Some say the city of Detroit looks as bad as they say -- maybe worse.

And at one time its police department wasn't much better.

"The cops around here, they don't come when you call, none of that," said Detroit resident Brandon Reid.

Detroit can make your head spin around. It is it not uncommon for gutted and grand, old neighborhoods to exist just blocks from one another.

"The people here who are committed to the city are working to make this a better city," said Detroit police officer Labree McClendon.

McClendon walked with a KTVU news crew through Detroit's East Side, where on one side of a boulevard homes sell for hundreds of thousands and on the other side of the street houses are selling for as little as $5,000.

Detroit is at a crossroads and its police department is in the center of it.

KTVU reporter Ken Wayne was there as Detroit's mayor and interim police chief announced a major reorganization.

The deal could push the reformed department back into good standing with an independent monitor appointed by court decree.

"The real issue is, how do we make progress?" said Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

The interim chief has a plan.

"We hope to have 80 percent on patrol and 15 percent in investigations and no more than 5 percent in administrative work," said Detroit Interim Police Chief Chester Logan.

Detroit is also instituting many of the ideas of Bill Bratton.

Bratton is the man often credited with reforming the New York City and Los Angeles police departments, but vilified by a small if loud group in Oakland that tried stopping the City Council two weeks ago from hiring him as a consultant.

Wayne found Bratton in Detroit helping its police department get out from under the federal oversight, a situation similar to Oakland's. Bratton said transparency is one of the first steps in regaining public trust.

"I would describe it as two very different patients with very similar illnesses," said Bratton.

Detroit has done that and more.

The independent federal monitor, who is the same as Oakland's, said Detroit has made substantial reforms and there is talk that federal oversight will end within a year.

Oakland, on the other hand, continues to get excoriating reports from the monitor and recently just avoided going under federal receivership.

One of the men most responsible for putting the Oakland Police Department under federal decree returned from

Detroit last year amazed. "It was totally different. I saw a collaborative effort by all parties that's totally lacking in Oakland," said Oakland lawyer Jim Chanin.

Detroit Mayor Bing has some advice for Oakland.

"Even though, in our position, you hate to make the kind of hard cuts and decisions that need to be made, but there's no way around it," said Mayor Bing.

"The Detroit Police Department we believe in, and we engage in constitutional policing," said Interim Chief Logan.

As the Detroit Police Department's future seems to have taken a turn for the better, so has Detroit itself.

Artists have transformed shattered streets into tourist destinations. Gutted houses are coming down and leaving wide spaces open to bloom in the spring. And the Motor City's battered auto industry is renewed.

Back in Detroit's rough East Side there are some who say the police department, with its history of abuse and misconduct, is getting better.

"I think the cops are doing a good job, the best they can," said Detroit resident Charles Lee.

There's a sense that the worst is over in Detroit and there are better times ahead; perhaps giving the people of Oakland and its police officers some hope.