DETROIT'S HOMICIDE RATE DOWN

Police Say Yearly Murders Nearing A 36-Year Low

DETROIT - The city's murder tally is headed toward a 36-year low, in part
because of police efforts to break the cycle of drug-related gun violence,
Police Chief Jerry Oliver and Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan said
Wednesday.

There were 156 homicides in the city for the first six months of the year,
down 20.4 percent from the 196 in the first half of 2002. At that rate,
Detroit would finish the year with 312 murders, its lowest total since
1967, when there were 280, Duggan's office said.

"We're not declaring victory in the war on crime, but we are going in the
right direction," Oliver said.

June was the 21st consecutive month in which both fatal and nonfatal
shootings in Detroit declined. Oliver said that in part was the result of
efforts to keep guns out of the hands of parolees and apprehend felons with
outstanding warrants.

"We've reduced the number of conflicts that were lethal," he said.

Duggan said his office would team with the Police Department to cut
Detroit's homicide numbers even lower by prosecuting drug traffickers who
let their subordinates use guns to protect turf or collect debts.

The latest collaboration has goals similar to those of Project Destinee,
announced by Duggan in March 2002 after 3-year-old Destinee Thomas was
killed when bullets riddled her Detroit home as she sat watching TV.

Project Destinee was designed to topple two rival drug rings at the center
of her death. The work resulted in more than 12 convictions of drug ring
members by the end of last year.

Oliver and Duggan also reiterated FBI figures released in mid-June that
showed major crimes - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
larceny, theft and auto theft - dropped 5.7 percent in Detroit from 2001 to
2002.

The police chief and prosecutor used the numbers Wednesday to shore up the
morale of a police force under intense scrutiny by the U.S. Justice
Department, which indicted 17 officers last month on federal conspiracy
charges.

Clementine Barfield, the founder of Save Our Sons and Daughters, said the
numbers are encouraging, but there still are too many people being killed
in the city.

"The bottom line is we still have a problem," said Barfield, 52, whose
16-year-old son, Derick, was murdered near Northwestern High School in
1986. "More than 150 families have lost a loved one this year. These are
all preventable and all senseless."

The Detroit News contributed to this report.