An ASS fan who commutes down Jefferson Avenue on the city’s East Side sent us this pic of what used to be the Detroit Police Department’s 5th Precinct station house, but is now just another boarded-up building.
Of the six precincts closed as part of the department’s budget-trimming restructuring plan, three will be reopened with new functions. The 5th Precinct isn’t one of them. It’s been closed permanently, and the area it once covered is part of the new Eastern District, formed by a merger of the 5th and 9th precincts and housed in the 9th Precinct building. Most officers, department spokesman James Tate says, were transferred to the district that corresponds to their former precinct, and started work on Sept. 26. Tate says that DPD equipment has been removed from all of the defunct precincts, so anyone thinking they might sneak in and pick up a spare pair of handcuffs can forget about it. The properties have been transferred to the city’s Planning and Development Department. Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings has said that the department chose which stationhouses to mothball based partly on age, but also on which precincts had holding cells with crossbars, tagged as suicide risks in the federal consent decree under which the department operates. Tate says that ultimately the city plans to sell the properties.
So, what’s a used cop shop going for these days
Editor’s note: If you know of an abandoned home you would like to see featured in this spot, send a photo and pertinent information to News Hits, c/o Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48226 (or e-mail newshits@metrotimes.com).
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