The Manchester Mirror quoted the WCSO report documenting two EXTREME cases, treating other information as incidental. The report did not give a comprehensive picture of crime in Manchester and the surrounding area so didn’t do much to reduce fears.
I could say how the massive WSCO logo was my first clue that the article lacked substance. I could mention how the Manchester Mirror is an E-zine more akin to The National Enquirer or People magazine. The fact is the Manchester Mirror should NOT be the cheap out for community communication. Just the fact that the Mirror does not reach all Manchester Residents should be enough and is not a viable substitute.
The responsibility to keep residents informed falls to community administration and they have proven increasingly negligent. I inquired about the 3 month gap in the newsletter only to be met with a defining silence from “responsible” individuals. That silence and the overreaching statement in the Mirror’s article “Hunt emphasized that in neither incident was there a threat to public safety in Manchester” do more to create a heightened concern for public safety in Manchester than reduce it.
Rather than complain about the gap in tangible information… please find these stats as reported by the WCSO site (https://www.washtenaw.org/…/Sheriff-Data-Information…). I didn’t find the site conducive to summarizing crime over time and the granularity of the data did not provide results specifically for Manchester as they do for Dexter. Here is a three year overview for 48158 so you can get a better picture of Manchester. The stats do not reflect any cases that were assumed by the MSP or FBI.
The good news… there has been a slow decrease in reported crime in the 48158 area though cycles are not easily explained without more data, but over all there was a decrease. The bad news is the highest crimes were Assault and Fraud with Theft close behind. So keep your guard up!
Here’s some more good news… the WCSO is extremely lenient on traffic violations. So your children and grand children have a better chance of getting off with a warning instead of a ticket. This may be in line with state mandates to allow traffic to flow and not endanger law enforcement. Also, as enforcement is lenient on speeding… maybe, just maybe those of you that drive 40 MPH on Austin and Pleasant Lake roads would consider increasing your speed to 50 or 55? I’ve had more than a few cars pass me doing 70 MPH or better between Bridgewater and Saline or, after the Pleasant Lake / Parker road split because they got behind somebody slower. Sometimes faster is safer than slower.
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