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Detroit Police Department Centralizes Investigative Units

DETROIT (WWJ) - On the heels of the roll out of citywide virtual precincts, the Detroit Police Department is now centralizing all of its criminal investigation operations.

Commander Robert Ennis said all detectives will be relocated from precincts into either the Central District on Woodward Ave. or the Schaefer station on the city's northwest side.

How will this move affect Detroit residents?

"The hours of operation are still going to be 24 hours. There will always be a phone number and someone answering the phone so they can talk to a detective," Ennis explained.

"If their detective is off they'll always be referred to another detective or a message will be taken. And in order to prevent them from having to come into the station, our detectives will be responding out to their location," he said.

Ennis said they will be combining detectives into four squads. Each will have its own squad lieutenant, victims' advocate and evidence technicians.

Manpower reductions due to a budget crunch have shrunk Detroit's criminal detective division from 231 detectives in 2005 to just 89 today.

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