Board of Police Commissioners, Evening Community Meeting, 4/10/2025

10:30PM Apr 10, 2025

Speakers:

Keywords:

Board of Police Commissioners

crime stats

homicides

non-fatal shootings

robberies

carjackings

public safety

community engagement

citizen complaints

facial recognition

Shot Spotter

missing persons

Amber Alert

police transparency

community violence.

Thank you so much.

Oh, see it, leave it thank you. Maybe the gift she had must night that might be the Yeah.

Recording in progress. All right.

Good evening, everyone that today is Thursday, April until 631 the board of police commission meeting is called to order we have for the invocation. Chaplain Mark Hill, via zoom, you may be heard.

Amen. We'll go before the Lord in prayer. Lord we thank you for this day that truly this is the day which you have made, and we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Lord, we ask that you bless this meeting on today. Let there be unity in the atmosphere. Let there be peace. Lord, help every member to accomplish the goals that they set out. We ask that you bless this community right now. In the name of Jesus, we ask for healing in their bodies, Lord, right now understanding and wisdom. We give you praise, honor and glory in Jesus name, amen.

Amen.

We do not have a quorum at this present time. So what we're going to do is go to the chief of police report,

Deputy Chief Williams,

through the chair Deputy Chief Williams on behalf of Chief Todd medicine for this report, start off with some of the crime stats. So for homicides, we're down 7% we've had three less homicides this year than we had last year. Non fatal shootings were down 37% we had 52 less now fatal shootings this year than we had last year. For robberies, we're down 14% we've had 36% 36 less robberies this year than we had last year. And for carjackings, we're down 32% we've had nine less car jackings this year, as we last year show we're still showing we're still trending in the right direction. And again, we just look to continue to improve on those numbers. For case updates, we had a significant arrest, and this is concerning the case that I believe a lot of people are familiar with in the city, where we had three people who were found burned in a vehicle. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, and our investigators did a great job going after this one, and continue to investigate. We do have a suspect in custody at this time, but the investigation is still ongoing. The 11 precinct had a safety seminar, and want to thank members of the community who came out. The 11 precinct basically hosted an active assailant attacks and a house of worship seminar. And they did that on Saturday, April 5, it was a great turnout, and a lot of useful safety tips were given to those who attended for recruiting events. We had three yesterday, the recruiting team attended a first responders Career Expo in Windsor arterio And they and the career and resource fair at the Northwest activity Activity Center. On Friday, April 11, there'll be a crime victims rights week event at the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center, and our recruiters will be there as well. On Saturday, April 12, the recruiting team will be at the college Expo, 2025 at the Boys and Girls Club located at 16 500 retirement the public safety Trust Fund. Round Table this week, Chief bettson, along with Mayor Mike Duggan House Speaker Matt Hall hosted a round table discussion with other law enforcement agencies and lawmakers from from across Southeast Michigan on the proposed public safety Trust Fund legislation. These bills will give police departments across the state additional funding every year to reduce crime. The money can be used for public safety initiatives like hiring more officers and investing in community violence intervention programs following round table chief Bettison gave speaker Hall and other lawmakers and law enforcement officials who attended a tour of the real time crime center, placing of pinwheels the child abuse aware for Child Abuse Awareness Month and recognition of Child Abuse Awareness Month, we invite the community to join a Special Victims Unit on the Front law of Detroit Public Safety headquarters on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at 10am to place pin wheels in honor of children in our community. The pin will represents the trauma and pain suffered by child victims. It is also a sign of resilience, hopefulness and healing for a joyous future that every child deserves the pen will also represents the responsibility each of us have to ensure supportive and loving environment for the children in our community through the chair with that, that'll be the end of the chiefs report, pending The questions of the board. Yes,

any commissioners?

Can you give the public update? Is a video that's out there going viral, of young man had interaction with the police, I believe at a gas station. Everybody been sending me that video, and I'm sure that many board members probably I saw that surface. Can you give us a update on what's what action is being taken there?

Yes, again, through the chair. The actual incident happened on March 31 around 3am at a gas station on the west side of Detroit, officers were alerted. Just through observation. There was two males and two females appeared to be having some type of argument. The officers pulled up to investigate. Upon pulling up to investigate, they observed one of the black males, who is the subject of the actual video, reaching into the vehicle and placing the object in what appeared to be under the seat, the officers, upon further investigation, were able to discover there was a firearm that was recovered. They recovered the firearm, and at the point they recovered the firearm, they moved to place the suspect in custody, and that was the point where the use of force by the police was made. So he was resisting. The officers had to overcome his resistance, and just so everybody knows, whenever we use force, it's not a pretty thing. So the use of force was necessary because of resistance they were facing. They were able to take him in custody. He has been arraigned. He's been arraigned in charge on having a concealed weapon and also for resisting and obstructing, and he was held, I believe, with a $25,000 personal bond. And just one more thing too, the actual use of force that occurred is still under investigation as well. Say that last part for me, please. The use of force that actually occurred is being investigated as well. Okay,

and that's been investigated by internal affairs at this

point, I believe. I'm not sure if it's internal affairs or the precinct itself,

okay, yep, and we'll let the record reflect that our chief OCI did receive a anonymous complaint today on that, and so chief investigators handling that accordingly go ahead

through the chair was that the Lynwood incident,

because I saw one where two officers were fighting with a

no, so this was not Lynwood. Are you familiar with the Lynwood situation? I am not familiar with

lots going on on these videos, but the Lynwood situation, two officers were wrestling with the suspect, and the suspect got away. So, oh yeah, yeah. So it was another video where a police officer was on tick tock doing the dance

with some folks called.

Was it boots on the ground?

That's my deputy. How you doing? He speak, I listen. I don't know what song Well, I think it was something about G Mac, cash. So it's been a couple videos around Deputy Chief. But okay, if you can get back to me, I appreciate it.

We'll do and through the Chair, if I could,

you said a police officer was dancing seeing on Tiktok, and he was dancing to what was that? A

local rapper, G Mac, cash.

Thank you, yeah, I'll probably can show you the videos. Yes, not that one, the one with the Linwood episode. That's when the officer ran out of gas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really, really tight situation, and, but you know, so it's unfortunate that a lot of the stuff, you know, these are real situation, live situations, and, and we appreciate you updating the community on that because and people send it to me ask if it happened today. And this is something that happened on the 31st of March, and it just catching up, but it's going viral out there, and so I wanted the department to be able to address that and see where we at in the investigation and on both sides. You know, any other questions of the chief? There being no other questions. Let's go to public comment. We don't have a quorum right now. Right now, I want to thank before we go to public comment, the commander of ninth precinct is here. Is Is he here? I want to thank you for being here and we thank you for hosting us, and you have a new captain right there. Appreciate you guys being here and hosting us in the ninth precinct today, but Have at it, Commander. Thank

you, sir. Through the Chair, I'd like to introduce the new captain of the ninth precinct, John Stewart, absolutely. Introduction,

yeah, just happy to be here, man, yeah. Through the Chair, appreciate the board. Appoint me. Couple weeks ago, just hit the ground running, and like I said, happy to be here. Happy to serve,

yeah, happy to have you.

All right. So you ready for my report out? Yes, sir. All right. The ninth precinct currently, we're showing a 14.3% increase in homicides. That's eight this year compared to seven last year. Non fatal shootings are down 51.9% that's 14 cases. Sexual assaults are down 16.7 that's three cases. Robberies down 34.2% that's 13 cases. Carjacking we're currently down 100% that's six cases. We're currently at zero. Aggravated assault, we're down 17.6% which is 60 cases. Motor vehicle theft, down 70. I'm sorry, 27% which is 70 cases. We're struggling in property crime, burglary, currently up 21.5 which is 31 cases. And larceny were up 1.4% which is four, four cases, non fatal shootings. We finished a lot last year, 2024, with a 9.4% decrease. The first quarter, we are sitting at a 40.9% decrease, and we are currently at a 51.9% decrease. I'm a size. We finished 2024 with a 5.1 decrease. We finished the first quarter at the 14.3% increase, which was one case, and that is where we currently sit, at 14.3% increase, our strategy has shown an impact on non fatal shootings, which is at a 52% decrease. Homicides have shown a slight increase with 14.3% all violent crimes were down in 2024 except carjacking, which showed a 47% increase was from 19 cases in 2023 to 28 in 2024 and currently, with carjackings, we are at 100% decrease burglaries. Like I said, we are up 21% we are focusing with our detective unit unknown suspects, and with our partnership with the Mdoc on home checks. To combat this trend, we have directed additional resources into the hot spots and directed patrol to our free frequently affected businesses. Violent Crime strategy. We've taken 246 illegal guns off the street. We have targeted enforcement with weekly restore order operations, partnerships with Mdoc, homicide, gang intelligence and major violated valors. I'm sorry my major violators have shown increase in violent crime reduction. Shot Spotter, I'd like to highlight that currently, year to date, we are down 28% reduction in shooting incidents and 36% down in gunshots compared to 2023 when the program started, we are 49% reduction in shooting incidents and 51% reduction in gunshots currently. Year to date, we have executed 45 search warrants in conjunction with Shot Spotter and recovered 54 firearms. Community Engagement, our MPOs distribute gun locks, continuous meetings with community groups and a brotherhood and sisterhood programs, and to name just a few of our MPO programs, we have a trick or treating events, Turkey giveaways, Thanksgiving dinner holiday parties, painting with a cop. Adopt a Family. Christmas outreach, Christmas dinners, reading with little darlings. Program, community readings, anti bully presentations, ninth precinct memorial for fallen officers, brotherhood and sisterhood, circle programs, community movie day, good fellows, Black Family Development, National Police Week, faith in blue National Night Out and precinct fundraisers. And if I may, I'd like to introduce some of my MPOs or who are here, or one of them who is here at the meeting today.

And I'm Sergeant, Sergeant Harper is here somewhere too as well. But that concludes my presentation. If you have any questions,

yes, sir, thank you, Mr. Chair, so we miss you at the 10th precinct. As a lieutenant, I appreciate that. Um, ninth precinct, historically, has been one of the most dangerous precincts, especially on the east side of Detroit, going even further than West. What are some needs that you think out of the outside the box? Thinking, do you think that you can be given so that can be safer in the ninth prison? I

think one of the best things that former chief white got was a Shot Spotter that covers the entire ninth precinct. Like I said, there's been a 48% reduction in shots fired in the ninth precinct, and those don't even you know, people are calling more often now because they're seeing our quick response. We're recovering evidence from those we're developing a lot of leads on our cases off those shootings. So I think that Shot Spotter has been a great help in the precinct.

Okay, any more questions?

There being no more questions. Thank you very much. We will go to public comment. You

Thank you, Mr. Chair, we have five speakers in the audience. Our first speaker will be Mr. Dana long, Miss Victoria Camille, Miss Bernice Smith, you

are you ready? You may be hurt. I know you guys know my face, my voice by now, all I want to say is when I make these comments and everything and come up here and speak, and I do get phone calls and the phone calls from some of the officers, it seems like they don't want to be bothered. I just want to stress and say, I am human, just like they are. Why is it that they act like they have a problem when I address you guys, when they call the commander. I think his name is spelled s, V, A, C, he called, and he act like it was a problem for him to call. I just want to say I'm human, just like they are. So if you don't want to call, they don't have to call me. I just want to always, and I'm gonna continue to come up here and complain about it. I just want the police to understand, don't take the job if you can't do the job. Is states they supposed to serve and protect. If you can't do that job, don't take that job. That's all I'm saying. Serve and protect. If you give me respect, you're going to get respect. That's all I want to say. They don't want to do it. Don't do a job as you can't do it. That's all I got to say, because you're not doing their job.

Thank you.

Thank you very Connie, next speaker, someone taking time down there. Oh yeah, all right, thank you.

Good evening board. Good evening and good evening community. My name is Victoria Camille, couple things today. So in regards to the I won't talk on this long, in regards to the embarrassment that the board had last week. My recommendation would be to have the staff provide weekly reports on any administrative activities in progress or planned related to open positions as well as any recruiting, so that the entire board is aware of all the steps that are going on, and so that if anything is in progress that shouldn't be that can be addressed before it goes too far. The next item that I have is in regards to an open citizen complaint that I have where DPD failed to follow multiple policy directives leading to the killing of Sherman Lee Butler in July of last year. So I would like a status of that complaint. And then last city council is considering an ordinance that is mandating the release of body worn camera footage. And at the public and safety committee this week, the it was stated that the topic was being postponed because they're waiting for the board to have a conversation with second deputy chief high and so those of us who are advocating for this ordinance are wondering, why does that conversation need to happen? What is that conversation about, and will that conversation be held in public? Thank you.

Update on our complaint

through the chair regarding the citizen complaint concerning the bailiff shooting, our investigators have completed their work this past Tuesday, we completed that. I'm sorry. We presented that report at a citizens the citizens complaint committee meeting, and the chairman is in receipt of that report. He is reviewing it, the

chair of the citizen complaint committee, thank

you to the chair. The chair of the citizen complaint committee is reviewing that report, and as soon as he signs off of it, we will send it to the other board members, and the chair of this body will determine what to do with it at that point, thank you.

You may be heard. Thank

you, Mike. I missed a lot last couple of weeks, but that's all right, I'll catch up. Good evening to everyone and to the neighborhood here occupants. I'm Bernice Smith, known as Mother Bernice to the police department. I love him. I've been involved with him since 73 when I was on the crime committee, when they had it named. But now that I'm still here and still complaining and fussing because I want to know

and I'm glad

I've been crying all week just about of two things that's happening in our city, the incident about the mother daughter and the little girl in the burnt car that was in the neighborhood where I raised my children on West Grand Boulevard, and they went to the school on 30th Street. I didn't even want to go over there to see that area, but I was in the area Sunday when I first heard about it, and my son, he told me, he said, Mama, don't go over there. I said, No, I'm not going. But I just want to know women. I got three, three girls. I raised them to be decent, respectful girls. If a man Don't, don't do you right or mistreat you, leave him alone. I pray to you that that you do this. You're not here on earth to be abused, beat up, take advantage of you. I'm telling I want all these women to stop dealing with these men that want to abuse them. That's number one. The next thing I want you men to be respectful to the women if they don't want to leave them alone. This man that did what he did this past week, as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't need a trial, and he needs to be in in the jail by himself, in solidary confinement, feeding, feeding him once a day, and that's it for him to think about. You know what I'm talking about? Uh, we don't support torture. Well, that's the way I feel. Because he shouldn't have done that to that young lady. He shouldn't have done it to the end the baby too, and a mother, time

is up already. Yes.

Anyway, to my police department. I love you all you know I do, and I want you to be safe out there once you put that uniform on. Absolutely. Our

next speakers will be Minister Eric blunt and D, 4c, AC, Scotty Bowman. Then we'll go into zoom. Good

evening. Board. I'm Minister Eric blunt from Sacred Heart Catholic Church here in Detroit, good evening. We have to be very honest. No one in this country should ever be executed without a fair trial. We have facial recognition in this city that misidentifies black people on a constant basis. Okay, so unless you are a person of color that doesn't mind you or your relatives being executed, I suggest you support a fair and speedy trial the the embarrassing things of this week, another wrongful arrest and imprisonment using facial recognition technology and license plates reader and then the firing and hiring of six employees. This makes this place a laughing stock of the whole city the video release ordinance. Why not? Let's not forget that this is the same police department that started facial recognition technology without the approval of the board, so they can do things quick, fast and in a hurry when they want to. And as we talk about video release, all we're saying is that we want the truth, and so many times the truth is hidden because they turn off the cameras. Oh, okay, turn off the cameras. We don't have enough evidence. Case dismissed. No, no, no. As far as Shot Spotter is concerned, Chief Bettison said to me, and I'm sure he'll say it in public, because I hold back nothing, and I feel like everything I say and do is being recorded. But chief medicine admitted to me that a silencer on a gun can prevent Shot Spotter from ever detecting that shot. So I mean, we're not talking 4050, years ago. Silencers were used a long time ago, and I'm sure they can be used now. The ninth precinct. Let anyone tell you, you are the most dangerous precinct in this city. That is not true. Other precincts have private security forces that protect them over and beyond what they what they expect the police department to do. I guess my time is up. You start to mumble, yeah, right.

That speaker,

Yeah, hello, yeah. I'm Scotty Bowman. D for CAC is District Four Community Advisory Council elected position. I have constituents. I'm also founder of Detroit residents advancing civilian oversight and a member of the coalition for police transparency and accountability. Today, I'm really mainly concerned about the board's role of investigating those complaints. And I'm sure the Secretary has been doing a good job, and I know Jerome Warfield is very concerned about the investigation of complaints as well. And it just I know for a fact that there's quite a backlog I can I know of at least one that's probably three years old. Now, I don't know if they're prioritized the way calls are prioritized, where more severe complaints get kind of moved to a quicker investigation than some that are perhaps very minor. Mine was very minor for instance, perhaps, but I there is a tremendous backlog, and I think it's unfair to the people who make the complaints that if they're legitimate, that they're you know, their mistreatment is not addressed and that officers are not held accountability for that. It's unfair for the officers who were in the right and have this hanging over their head. It's unfair to the residents that expect to have their board of police commissioners and the OCI get to all those complaints. Now, my opinion, I hear a lot of talk about a lot of different things at these meetings, and whether you see me in person or not, I'm listening on Zoom. There's been times I've been on Zoom and I didn't get to speak, and I hear a lot of talk about a lot of things. But I think until those complaints are caught up, until we are current with the complaints, I say we, as a city, that really all the other things that are talked about that aren't directly prescribed to this group in the charter, you need to get to those things because, I mean, get to the complaints, because that is a core function, and I think there should be more transparency. And maybe there is me. I'm missing me. I'm not looking at the right part of the website, where we can see how many complaints are backlogged, how old is the oldest complaint, and so forth. I see that chair, which Yes, and

you can stand there, right there. Let me ask you this, when did you file your complaint? I

don't have the date right in my head, but I believe around about 2022 2022 and it was a minor one. It was really just about a traffic incident where I did not think the report had addressed things accurately, and more importantly, that when I attempted to reach because I was referred to the officer who wrote the report, when I attempted to reach the person I had tried diligently over an extended period of time, never got a response. And that was really when I made a complaint to the bo PC, it was okay. I'm not getting response. One second.

Have we passed 2022 complaints right back on in the backlog, right

through the through the chair. There are a few 2022 complaints that are still in our our our universe. So there are a few. However, I can look yours up, Mr. Bowman, and and get back with you tomorrow on that, I remember looking it up before, and I thought we had finished that investigation, but I'll check. I'll recheck to make sure. And if you haven't heard from us, I guarantee you, you'll hear from us tomorrow. Okay,

thank you. And again, it's so old I have trouble remembering too, right? I guess my point is, there's back lot. Yeah,

absolutely. And we don't shy from the fact that we have been working diligently and bringing in staff to do that. And when you see these folders, these these are citizen complaints that the commissioners have to review. The fact today the at 50 more to give over to the board, and they've been picking them up. They've been rising and rapid, rapid numbers now, and so other plans are in underway to be able to address this thing, and that's been a stickler for me, because, like you said, it is the backbone of the board of police commissioner to be able to deal with these complaints. These are very, very serious to us, because they are something that the citizens took time to address and to complain about, and we definitely want them to be held in a sacred type of manner, you know. So thank you for your patience and your indulgence and your your advocacy and your passion, and we continue to welcome it, you know, and rest assured, you'll get a call back however. You know, there's others that we are working on, and they are in the pipeline. So you got to keep on working that and working that until you get it done. You know, I came into this, and many of us came into this, and things happen and things are being fixed to be able to deal with this. So thank you.

Thank you Mr. Chair, Mr. Investigator in board, yes, sir,

thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll go into zoom now. Our first speaker is torpedo. Our next speaker will be Miss crystal rice.

Are you there?

Yeah, hey, there was

you think it's funny. Listen to this and pay close attention. The President of the United States is Donald J Trump. Now I had somebody take to him that video of me standing on the porch with them, talking to the Venezuelan immigrants at 12842 Sussex Street. I was back in July, June, July of 2024 then again in August, I had someone take him personally to his flew out to his rally, and take him the allegations on voter fraud by anonymous citizen report done by Dennis M Winfrey, the Detroit City Clerk and chairperson of the Detroit Election Commission, the cheater and A liar. Now you came out your mouth with my name to somebody you don't know who knows me. You don't know who I know. While you was over there, Ryan and I told you to ask Mark about me. Mark McLeod, the one that was calling you on the phone that day, and you said his name with such reverence, Mark knows me, and I'm surprised he didn't tell you that I am one of the coldest now I'm gonna just put it out here. Keep my name out of your mouth. You don't know who I know. Now, when I saw you going up in the mayor's office, you was going in there to talk to that little leprechaun. See, it's a lot of things you don't know about me. I got a 40 year reputation around the city of Detroit on the streets of being stand up 100 that's with the pastors and priests and the gangsters too, and the kids. So watch your mouth, Joker. Okay,

Lord Jesus, the one Nicole is hanging out with Donald Trump. You know, hey,

next speaker.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Crystal rice. I recently moved back to Detroit after 13 years, and I want to and probably about three weeks after I moved, in October of last year, I got car jacked at gunpoint, which and I wanted to do a shout out to the second precinct for assisting me and helping me, as well as the task force that does the carjacking Task Force, I want to thank them personally for, I mean, getting it done, because they did get six people, and they got the people, so I'm really glad at that. Another thing, you know, I like to say the plus Now, the second thing I want to talk about is police. Police Commissioner, Liberty Smith, Tamara Liberty Smith, I know I'm a little late in the game with this, because I work a lot, but the young I think, is very inappropriate for a police commissioner to be on video, video taping a person who was involved in something with the two children that were found frozen and the death in the casino. I think that's very distasteful, not just as a police commissioner, but as a mother. I don't think that that was proper etiquette to be on I don't from what I know, and I know some people in the police department, you're not supposed to be on social media. I don't know what it is for the police commissioner, but for you to be videotaping, talking to radio stations, telling the girls business going meeting someone at a nail shop and showing a video of her, I think is very distasteful on her end, and I think it's very rude. And then for her to say that she saw me, I haven't seen you in two years, but since, I mean, I'm sorry, a year when you were at my cousin's event. And I think you need to focus on finding somebody helping the community find their victims of that that were murdered, like my cousin was murdered the gentleman on Finkel, the young man, figured that out instead of video taping a public service announcement for this girl, that rant, I think that's that's inappropriate and unprofessional.

We're going to go next to Mr. Jadonte Smith and former Commissioner William Davis.

Good afternoon. May Have you heard Yes, sir, yeah, so good afternoon. I hate to hear about the nasty words towards Commissioner Smith, but those words should have been directed towards other other members on the board, like Commissioner Presley and also Commissioner hendez, for the terrible work that you guys have done in holding up motion and things of that nature. I do want to talk about that via release ordinance. That's going to be a very big thing, because some officers don't even have body cameras on, as we learned from Lieutenant Brandon Cole 25 years in the force, not enough common sense to even have a body cam, body worn, camera on at a protest. Also, I want to say I just seen a very disturbing video of two officers punching a young black male in his head, in his back, his body, while trying to arrest him. And he's a son of a Detroit police detective. Very, very terrible. That's how we get all these lawsuits. Also, the facial recognition, um, in the lawsuits we're getting from that Shot Spotter as well, we have all of this technology. We're still getting all of these lawsuits. Very ridiculous. Also, I feel like Brandon Cole has still not been even though he was suspended for all that time. I feel like he's still in the same position. He's still a lieutenant. He also still has all of his rank and all of his pay. Very ridiculous to be able to do certain things that he's done, take political stances, take racist stances, and be a terror to the community and still hold your job. No other job can you do things like that and still hold your job? Also, when it comes to complaints, I filed several complaints over the years. I don't even get calls back on some of these complaints, and I think there are complaints that I filed in at least 2022 maybe even before that. I'm just now getting letters on from investigators. I understand there is a backlog, but the transparency behind that is still not there. It's kind of ridiculous how you file a complaint and you never know if it's followed up on the officers still on the streets, which we know there are still in the streets, but if they have severe complaints, they're still out there creating more situations where they can get more complaints. So you just never know also needs to be investigated. Um, just, just how that process is working. I know you,

Mister Chair, that's your last speaker.

Commissioner Davis, is not there.

I'm sorry. Mr. Chair,

yes, thank you.

Commissioner Davis, you may be heard. Good afternoon.

Can I be heard? Yes, sir, okay. I thought you was gonna overlook me again. We did the first time. I think that actually I should have a process developed where y'all reach out to the people who file citizen complaints, that y'all reach out to them every six months. You know, even if y'all haven't closed the case or thoroughly investigated, you know, I think that's a problem in the fact that citizens need to be updated, at least know that y'all working, or somebody is looking at it or doing something. And I think it's horrible that y'all have backlogs from 2022 you know, ideally you shouldn't have anything over a year old. Also, is there a plan, if you are about to get additional monies from the state to help and to help? Is there a plan on how to use that? Is that going to be for these community groups to help? Is helping the police? Or is that going to be for additional officers? Or is that going to be for additional neighborhood police officers? It would be good for more information to come. I'm sure there's already a plan. It'd be good for us to know what the plan is, because we need to be doing more in the community, in the neighborhoods. Because when I go downtown, because I go downtown a lot, I see a lot of police officers, but I don't see as many in the communities, in the in the various districts outside of downtown, midtown and Corktown. You know, I think there's an opportunity to increase the number of police officers that's actually serving in the different precincts, and not overdo it downtown. Also, I think that we need to make sure that we tried to encourage more Detroit residents to be on the Detroit Police Department. I think it's the numbers are horrible about the number of officers that live outside the city and the number of command officers to live outside the city. Thank you. Thank

you so much. Mr. Mika Williams, is the last speaker, sir. Yes,

sir, Mr. Miko Williams,

yes. Hi. Can I be heard? Please? Yes, sir, yes. Hi. Dmiko Williams, I'm a private citizen, resident, taxpayer, Legacy Detroiter. I would like to know if this body can tell me how many missing black women and children there are in the city of Detroit, and what are the efforts in the process is to find them. Do they get Amber Alerts? Do they get any type of notification, or do do is there blast sent out, and they don't have to be an emergency or a life threatening situation? But that's connected to all the complaints that have gone unanswered. You know, I ask this question at the council all the time, and I get no answer or response. And when I come here, I'm hoping that I can get those numbers so that we can find a way so that we can find missing black women and children instead of letting them, you know, be found dead in cars or in homes or things of that nature, as well as I'm concerned most definitely about what is this facial recognition for? I mean, we have so much surveillance in the city of Detroit, I wonder, do the cameras even work? How do you all monitor those cameras. If you all have a shortage, how do you all manage to get the information and such? If you can't comprehend, I mean, get real time information as to finding the location and whereabouts. I just heard about the Shot Spotter statistics and such. You know, while I can believe that it doesn't solve the crimes that should reduce to 15% or zero. I thought we were aiming for zero, but also the racism of this police department is out of control. You let Brandon Cole get back on the force. I don't give no care. Will he? He should be fired and removed. He'll be put under another department, but it's setting example, and this department, including its commissioners, have failed mostly.

Thank you very kindly. Can you

Deputy Chief give a update as relates to the missings and how people can stay in tune with that. I know there's a process for the department, I believe, vis a vis social media and other apparatus. So can you give us an update on that

through the chair

the department on a weekly basis? Post the missing numbers we post the year to date, how many, how many missings we have, and then how many have been recovered? It's on the department social media page on Facebook, and I believe it can also be accessed through x, x and Instagram. I believe I have a more concrete answer for the board tomorrow, but I know that we do post those to social media so the community can't see those and monitor those as well.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Moore, one

question that did come up through that last speaker, Miko Williams, was about Amber Alerts. Can you let the public know what the process is for getting the Amber Alert put out on so yes, so

for Amber Alert, that's a

statewide notification. Everybody knows it goes off on the phone. In order for that to actually be approved, departmentally, we have some things we have to do, then we submit it to the state, and the state makes the ultimate approval. If I'm correct, I believe that's the process. Has been a minute before since I've actually put out an Amber Alert, so I can double check on that to make sure. I think, if there's anyone here who's actually done it recently, let me know. Otherwise, I'll get back on the board to just confirm to what I put out was correct.

Yes. Commissioner,

so DC, if I could through the Chair, if I could just ask another question with regard to that, what is the timeline for issuing an Amber Alert like how? What is the gap, the time gap between the time the person is reported missing and the Amber Alert goes out? So

I'll just give a real quick sample. So officers get a call of a missing, they go and they confirm that there is a missing, either the missing is serious because of mental issues, or it's juvenile. So there are those cases where amber alert, we get the information, we get the photo release from the family, and then we submit that to, I believe we submitted, but through lean to the state and then it's released, the time, I would say, probably it doesn't take much, maybe one, two hours, yeah, once we have confirmation,

okay, I'm asking Miss blossom and our team To be able to make sure that those numbers, once we get those numbers, that we make sure on our social media handles and on our website that those numbers are included as they are included with the department. Yep, um,

yes, this

is like my second third meeting. My name is Michelle Goss live in Detroit all my life, when I hear people ask questions about their complaints as far as an officer being inappropriate or doing something that they think is wrong, like you all didn't address that. So what is the process? So, like, I understand if I'm sorry that people are but what is the process like if, if I have a claim, complain about somebody being racist towards me that's in this particular authority, I would like to know what's the process like? What do you do? Do you do anything that you can tell us so that when people make a comment like that, at least their mind can be at ease about, you know, something is being done? Well, that's

a good question. Is that's something that we have already investigated and something that has been adjudicated through the proper channels. And so a lot of times there's nothing, there's not a comment that we can make on it, because it's something that has already been done. This is our purview right here. These, these, these cases that's inside this folder, and we get stacks of folders on a weekly basis, and so we investigate citizen complaints police,

not the police, what guy was asking. So let me just do a clarifying question. Yes, ma'am, please. So is there a place you said it's already been adjudicated? So is there a place to say, hey, Michelle, you can go check whatever website. And this is the answer about what was

well, some of the stuff that was mentioned today was something over a year ago that that's been already addressed, and it's already been dealt with. So there's no reason for us to address something that we have no power over, and nothing we can do about it. You know, some things are you asking for you specifically, you saying in general, right?

Right? I just mean period. So if somebody so all stuff they brought up, I never heard those things before, right? Because I knew that this

well. If you go view some of our videos, you'll see a lot of stuff the board of police commissioners, right? Absolutely. Gotcha, you know. So a lot of this stuff is just Muddy Waters, you know. And rest assure, when there's a citizen complaint that our office of a chief investigator is going to make sure that those complaints get handled in a manner in which they should be be handled, you know. And if a person want to lodge a complaint, even in this room, they take that complaint here. And if they online, if they want to file a complaint, then they can. There's ways to do that too, online in here, or going to our office or chief investigator, you know. So, it's a process, you know. So, you know, sometimes, you know, there's, quite frankly, most of the people who speak at the Board of police commission speak every single week, and we meet every single week, you know, I think we meet too much, you know. We meet to just to meet, you know, and meet and meet and meet me, you know. And they are working and working and working and working in an officer, chief investigator. So we have a number of investigators who investigate cases on five days a week, and they are diligent in their investigations. They talk to the people who have the complaint. They can you explain the process, chief investigator? Because I think that is a very good question, and I appreciate the dialog, and we do, yeah, absolutely.

Thank you. And through the chair as chair Wood said that we have supervising investigators here and investigators here in the room at every meeting to make sure that if a citizen has a complaint, we take that information down immediately, and we go back and begin the investigative process. The investigative process typically in a normal fashion, when we're not backed up last somewhere between 60 maximum 90 days that it takes us to investigate the cases, but for a number of reasons, and we'll do another presentation on this very shortly. Right now, our office is backed up with complaints. But that doesn't mean we're not actively investigating complaints. We are, as a matter of fact, just for case of record, for the first quarter of this year, we closed, not just investigated, but closed 614 complaints, that's from January through March, and we received 473 new complaints from January through March, meaning that for the first time in a number of years, we have actually closed more complaints than we receive in that particular period of time. And so our investigators, all 21 investigators, are working extremely hard, very diligently, and we interview the officers, so we guarantee the officers we gather all of the evidence that we do. One of the things we're not going to do is compromise the thoroughness of the investigation is unfortunately, some of the investigations may take a little bit of time to get all of the evidence we need to come to a correct finding. Now the one of the things that you might also need to know is that we don't get involved in the disciplinary process, so we don't recommend the discipline, nor do we sanction the discipline in any way. Our job is to make sure we find the evidence and find the facts and present that to this board and to the department for them to carry it further. But our investigators work sometimes six I work sometimes seven days a week to make sure that we are doing it the best we can. We we know that it is an issue with the public, which is why we work so hard and just so you know the progress of how we're getting those complaints in. About a year ago, we were handing in about 15 maybe 20 complaints a week to the board for them to sign. Now we're doing 48 to 50 complaints every week for the board to sign off on, because those investigations have been completed. This board, under this leadership, has worked very diligently to make sure that our office have been fully staffed with investigators, and we had gone years without that, without our staff being fully staffed. So we're doing the very best we can. Certainly, I can go into more detail at another meeting, but I just want you to know that we are working very diligently to get the job done.

Yes, and and also it. We cannot compromise the investigation by speaking about it publicly on certain things too. You know, because we answer the investigations are addressed through this and through the through the process. And so when there's time for us to comment on something, we'll comment on it. You know, just like if he was here earlier, we asked about the video that was out there surfacing, because that it was of public interest. And we want to make sure that the public understood what was going on in that with that process, you know, so and take a look at that dashboard. Take a look at our citizen complaint dashboard. You'll see the trends. There anything else before we don't have a quorum. Mr. Chair,

yes sir, if I could. So the first I wanted to answer the question, I did get confirmation. So it's the Detroit Police Department's missing page that's on Facebook. Currently, year to date, we had 585 missings. 507 have been recovered. 29 were runaways, and 49 are missing, so that's where we stand right now, and that's our year to date number, and it's updated weekly on the department's Facebook page for Detroit police missing and then for the Amber Alert. That was a confirmation local law enforcement. We get all the information together, and then we submit to Michigan State Police if it fits the criteria to release as an Amber Alert, then Michigan State Police will issue that alert.

Yes, yes, ma'am, excuse me. Commissioner banks, you go after her. Ladies first.

Okay, all right, thank you. Through the Chair. Just a quick question with regard to the numbers that you just mentioned, are they divided or separated by demographics, age, etc.

So we're actually working on that now. Chief medicine, we received a report, I believe it was about two weeks ago, and he wanted to have a breakdown by age and sex and by ethnicity as well

the chair, I would think that it would be very important that we know how many juveniles are missing as I mean, everybody has a priority, but especially young children. I would think, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner banks, thank you.

Thank you through the Chair. Thank you through the Chair. Yes, there was a a young man shot by the Detroit Police Department on the west side of Detroit. Uh, Deputy Chief, I'm requesting a video cam on that, if you could help me out, please, because I want to make sure that the Detroit Police Department followed protocol, followed standard procedure when this altercation went down. And then also, I like to possibly, if I could relay this message to you to reach out to the family, because I'm willing to be a shoulder for the family to lean on

through the chair Commissioner, can you Give me the date on that incident, the date the

if you don't have, I get from a later time

deputy, I mean Deputy Chief. All I have is to Detroit. I mean the young man that was 16 years old, he was shot on the west side of Detroit. And I don't have a date.

I believe I believe I am familiar with this. This happened last year. Yes, yes, okay, I'm familiar with this. I'll, I'll make sure you get that information. Appreciate that.

Okay, through the Chair, if I may. Yes, sir.

Uh, chair, you did ask a question about a incident that was seen on social media with two officers who were wrestling appear to be wrestling suspect who got away. So the suspect did get away. He briefly got away. The officers were investigating for domestic violence. After the scuffle, both officers appear to possibly be suffering from broken fingers. We're still waiting on the final diagnosis of that. But the canine was ordered, the suspect was, he was taken into custody, and both officers are, are fine. We just seen if they have possible broken fingers from the

Tulsa. Um, that's that's satisfied Commissioner Moore, very much. Yep. When did that happen?

That happened on the sixth on the

sixth okay April 6 All right.

Then another further commissioners.

We don't have a quorum, so this meeting is adherent.