Crime & Safety
What's actually happening in Inkster, how it compares to the cities around us, and whether the response is getting better or worse. Numbers first, then the stories behind them.
These numbers are blank on purpose
We're not going to print a crime statistic we haven't pulled ourselves. Three sources fill this in, all free and all public:
- FBI Crime Data Explorer API; agency-level offense counts back to the 1980s, machine-readable, no cost. Gets you Inkster PD and every neighboring department in one query.
- Michigan State Police MICR, the state incident reporting system, more current than the federal data and broken out by offense type.
- FOIA to Inkster PD, response times, clearance rates and call volume aren't in either database. You have to ask. Michigan's FOIA gives them five business days to respond.
One caution worth stating plainly: reported crime and actual crime aren't the same thing, and departments differ in how they classify incidents. A rate that looks higher can partly reflect more reporting, not more crime. Say so when you publish.
How Inkster compares
| City | Population | Violent / 1,000 | Property / 1,000 | Officers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inkster | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Westland | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Dearborn Heights | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Garden City | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Romulus | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Taylor | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wayne County average | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Populate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Update monthly, keep the comparison cities constant, and always show population alongside the rate; a raw incident count between cities of different sizes tells readers nothing.
This week's blotter
ArchiveCompiled from police reports and court records. We name people only after conviction, see our policy below.
Accountability reporting
How we cover crime
Crime coverage gets clicks. It also shapes how people see their own city; and in a place that already fights an unfair reputation, sloppy crime coverage does real damage to the people who live here. So we work to these rules:
- We don't name people who haven't been convicted. Charges get dropped, cases collapse, and a name in a headline follows someone forever. We name defendants at conviction, and we name public officials at any stage.
- No mugshot galleries. They generate traffic and nothing else.
- Charges are allegations. We write "is charged with," never "did."
- We follow cases to the end. If we report an arrest, we report the outcome; including a dismissal. Most outlets never do, which is how one bad night becomes a permanent record.
- Every blotter item cites a document. A report number, a case number, a named official. No anonymous tips in the blotter.
- Context with every number. Rates, not raw counts. Population alongside. Comparison cities that stay the same month to month.
- We correct fast and in public. Corrections run at the top of the story, not the bottom.
If we get something wrong about you or someone you know, tell us. We'd rather fix it than defend it.