Detroit school district police have arrested six people suspected of being part of a theft ring that has stolen more than $60,000 in computers from three schools. Police began reviewing surveillance cameras that captured images of the suspects and distributed those images in the community. Acting on a tip about a man who was selling about 40 computers near the schools, police also stepped up patrols.
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FROM APRIL 2008: The Detroit school system has spent more than $3 million since December clearing out and securing vacant schools, removing more than 200,000 textbooks and 100,000 pieces of furniture. But officials acknowledge that nearly half of the 67 buildings closed since 2005 have not been cleared out. The problems the district has had in closing the schools safely and swiftly were a factor in the decision to not close any more this coming summer.
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EARLIER: A month after Detroit Public Schools officials announced that most of the district's vacant schools had been carefully secured, Joy Middle School sat last week with unlocked doors, rubble-filled hallways trashed by vandals, a room full of new computers left behind and a stash of students' personal records scattered on the floor. The destruction in a school vacant for just 10 months shows what can go wrong in the handful of schools yet to be secured by the district. The delay in securing Joy has left parents wondering about the security of their children's records, residents questioning the safety of their neighborhood and taxpayers potentially on the hook for costly repairs if the district tries to lease out the vacant building.
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FROM FEBRUARY: Vacant Detroit Public Schools are under siege by vandals and precious metal thieves, school officials say, but the district and its police department are fighting back. Police have arrested 104 thieves at empty Detroit school buildings since September--many caught in the act, according to Detroit Public Schools' police. Three vehicles were impounded, after police found them stuffed with metal ripped out of shuttered Detroit school buildings. Officials are asking for the public's help, saying the crimes have resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage to the city's 53 vacant buildings--29 of which were shuttered in 2007.
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