \u201cIn a normal year, we\u2019d have well over more than 400 positive interactions and engagements with community members to establish and strengthen the bond because I think it\u2019s very critical that we get that information we need from the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is crucial that if you see something or know something about a crime, that you forward that information to the police, Green said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very small number of people that are involved in violence in our community,\u201d Green said. \u201cHowever, until we\u2019re able to strengthen that relationship in the community and regain, foster, that trust that the community has in us, our efforts as investigators are hampered.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the big rise in homicide cases in the last month, seven since Nov. 9, Green said you have to look at the big picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to look at the environment we are in with COVID-19, you have to also look at the economy, you have to look at our education systems, you have to look at host of different things when you talk about crime and what motivates people to engage in crime,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the last month, Lansing has seen seven homicides. For the year, they\u2019ve had 19 victims in 16…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n