St. Joe-Benton Harbor News

Thanks to COVID-19 and recent civil unrest, some people are said to be getting more aggressive behind the wheel, Lt. Mike Shaw of Michigan State Police said on "The Paul W. Smith Show" recently.

“We have seen a lot of things that have changed. Some of it, I think, is COVID-19 related. Some of it is, there’s a little a bit of anti-police rhetoric out there, and maybe people think law enforcement isn’t out there doing their job as much as they should have been doing. Or they feel a little more emboldened that they can get away with certain things,” Shaw told Smith. 

He added that statistically, while this year saw the same number of fatalities as this time last year, the stay-at-home order has left most people off the roads in the last few months. Some of the biggest excuses the police are given for speeding is that the driver has to use the bathroom, was late for work or they simply didn’t realize how fast they were going.

Lt. Mike Shaw, Michigan State Police | Michigan.gov

Since June 15, there have been 15 shootings on the freeways, with eight of them being related to a road rage incident. 

“There's definitely some anger and some issues out there that we really need to talk to the public about to kind of get back under control,” Smith added during his interview with Shaw. 

While metro Detroit might not be experiencing as much violence as other major cities like Chicago, which has seen devastating and fatal shootings in the last month, Smith said that Detroit has still seen an increase in violence recently. 

“Last year from April to the end of July, we took 26 illegal guns off the street. This year, our troopers are already at 103. That's a fourfold increase,” Shaw told Smith.

Once the weapons are confiscated, they are later destroyed and not given to anyone else. 

“We want to make sure people understand we’re not against guns; we’re against illegal guns. Go through the process... You have register it, and then you also have to get your license to carry it. We find a lot of people are not doing that as well," Shaw said on the radio program.