In Detroit, the corpses don’t add up.
Nearly 300 more people were murdered during Mayor Mike Duggan’s first 10 years in office than the city admits. This is the equivalent of an entire year of homicide in Detroit. Or Los Angeles. Or seven years in Flint.
“It’s the saddest thing in the world to be treated like a number,” said Chris Frazier, whose son was gunned down at a family barbeque two years ago; a murder that remains unsolved. “The saddest, except when you’re not even a number at all.”
While the statistical burying of bodies is a betrayal to the beleaguered people of Detroit like Frazier, it has a positive effect for politicians and police brass. When the murder rate goes down, the praise goes up.
“Detroit on track to record fewest homicides since 1966,” brayed a headline from 2018.
“Detroit with the fewest homicides since 1966,” bleated a headline from 2023.
“Detroit on pace for fewest killings since 1965,” barked a headline from 2024.
The truth is more macabre and outrageous. Every murder victim funnels through the county morgue. And it is the medical examiner—and the medical examiner alone—who determines cause of death. So I asked the Wayne County medical examiner to prepare a spreadsheet for me.
The findings: From 2014 through 2023, the medical examiner declared homicide as the cause of death in 3,189 cases. Meanwhile, the Detroit police reported 2,898 homicides to the public.
So where did the other 291 bodies go?
Take 2022 as an example. The medical examiner declared 362 homicides that year. Mayor Mike Duggan told the public there were 309.
But a close look at the data shows that the police quietly removed 24 victims from the death count, classifying them as “justifiable homicides”—defined as the intentional taking of another person’s life in self-defense or in the defense of another. FBI guidelines require that police report these killings as well. The other 29 bodies? Keep reading.
Detroit police reported them to the FBI, but never told the public.
“That number is astounding, assuming it’s true,” said Michael Rakebrandt, a retired New York City homicide detective. “It a huge number. It’s an extreme indication of how violent the city is where a citizen has to take the life of someone to protect his own.”
Remember, the medical examiner determines matter and means of death. The prosecutor decides whether the homicide was legally justified. The police are simply investigators.
Since the Wayne County prosecutor keeps no records for justifiable homicides, it’s the Detroit police making their own determination with nobody watching.
And with nobody watching, Detroit does “justifiable” like no other.
Consider Baltimore, a city comparable to Detroit in population and murder. Over the past two years, Baltimore reported four justifiable homicides to the FBI (and the public). Detroit reported 55.
What’s more, a Detroiter is 25 times more likely to be forced to kill somebody in self-defense than the average American, according to FBI data.
“Most everyone thinks they’re justified when they kill someone,” said Rakebrandt. “But in my opinion, Detroit is manipulating a loophole to make things look better than they are. Victims become political pieces. Everything should be told to the public.”
Then there is the matter of the other 123 people determined by the medical examiner to be the victims of homicide, dating back to 2014, who have simply vanished from the count.
In 2022, the police reported 309 cases of murder and manslaughter to the public and another 24 justifiables to the FBI. But that leaves 29 victims unaccounted for, according to the medical examiner.
They simply vanished from the count without explanation.
I caught the city pulling the same statistical sleight-of-hand back in 2009. The chief of police was fired, and for a few years, the city’s law enforcement officials saw to it that the death tally was balanced.
The practice has remetastasized.
Duggan, who is now making a run for governor, declined to sit for an interview. He took the Fifth. When reached by telephone, newly appointed Chief of Police Todd Bettison said he will review the data.
“Quite frankly, I’m not surprised to hear this,” said Michael Woody, a retired deputy chief for the Detroit Police Department.
“Back in 2016, we released numbers saying violent crime had dropped to levels not seen in two decades. City Hall was aware of it. But I wasn’t comfortable,” said Woody, the commander of public information at the time.
“So I soft released them, and didn’t make a big deal of it. I was afraid someone would figure it out that they weren’t honest and genuine. The next year it blew up in our faces.”
With no place for crime data to go but up, the DPD simply readjusted upward its violent crime statistics from 2015, explaining it away as a “computer glitch.” Then police brass claimed another fantastic drop in crime in 2016. It got so cockamamie that in 2017 the FBI—for the first time in its history—refused to accept DPD’s crime data.
“The city manipulated numbers to craft and push a message,” said Woody. “That message is one of lower crime and violence. But saying it and twisting numbers to back that story up doesn’t make it real. Remember, behind every number is a human being and his family members. They deserve better.”
No one knows that better than Chris Frazier. The investigation into the murder of his son Deon now molders in the cold case files, his killer still out there.
“I really don’t think they’re able to solve a lot of homicides in Detroit,” said Frazier. “I don’t even think they’re counting my son.”
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
