It's three o'clock. Is January the 30th. The Board of police commission meeting is called to ordering in progress.
He's right on time.
The chaplain is not online, so I'm going to ask Commissioner banks to
open up an invocation. I
Yes, sir, Mister Chair father. We thank you right now for allowing us to come into another day. We thank you for your presence here today as we go forth, we ask that you will give us the words to say that will touch those in the community, those out in zoom, Facebook in Jesus, name, amen. Amen.
We ask that the secretary call the roll Commissioner
woods, present
Commissioner Bernard,
Attorney Linda Bernard. District Two, present
Commissioner banks. Present Commissioner Bell District Four,
Commissioner Burton, President on behalf of district five, Commissioner
you. We have a quorum. Entertain a motion to approve the january 30, 2025, agenda, so moved second, moved by Commissioner Bernard and supported by Commissioner Moore. Any discussion, all in favor, all everybody. Say, aye. Anyone opposed, the motion is carried, entertain a motion to for the approval of the minutes for January, 23 2025, moved by Commissioner Moore, second, second, by Commissioner Bernard. Any discussion? All in favor. Say, aye. Anyone opposed the motion is carried, please introduce the bill, PC staff and elected officials and so on, so forth.
Present at this time, Chairman R Dante Goss attorney, chief investigator, Jerome Warfield, virtually, Ansley Cromwell, OCI, Mary Barber, Teresa blossom, Robert Brown, Drew freeze, Candice Hayes, Army, CEO, Joshua, Jasmine, Taylor, Felicia Tyson and Johnny Underwood, interpreters, Michi and Doctor Beatty virtually Charles Henry media services and HR director Patillo, Lieutenant Mark young, former Commissioner William Davis, former commissioner Darryl Brown, Marie overall and Freya Butler, those are present at this time, sir.
Okay, as relates to the Chief, Chief of Police Report, we're going to entertain a motion to waive that report. Second
Madam Secretary, I apologize, sir, Deputy Chief Tiffany Stewart is sitting in for interim chief medicine.
Yep, entertain a motion in a way the chief of police report moved by Commissioner Moore, second by Commissioner Bernard, and discussion, all in favor, say, aye, aye. Anyone opposed motion is kicked your post, yes, okay, all right. One one opposed, okay, the eyes have it. Let's move on. Let's go to oral communications.
Mr. Chair, we have five speakers in person, one on Zoom. Mr. Landon will be first after Mr. Landing, former commissioner Darryl Brown, former Commissioner William Davis. How you have them doing it? They sit there. Yes, I'm sorry. Please come to the mic, state your name and speak directly into the mic,
honorable commissioners and commission as a whole. My name is Roger landin, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. I was under the impression that this portion was going to come after the interviews, but let me just go ahead and say what I came to say, because I would have said it before or after. It is my sincere hope that as you deliberate over everyone, and I'm sure you have all five candidates qualified in their own right, but the one thing that came up in my understanding of one of the primary criteria is a relationship with community. And I would like to state that to my knowledge, our acting interim chief Todd Betts and former deputy mayor the city of Detroit, has that connectivity with community through that experience that only added to his previous experience on the force and going forward, I believe, and again, I don't know the other candidates, but I believe for Detroit that he would make the best person going forward to be chief, and encourage you to take all of that into consideration as you deliberate. I know that decision won't be made here. You're sending three candidates up to the mayor, but within the context of that, make sure that Todd Benison is one of those three. Thank you.
Thank you. Next speaker, Let the record reflect that Commissioner Presley is present.
You may be hurt.
Good afternoon, good afternoon. Board.
I'm former police commissioner Darryl Brown. I too have set where you're sitting and having to make this decision when it was concerning with Chief white and I'm here to speak on behalf of interim chief Todd Bettison. We all know that while we were on the board, we watched
chief ascend
through the ranks of Detroit police department through his service as a police officer and act and an assistant chief, then went on to be the deputy mayor. One of the strongest points that he has exhibited is it is his relationship with our communities. You know, there's no one on here that I've researched to people. There's no one on here that has the community background and the relationships with our communities that Chief betterson has, and not only that, he has a respect and probably, and I'm pretty sure, the back end of his police department, his officers with him coming up. So I would just urge you to really consider him as one of those three. Can those names that you forward over to the mayor when you guys deliberate on that. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments and thank you for your leadership. Next speaker,
well, hello everyone. Hello, I'm here because you know, I'm just amazed that y'all still do not already have these televised live, because the whole city of Detroit is interesting. What's going on today right now. In fact, I've talked to city council about getting our meetings televised live, and it sounds like they want to do that. As you know, I was a former elected police commissioner, and I think that y'all actually have too many candidates on your list. You're going to interview too many people. You know, I think that you should not be interviewing people that's under investigation or they have been internal reports on them. I think I'm sure if I was on the board still, it would be an easy choice for me to make, because I am a strong advocate for community involvement. Whoever the permanent chief should be, should be someone who has strong community commitment, someone the community knows and respects. You know, you may not always agree with that particular individual, but you could respect that position and understand where they come from. That's how I have to say for today. Thank
you for very much.
Mister Chair, yes, I just want to just add that you know Commissioner Bill Davis and Commissioner Darrell Brown is two great leaders here in the community that once served on this board, and two honorable men, you know, just amazing leadership, far as what they offer to the board years of experience as well as the community, Those are the two greatest commissioners to ever served on this board, and I'm honored to have served with both of them.
Absolutely, those my two good friends. They got to catch up with Commissioner Presley, though,
go ahead, hello through the chair. This is for you.
Last week, when I was at the Board of commission meeting. You said all the complaints I've been complaining about that have been taken care of. To OCI, that's not true. So, like I said, I've been coming here almost. It's going on two years. So basically, everything that I've been discussing, you know, the intentions to conceal, oh, high evidence on crimes and wrongdoings, lying all type of stuff, destroying evidence, manipulating information, everything I've been speaking about concerning what's been going on, falsifying reports from the beginning, from the 12 precinct, when she falsified reports to go to the prosecutor to get a search warrant, when they came into my house illegally, but everything I've been speaking about is not acceptable when you said it's been taken care and that's not the truth. So on record is not what you said was a lot and see, and the issue is this is I understand what's going on today, and I respect that due process, but when you put somebody in this position, that person should have integrity, have ties to the community, and be very transparent, transparent. Can you hear me accountability on every aspect of their job? Period? That's the bottom line. And I've been talking about police officers in their own facilities, staying in shelters. You all act like this doesn't exist. You know how cold it's been outside, and these officers are starting off with 55,003 $1,000 signing bonus, and they taking up bed space. This is not acceptable period when they have the means to pay rent. So you all sit up here act like it's all take it's all good, but it's not, it's not acceptable, and if you can do your job, you really don't need to be up there. Thank you very much. And have a good day. Thank
you. Have a nice day. Next speaker,
our next speaker will be Miss Padilla Butler, after Miss Butler, it will be Stephen Grady Muhammad and Pastor Mo and then we'll go into zoom. I
think you had a couple others, Bishop Bellis and all those you know, did y'all turn in cards? Okay? Alright, go ahead.
Miss Butler, how you doing?
Well? Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon as That stated, January 20, we are in for some dark times. Project 2025, and I passed out hundreds of copies. It's now being implemented. I am very concerned for our black and brown young men. Mr. Trump has already informed the police how to treat them. He still believes the story about the five young black men in New York officers who shouldn't be police officers are going to use the old justification to kill and say, I thought he had a weapon. We have heard that phrase too many times when that happens, I hope you will not be intimidated and do what is just Commissioner woods, you told me what you are doing in our schools. We need more men to get involved and become mentors and model behavior of being a man, many students have not been taught our history in their homes and not being taught our true history in our schools. We all must show up and do something we will not regress. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Next speaker,
through the chair, yes sir, good afternoon, honorable body and good friends. My name is Stephen Grady Muhammad. I think you know why I'm here today. I'm here to advocate for you know, in in our city and across the country, everybody's saying now, don't use the I word. So I'm not going to use that I word. I'm here to advocate for Chief Todd Betten. I met Todd 20 years ago in the streets. Many of the people you see here in the audience, I know because they're in the streets, and as we do that work in the streets trying to bring peace and reduce crime in this city, Todd has not only been a partner and a friend, but also a leader. But I want to talk about the other side of the coin as well, because everybody talks about how chief medicine is, you know, connected to the people, connected to the streets. He's also connected to the rank and file of the Detroit Police Department. I talk to everybody. You all know that when I talk to the rank and file of the Detroit Police Department, they have hope, they have respect, and they are excited for the new Detroit police department that is going to occur as a result of Chief medicines leadership. So as I close, I'll say this, some people may say you all have a hard job. I say you don't have a hard job. Your decision is very easy. Todd bellison for Chief of Detroit Police. Thank you.
Next speaker, you
Abdo, what up? Dog
lessons, blessings, peace. My name is Pastor Maurice Hardwick, founding and pastor to live in power ministry founded the Living Peace Movement. I'm here to represent my endorsement for the one and only grassroots street graves made chief of police in the history of policing. Todd Edison,
ain't nobody else like him in the country.
They threw him down into the community as a demotion, but it was God promotion. I don't think you become chief of police from a community liaison. But it happened because he ended up coming in the streets and meet with real activists, real people, real problems. He raised up a standard and fought with us, stood with us. Every group in the city that's that got power from where Detroit four, 300 though fourth, Detroit People's Action to probably bring every activist group here, some of some even up there, sitting up there. I'm missing anybody else, but certainly me, Pastor, Mo, live in peace. We all stood toe to toe with this man, and fought many, many battles in this city, for the poor, the underserved, murdered children, cast his drop. I don't watch this man. Paper funerals out his own pocket. Put a mother who was shot left eight kids help him. Put him in the house out his own pocket. I don't watch people talk down on him up top, afraid of his power. And he stood like a champ and took it for the team. He do it for the police department. He cried blue, but he bleed Detroit. That is our chief. That is our man. We ain't messing with nobody else. Let's go.
Thank you very kindly. Next speaker,
thank you, Mr. Chair, our next speaker, our next three speakers will be Bishop Ellis, the one so and please excuse my mispronunciation of your name, nicas, ve or boo. Thank
you for this opportunity to speak Mr. Charles Ellis, Pastor Grace Temple City of David in Detroit, Michigan, and to the honorable board. First of all, I need one of those countdowns for those big funerals at my church. You can say two minutes, but everybody takes five. Everybody takes five. But if I have countdown, I can hold them accountable. But anyhow, let me know I pick up one of those. Anyhow, get into the order of business. But Detroit is a very unique place. I've been here for 62 of my 67 years, and I've grew up in truck. Grew up right around the corner here at Webb and Dexter two family flat. My dad came over here 2626 years old, and 62 stated the YMCA right down the street there at Grand River, West Grand Boulevard in Dexter, moved over to the drive to Detroit golf course. And I've seen Detroit, seen all parts of Detroit, seen Detroit doing the riots, 1967 and we could believe I could see tanks riding up and down Livernois. I mean, only thing I knew about tanks was the little GI Joe toys that we had seen in the bad times, good times World Series. And the list goes on and on, and now we see a Detroit, a Detroit that is vibrant, a Detroit that is rocking and rolling. We need strong policing, but we need neighborhood policing as well, and I would hope that we would be able to elect somebody from within. I think it's a slap in the face to all these men and women in blue who serve this community and who serve in this police department, to have to go outside and bring somebody in. Detroit is a very complicated place, but I love it to life, and I believe that Chief medicine is the man who can carry the respect of the rank and file and also have the respect of the community. And I certainly hope that we would do the right thing and to elect this man from inside. I think when you got what you need in the house. No sense in looking all over the country. So I might support just for Chief Todd medicine, and I would hope you all would elect him. Thank
you very kindly. And I want to thank the thank the bishop for opening up his church for officer Richardson. And I was a very powerful service. And all the things that you do for the Detroit Police Department and the community. Thank you very kindly. Next speaker,
I'm Executive My name is the one so executive director of force Detroit. I'm speaking on behalf of our founder, ale heart B Quinn and the rest of our organization, we have seen historical reductions in Detroit's violent crimes under the leadership of Todd betterson,
I came home in 2019 with a
indoctrinated
with this stance against law enforcement, community organizers Embrace me, took me in. I have my story, George Floyd was going on, and they said, Let's go downtown. We got to go downtown. Police saying we need to stop people from tearing up the city. And in my ignorance, I said, No, it's revolution. We should be tearing it up. They told me, No, we went down there and we protected the city, and I seen the men and women, the community organizers who embraced me when I couldn't go in or I didn't want to hang in bars and in the streets with my friends, those People, those organizers, embraced me and showed me the way, and what they showed me is a deep level of respect for our law enforcement, our city is different. These relationships took decades to develop. You don't get out of prison after all this time and be in position how a man like myself is in position without leadership within this city, and betterson has been that. So I'm here to support the brother, because the brother has been supportive to the movement and community leaders. This is the city that respects community leaders, and I respect that and support that. Thank you.
Thank you very Connie, nice speaker.
Hey, peace of love. Peace of love, good. I want to commend all you on the work that y'all doing. I know it's not an easy task. I stand here before you the representation of the People's Action. I'm the president and founder. Also, I can attest to what many of them have said in regards to time say your name for the record. Oh, I'm sorry, niggas, boo, some of you know my work. Some of you may not, but I've been on both ends the spectrum. I've been an agitator, and sometimes I've been a supporter as well. So I'm very unbiased, because at any point, I can be on the agitating side as well. I'm all about the people and I'm about the empowerment of the people, and that's why I'm here for Todd Bettison, I can attest as to why Kennedy said about the organizers embracing them. I was the one, one of the ones who convinced him of the leadership of Todd Bettison. When you think about George Floyd and what happened in George with George Floyd, Detroit is the only city that didn't get tore down or burned down. It was because of the community activists. It was because of the organizers that was downtown, and that was primarily due to the relationship that Todd Bettison has built with the activists, with the public eye, and also his respect that he has with DPD. When you talk about somebody who has a high level of emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills, decision making, all of these things, he's a he's excellent at, and he also understands the relationships between the community and the DPD. So he's a person that's what I think pastor mo quoted. That's a hybrid. He's a combination of, you know, former chief white and chief Craig, and himself as an intellectual. So this is a perfect option. I don't see nobody else who's better, and I don't see any other candidate that would have these many people come up here, this magnitude, with this much influence and power to advocate on his behalf. So please, please, please, I stand before you to choose to I best and thank you all peace. Thank
you very kind next speaker.
Our next three speakers will be Mr. Ru
Bishop, Darryl Harris, and sincere. I'll tablet. I'm sorry for butchering your name. Excuse
me. Don't approach us. Excuse me, excuse me.
Can y'all remove him?
Take it back there. Man
blossom, can you grab the doc?
What is it? Pass it out. Well, yeah, you give it to someone. What is it? What's the document? What is the document? I take one shit. Thank you.
Yes, you may be heard.
Have a seat, sir. And speaking of Mike, please, Mike,
I can do I gotta speak in the mic. I can talk loud enough. Yeah, yeah. I joined this union. Youngest number 91 at the age of 16. My first take home check was $2,653
1984
I also clocked 101 hours on the clock at this union,
my grandmother
had her centennial celebration, and it's room we in right now, but I had for you. It's a letter. Letterhead says medical, Madison, Madison Square Gardens. It's a letter I wanted all four of y'all to have. Kenisha Coleman did not shoot herself. I'm a stand up, 100 individual and I'll go all around this whole city, 16 different neighborhoods I lived in. I never had to proud them. Well, today I'm officially of bond restrictions Since 2021 bond restrictions, nine arrests, nine, eight to the Detroit determination center and one to Detroit receiving hospital Samaritan behavior center. 13 whole days, 13 with some nut cases till I got up out of that sugar, honey, iced tea, I ain't broke no laws or committed no crimes this time. Now, Darrell woods, I told you to ask Mark about me. Now I'm going to let the whole city of Detroit know. Venetia Coleman did not shoot herself. I said, the name of the individual who did it. There was a seven and a half the 10 minute time period she was dropped off at the fast food restaurant where she was worked at.
Thank you very kindly. Next speaker, I'm
not appreciative of how the cards failed that I came behind that powerful Bishop Daryl Harris, I'm with the faith based coalition the city of Detroit, and also with cease fire Detroit. Speaking to microphone please. I'm sorry. Bishop Darryl Harris, with faith based coalition of Detroit, and also with cease fire, Detroit. I just want to take just a couple of seconds, if possible, to draw our attention in our memory, back to the year 2020. Myself and a few other persons that are even in this room stood at 130, 1/3, street, surrounded by a mob of people standing there with all metal objects and throwing things and declaring that they be shown respect. I remember an officer coming out and taking to the front of that stage.
And as he stood there
deliberating what to do,
he took to a knee.
And when he took to a knee, every one of the Mob members that were there also took a knee. But more powerful than that from this officer was to see him when he was questioned by news reporters on why he did it,
he said these words
because it was the right thing to do.
I think we need someone in this position that will do things because it's the right thing to do, and that is why my advocacy is for Chief Todd medicine. Thank you all. Thank you, sir.
Next speaker. You
and we'll make those two two last in house speakers, right there.
Good afternoon.
Sincere. Altale is my name, CEO of sincere, Principal Consultant group. I am also the legal liaison to cease fire Detroit. I'm here to advocate for Todd Bettison, I'll say this, once upon a time, I was a returning citizen. I don't even look at myself in that manner anymore. Todd bettyson shook my head. Chief shook my hand six or seven years ago and told me that he wasn't worried about my history. He was worried about what I was doing today. And for that reason, I've been able to be criticized as well as be a part of solution. So, you know, once upon a time, I was a part of the problem. Now I'm a part of that solution without certain people and certain entities coming into place, I would not have been able to do the work that I'm able to do in my community today. That's something that I truly take pride in. I had never been able to do anything constructive and it be seen, and I've never been one to come into the forefront. I've never wanted to be seen. But the ability being able to be placed in a position to be able to give back to the community that I had to leave and do so much wrong again, and for someone to literally look me in my life, I mean, look me in my my eyes, and shake my hand and give me the opportunity. He was a part of a team of individuals that had to make a decision on me I would not have given me a chance, you know, so to wake up one day and see that it was a police officer who actually gave me a chance that means a lot to me. I'm willing to use every bit of influence that I have to do everything that I can in this city for my people, anybody who looks like me and who does it looks like me has absolutely nothing to do with the color of my skin, but people come from my situation, and you know my support is there for Todd. Thank you. Thank
you very kindly. Next speaker,
our last two speakers in house is Mr. Whitney Clark and Reverend Wendell Anthony. Then we'll go to zoom with four speakers. Okay,
good afternoon, good evening. Again. My name is Whitney Clark from the living waters, church administrator at the oasis of hope. Church right behind Dutch girls donuts. We've heard a great deal about Mr. Betterson and his just his character. I want to take a different approach. I want to talk about the climate that we foresee as young advocates in the city. We are anticipating a time where the spirits of the Detroiters, everyday Detroiters, the boys and the girls in this city, their spirits, are about to be raised through a series of different challenges and community changes that we're about to take place. And what I and what I mean when I say that is you need someone on the on the police force, that has the respect of the community, that has a steady hand, someone who has a reputation for integrity. And I'll tell you a couple of times, and you know, in this city, we are, we're all well aware of the fact that you know your your the way that you're treated sometimes is contingent upon in your last name. But I can tell you that I'm not someone with a high name recognition, and Todd Benson has always been professional and Kind and Courteous, and those are the things that you need, not only in an individual, but in the climate that we foresee ourselves coming to where, again, where we are about to engage in a way where we can fight for our education and fight for the freedom of our, of our, of our people. In the in the reform, in the in the housing sector, in the tax reform, there are a number of different issues that may cause calamity in our in our community. From a from a from a protest, a protesting perspective, civil rights activists lifting their voices against the powers that be. You need a police chief like Todd medicine, someone who can be trusted in this regard. And so again, I just I echo the sentiments of everyone that I've heard speaking about this individual. We believe that he is someone that we need, not because of his character, but because of the because of the days we foresee ourselves going into. And so again, I echo those sentiments, and I hope that you will hear us out in that regard. Thank you very much. Have
a nice one. Reverend Wendell Anthony,
it's preach,
let me say good afternoon to everybody. Good afternoon.
As unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I
do want to thank you for this opportunity. I um,
it's not often that I
come and advocate for the police.
I've been formally trying to avoid them, but as I've grown and matured and understood the role of police officers in what they do, terms of putting their lives on the line every day for
me and mine, if I get in trouble, I ain't calling
somebody who advocates on what I'm calling the police. And when I've called them. They have come. I represent the Detroit branch NACP, the largest branch of the NACP in the nation. We've had sessions with police officers. I used to chair a committee that was formed by former police chief Benny Napoleon. We remember him, and it was during the time of knowledge green when he was killed and used by force, and they used the Kell light. Kell light is no longer used city of Detroit, as I understand it, by Virtu to work that we and others did talk about how traumatic that was. I remember being in sessions with Willie Bell relative to just having the blue pigs to come and advocate for a solid relationship between the community and the police, and we're not just a singing and performing group, but they perform to bring people together. Todd Bettison brings people together. I
don't even know why we're going through this exercise,
but I know there is a process, and I respect it. Speaker prior to me talked about the critical nature of the times that we are in. These are very, very, very critical times. Most of us have never known a time like this. People are afraid. They don't know what to do. They're in a tizzy. I'm getting calls from everywhere. What should we do? How are we going to handle this? Ice is on seven mile in Livernois.
Ice,
freezing the community, creating fear and have
it's the beginning of a new era.
Now is not the time for somebody that needs to come in here and learn what's happening here. Now is not the time to bring somebody in that we got to teach where certain skeletons are and what potholes you want to avoid and what streets you might want to go down. Now is not the time to change an individual who seems to be helping us to win this race, you are being successful. The Detroit Police Department has moved to a point where now it can become a model, particularly in the area of police and community relations.
As you wind up to two minutes, was that two minutes?
Oh, I thought they didn't tell me.
I'm sorry. I apologize. I
apologize, but let me, let me conclude by saying this.
We would make a grave error
by not bringing Todd MADISON
To the permanent position of cheetah police of the city of Detroit. He has earned it. He has worked for it, he has demonstrated it, and he has the community behind him to support it. That's why we need him. So if y'all looking for somebody out there, dang thing, if you got somebody in hand, deal with that, we'd rather have taught medicine a little stumbling than to get somebody else and do a whole lot of tumbling relative to the police and community that we're involved in. So let the word go forth. When I leave here. I'm saying I know they made the right decision, and that's Todd medicine for police chief of the city of Detroit, thanking you for the two minutes that you gave me. You're welcome. Let's go.
Mr. Chair now we're going to go into zoom. Our first speaker is Miss Tara Brown, after Miss Brown, it'll be Robert Polinski and Miss Betty Barner, and then we'll have the last speaker. Scotty boltman,
thank you, Miss Tyra Brown, you may be hurt. Good evening.
Commission, good evening. This is a really important decision you all are making. We need a police chief that knows how to be transparent, competent experience. And as Reverend Anthony just said, we don't need somebody that has to come in here and be taught. I'm not advocating in particularly for anyone. I don't really know Todd medicine. What I do know is we need to pay attention with the way that the person that is hired engages with the community, because right now, there are some big things going on right now. Again, as Reverend Anthony pointed out, ice is everywhere they are in neighborhoods where I don't feel like they belong anywhere, but they're especially in neighborhoods where they don't belong. And what we also need to consider is there are black Latino people in southwest Detroit. So even if it's not a you problem, it is a you problem. There are people are over there, black and brown people are our people, and again, they have to be protected, and we need a police chief that's fully prepared to deal with the good and the bad of what is going to become of them infiltrating our neighborhoods, because once they feel like they've rounded them up in southwest, then they're going to be rounding up people that they are not here to round up again. We also need to do things decent and in order, and we need to hire a police chief that's going to do that. We've seen what happens when we pluck police chiefs out of other communities. There are things that went well and then there were things that went not so well. So again, this is a serious decision. I hope there's been a better job of screening candidates for this position than there were for the Secretary position. Thank God you all found somebody, because those first batch candidates were a disaster. So again, if that's what you all have done with this, maybe it is time to look within but whoever you decide, make sure that they are competent experience and prepared to work with Detroit. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Next speaker,
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board of police commissioners. My name is Robert plowsky. I'm a transit advocate, and I'm a long time activist here in the city and our region. Today, I want to extend my full support for interim chief Todd Betten. When I first met Todd Bettison, it was actually during a bus ride along in late last year, group of us, advocates that advocate for better public transportation and transparency with DDOT, were able to do a ride along with him in the morning. He was absolutely the man of integrity, understanding and the charismatic self that he presents himself in this community. I don't want to echo too many comments here by advocates and residents in the city, but most of all, Reverend Anthony for his amazing comments about Todd Bettison, we need somebody that can lead us into the future. Stand up for issues that matter to the community, stand up against the injustice all across this country and make an in big improvement here in this city, making residents feel like that. They can reach out to the city chief of police or any police department in branch this city. We need true leadership like Todd Bettison and echoing some comments here from advocates that couldn't make it, brother Cunningham, I truly know what it takes to be a tremendous leader. When you're an activist, you have to be able to work in community engagement, and I've shown that, and trust me, Todd Bettison represents those values of everybody here in this room working alongside the community to make improvements for the city while creating the transparency and relationships needed to improve the community. I ask for your vote in endorsing Todd Betten for Chief of Police for the city of Detroit, we will receive change, and we have a lot more improvements that need to be come forward, but this is the way to do it. I say yes, so please invest in Todd Bettison for Chief of Police. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank
you very kindly. Two more speakers and one, two. Okay, next speaker,
good afternoon. I'm Betty, a Barner, president of DeSoto Ellsworth black Association. Good afternoon. I'm also a city resident for 75 years, born and raised, I love my city. I am in support and ditto everything that everyone has said for acting chief Todd Bettison, he is the type of guy he cares about the residents of the city of Detroit. He's a hands on type of person that you are comfortable to talk to, and he takes the time to listen. That's very important. He probably don't remember me, but I remember him. I am really part of the Detroit city citizens Police Academy Alumni Association. I'm not active now cause of my health, but I remember when acting chief Todd Edison, he would attend our meetings, and he would be doing the same thing, helping us to be supportive of the police department, listening to concerns and being a hands On, type of person that we could talk to He's been our deputy mayor, doing the same thing, talking to the people, being a hands on type of person. He's a man of his word. These are, these are the type of characters, the characteristics that we need for a chief. And it was very inspirational for me to hear today that the officers, they love him and care about the chief and respect him. I am in support of him being our next chief. I yield my time. Thank you.
Thank you. Final speaker.
Final speaker, yeah, I was muted. Um, can you hear me now? Yes, sir. Okay, yeah. Um, well, I think we all pretty much know who the next um who's going to be selected for um, the chief in the long term. So with all due respect to the other candidates, um, and that that's something I'm pretty sure. There's other things that I'm fairly sure. I'm fairly sure that um, Mr. Bettson will continue to be as accessible and as with the community, and you know, doing the right thing, as far as policy allows them to do. And I'm confident that will also happen. But what I do also want to bring up here is that the chief of police and the board of police commissioners have very different duties, and they both need to keep that in mind, commissioners, remember, you are civilian oversight of the police department, and while we largely support our police. We also need to be quite stern with the individuals who don't live up to our reasonable expectations of what they should do. I want to keep that in mind also the board sets policy, and I did mention I believe our new Chief will do the right thing up to what's allowed by policy, but the board sets policy, and keep some policies in mind. We need to have more ready access to video, and you yourselves should have almost as quick as physically possible access to that video. We need to reduce the surveillance state in this city. We need to not have so much invasive technology on people's private lives. So thank you for your time.
Thank you very much.
We're going to go to the secretary report,
the report this afternoon, sir, are the announcements the weekly report. OCI report is in your binder for today, and the announcements of the upcoming events are as follows. Next board meeting is next, Thursday, February 6, three o'clock pm at Detroit Public Safety headquarters. The next community meeting is Thursday, February 13, 6:30pm location is in the 11th pre cent at say, Detroit place center, Van Dyke Avenue in Detroit. Committee meetings coming. Policy Committee next Tuesday, February 4, 5pm at DPS headquarters, citizen complaints committee meeting February 11 at 3pm at headquarters, and the budget committee will meet again on Tuesday, February 11 at 4:30pm at headquarters, and that is the report for this afternoon, sir. Thank
you very Connie. What is the pleasure as to unfinished business as item a
Chair, I move that we postpone item A into our next meeting. Second
motion made by Commissioner Presley and second by who? Second Commissioner Hernandez. Any discussion. All in favor? Say, aye. Anyone opposed. The motion is carried as it relates to the chief of police interviews. All interviews of candidates for the chief of police must be held pursuant to the Open Meetings Act. MCL 15.26,
a, 8f,
pursuant to the city of Detroit charter article seven, that executive branch, chapter eight, police, section seven, dash 805, Chief of Police, the following is to occur. The Board of police commissioners shall conduct a professional search with a executive search firm to identify candidates for Chief of Police and to provide the mayor a list of three qualified candidates. TJ s staffing services have identified or TJ Adams, staffing services have identified candidates as announced at last week's meeting and are listed on today's agenda. Mr. Tom Adams and TJ staffing services staff are present today to assist with this interview process, pursuant to the Open Meetings Act MCL, 15.26, 8f, all. Interviews of candidates for the chief of police must be held in open session. Interviews are being held in today's open session. Support material, instructions and guidelines for the interview process have been received by all commissioners. In advance of this meeting, commissioners will interview the selected candidates for Chief of Police and follow the instruction format of one question each and appropriate relevant follow up questions Where applicable after the interviews pursuant to the city of Detroit charter article seven, the executive branch, chapter eight, police, sec post, Section 7805, Chief of Police, the board is to select the top three candidates as the board's qualified list of candidates. The final list of candidates names will be adopted by the Board in an open session, then submitted to the mayor for final consideration. We will turn this portion now over to the chair of the personnel and training committee, and as he would or I will go to Mr. Adams, and we'll start our you can go get our first candidate, and then the question portion will be turned over to the chair of the personnel and training committee, Commissioner Hernandez, Mr.
Adams, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. First of all, I appreciate the opportunity of this commission giving us the ability to be able to provide the candidates for the search being our third run here, having provided chief Craig as well as chief white to this organization, so I thank you very much. Our first candidate is ready to come in, Miss Bowman,
and our first candidate
is interim chief Todd Dennison. And I bring your attention to the presentation book that you have here. We have all the information about them, including the summary. So I'll forgo giving any type of summary. But I would state to you that in reading this book, you should pay close attention to not only the 9090 day plan that each has presented, but you should pay attention to the personal profile, because that gives you in detailed knowledge as to how each person functions and gets their their job done. So that I'll turn this over to Mr. Hernandez and welcome Mr. Better, Chief Bettis and he will continue the rest of the questioning.
Thank you so much, sir. Before we begin, I'll remind my fellow Commissioners you have received instruction prior to this as to how we'll conduct these interviews. You have a scoring rubric that is in front of you that contains 11 total questions based on the fact that we do want to make sure it's not only a thorough interview, but one that's that's quick and expeditious in nature. We're actually going to use the rating rubric on a scale of one to five. Please make sure that you mark the rating that you desire based on each candidate. Will do an aggregate for our closed session. For the sake of time, we're going to actually do questions 124578,
and 11. So again, that's questions 124578, and 11. And with that, sir, we'll begin. This is an opportunity for you to showcase some of your your background, your experience, obviously your ties to community. You have lots of supporters here, and I'll ask the same exact questions to every single candidate for consistency. So the very first question is, summarize both your educational background and work experience, and what is the greatest accomplishment in your law enforcement career and why,
through the chair and to the board. Thank you for that. It is definitely my pleasure to be here today. My educational achievement is I have a business certificate from the mike Ilis School of Business. I also have a undergraduate degree, a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. I've also have professional certificates in Lean Six Sigma from Oakland University. And then also, I took the course with the city of Detroit, which deals with process improvement, continuous improvement. Very proud of that, which helps me to streamline processes and ensure that things are very efficient and run effectively. Briefly about my background, some of the things that I'm very proud of is recently my last position being selected by Mayor Duggan to be Deputy Mayor of the City of Detroit, being Deputy Mayor of the city, I'll talk briefly about it while I was there. One thing that I'm proud of is an initiative that I implemented, which was called Jump Start. Having a police background, served over 27 years with the police department and law enforcement, but being able to go over to City Hall and learn some new skills with the initiative jump start, it allowed me to create a program using American rescue plan ag dollars, where we targeted long term unemployed Detroiters who had been unemployed for six months or more. And with that, allocating and earmarking money for it, we actually, I actually, through that program, got over 1000 long term unemployed Detroiters working, and so it's a successful program. It's ongoing. It pays individuals to get their education and connects them with jobs. Also in the role as deputy mayor, in being with my police background, I initiated a program called community violence intervention, our shot stoppers program, which is CVI, and that program, we were able to select the most violent areas in the city of Detroit, three to five square miles. And we put out a NOFA, a Notice of Funding Opportunity availability, where they bid it. We got 25 applications. Six groups were ultimately selected, and I can tell you that it has been successful. We put metrics to it, and in those areas, they have lowered crime. And all six groups at one point in time have gotten awards. And what I mean by that is, on the east side of Detroit, for example, just the past quarter, Detroit, friends and family lowered homicides and non fatal shootings by 80% beating the city wide trend force Detroit has lowered in their area up to 73% which has contributed to the overall reduction in violence. Now one of the most proudest moments in my career that I can really point back to is back in 2006 also 2005 where I was the public safety coordinator for the MLB All Star game and for Super Bowl. I led that initiative and actually created the blueprint where the NFL still uses that to this day, as far as the blueprint for securing Super Bowls. And so that came in very handy. And well, as we went forward, and we know we just had the postseason, I was planning for the for the for the parade, but we were prepared. So next year I'll dust out, dust the plan, back off. But those are some notable things right there that I'm very proud of being deputy mayor. I will tell you that I directly ran programs. I know a lot of people saw me out there cutting ribbons with Motor City match, but I ran programs. The fire department was a direct report. DDOT, Department of Transportation was a direct report. The health department was a direct report to me. BC was a direct report. The planning department was a direct report. CBI was a direct report, and then also city of Detroit Homeland Security was a direct report to me. Now, when I became interim police chief, the mayor at that point also allowed me to bring city of Detroit Homeland Security up under the police department, so that we could have continuity of management, creating an overall safer environment. My overall budget of managing those budgets is $455 million so I've managed big budgets. I've helped cut overtime at the fire department, from an HR standpoint, help hire additional firefighters, and did a lot of hiring with DDOT as well, improving that system too. At this point, I'll close, and I'm ready for the next question. We'll follow up question, sir,
and let the record reflect that Commissioner Smith is present too. I forgot to put that on the record. Thank you.
Thank you, sir, and thank you for that answer. The next few questions we'll ask that we keep answers concise to three to four minutes. It's regarding police reform and innovation. What reforms or innovative approaches would you prioritize to modernize policing, improving officer performance and increasing public safety?
One of the great things about DPD and actually going through a consent decree is model policies and practices. So I look at the Detroit Police Department, and have been here along the ride like I did 27 years, and many of the things that we already have in place, we're so far ahead of other departments. But one of the things that I wanted to do is it's not just good enough to to have police reform in the city of Detroit or the best practices in the city, because our residents not only live in the city, but they go across borders as well. So one of the first priorities that I made is coming back as an interim police chief. Is wanted to uplift that platform and support police reform on a statewide level, and I actually published the Op Ed supporting police reform. I actually call it professionalizing the profession. And what that means is ensuring that many people will be surprised to know that some departments don't even have body worn cameras. It should be mandated that all police departments have body worn cameras, but also that the legislatures and the lawmakers that make that mandate a reality, they also issue funds to those departments so that they can support the data source, because it's a big cost with it. Police reform, one of the things that I would do to continuously improve it really quickly, is when it comes to ensuring that our officers have the highest level of training when it comes to mental health disorders, when it comes to crisis management, because officers are out there in the field, and we know what the number of calls that we get with individuals that are suffering, they have To be prepared, not only just the CO response units, but all of our units, to be prepared to deal with individuals that are unsheltered or homeless, that are suffering from some type of crisis and also sometimes a substance use disorder. So I'm going to mandate that and ensure that our officers get the highest level of training.
Thank you, sir. Third question is going to be around crime prevention strategy. I know that you have a 16 to 90 day plan that's laid out, what are your key strategies for reducing violent crime in the city while also addressing root causes such as mental health and education.
So one of the things that I'm doing is with our CVI, our community violence intervention, with all of us working together, we've seen that it has contributed and continuously beat the city wide trend. And so one of the top goals that I have is to continually fight for public safety Trust Fund, which is House Bill, 4605 4606 and that's going to help bring an additional $18 million to the city of Detroit. I thought I was going to get it done before lame duck. That's going to allow me to also hire additional officers. And so right now, we currently have five CBI groups in the city of Detroit, and violent crime in those areas went down. But that's not good enough. We've identified another two additional areas where we can expand the program, the $18 million as soon as I get public safety Trust Fund passed. And I just was in Lansing, I have a commitment from the Speaker of the House, Matt Hall, where he's he's committed to us, you know, helping me get that done. And it's not only beneficial for the city of Detroit, but for Lansing, for Battle Creek, for Grand Rapids, for other places as well. I'm going to be able to take those funds the city of Detroit Police Department will get roughly 12 million so I can hire more officers for CO response and mental health, and I'm going to take some of the officers as well and put them in our cold case unit, because I don't have enough resources there, but very quickly expanding the CBI to cover additional hot spots within the city of Detroit, and also, also having a catch all net where it's going to mediate conflict across the whole city, because I'm going to have dispute resolution centers, so I'm going To establish that, and then with some of our other some of our other CBI groups, we're going to have mobile dispute resolution centers as well, where they actually will respond to where disputes are happening. Because a third of our homicides and a third of the violence out there, but particularly homicides or in non fatal shootings, is the result of some type of argument or dispute.
Thank you. The next question you might be familiar with is around community engagement. How do you plan to build trust and foster positive relationships between DPD and the diverse communities it serves?
I'll answer that by saying I've been doing that for 27 years, and I've done it, I have deep roots, and you have different levels of community engagement. And so oftentimes we have many of our grassroots folks in here, but we also have what I would say, mud roots. And so by having those relationships, and the relationships of trust, and I call it social capital, by establishing it, I have that. But to your question, what am I going to do? More? I'm going to do more of it by utilizing those groups and also bringing our officers together, where we're continuing to grow, and having chiefs advisory boards, bringing those groups here to help me, help me solve some of the the issues that are really occurring. One of my areas of expansion that the community is really concerned about is what's happening in our gas stations. For example, I'm going to protect our children's lungs. Many of our gas stations and some of the tobacco smoke shops are actually selling tobacco products to our minors. It's a big problem within the schools, so I'm partnering with the schools, but my community mud roots activists are saying we need to do something about that, and we absolutely are. And with my background as deputy mayor, understanding how city government works, guess what, I'm going to shut down those places that violate and compromise our children. I've already shut down six gas stations and I got some more to shut down.
Thank you for that. Next question is going to be around accountability and transparency. How will you ensure accountability within the department, especially in cases of misconduct or excessive use of force,
by doing it by with this board of police commissioners, I think that during my term as interim chief, I've been the most transparent. You know, I'll say that I've been very transparent, and will continue to be transparent, and I will give to the board whatever I can, meaning, as long as our prosecutor says it's not going to compromise a case, and as long as Corporation Counsel says, you know, doesn't bar me from doing it, I'm going to do it with that. I will say this being transparent, I've been told that I was the first chief thus far to turn over the budget this soon to the board. And so I demonstrate what I'm going to do by action.
Thank you. The next question, which we have two remaining. This one included identify, based on your knowledge of the city of Detroit and its demographics, the program areas you would focus on and describe how you intend to undertake the task as new chief of police during your first six months on the job.
Could you repeat that question? I just want
to make sure I got it. Yes, sir, identify based on your knowledge of the city of Detroit and its demographics, the program areas you would focus on and describe how you intend to undertake these tasks as new chief during your first six months.
I listen to the community and with the demographics, understanding that Detroit is a big city of neighborhoods, and it's all a priority, but the commonality of things that matter the most for our residents, and one of the things that I hear over and over again is really our children when it comes to the city of Detroit, I don't know why Michigan is Always so high when it comes to human trafficking. I just had a conversation with the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI. One of the things that I'm doing, and I'm going to be big on this collaboration, because when we talk about resources, I'm going to bring in and invite everyone in. I'm talking about whether it's the FBI, the ATF our local, our state partners to be able to help with that, so that we can protect our children and we can protect the residents of the city of Detroit, but human trafficking, missing persons and sextortion are my main priorities of protecting our children. Already have been meeting with Doctor Beatty. I have a MOU that we're working through right now, where it's going to be between the city of Detroit Police Department, Detroit Public Schools and so working collaboratively together. Many folks don't know what sex torsion means, per se, but it's something that's that that's very detrimental to our kids, where they will target our youth, get them to send a picture that's compromising and then start to blackmail them. Youth have committed suicide based off of this, and sometimes the perpetrators that do this, they're not inside the city of Detroit. It's been situations where they've been out the country, but by partnering with the FBI, etc, I'm going to get them wherever they are.
All right, the last question is around crisis management, What experiences have you had managing crises such as large scale demonstrations, natural disasters or incidents of mass violence, and how did you handle them?
I'm glad you asked that right there. Um, during my career, had an opportunity to experience a whole lot. But thinking back to the largest potential crisis in the city of Detroit was in 2020 when the rebellion happened and we saw across the country, individuals, groups, anarchists, Antifa, the Boogaloo boys, etc, coming into cities trying to cause violence. And so it was based off the George Floyd protests. But in the city of Detroit, we did have those groups show up as well. I was out there on the front line along with DPD, and the men and women with DPD did a phenomenal job. But that wasn't the only reason we didn't have the violence that was seen in other cities. It was this community. Many of the community members here stood with me, and we said, not in the city of Detroit. So I was behind the scenes. Okay? I was behind the scenes leading, not out front per se, but one of the things that I did did, which took an act of courage to keep the peace, is I was the first law enforcement officer in the nation to take a knee and that help quell the violence. It creates that trust and many of the community groups and leaders here Detroit, 300 um forest, Detroit, others, Reverend Wendell Anthony, Reverend Charles Williams and Nan we had press conferences every day managing that crisis, along with Pastor Mo and others saying, Detroit, don't get involved. The other folks didn't check in with us, and we're not going to have this in Detroit now. We support freedom of the protest, and I gotta say, Commissioner Willie Burton was there, and you helped out as well, sir, but we kept our city safe. So I'm prepared. I did Super Bowl. Just had these other major events where I called Oakland County Sheriff, Macomb County Sheriff. I called Sheriff Bucha, called Sheriff Anthony Wickersham, and I said, Hey, we just saw a crisis event that happened New Year's New Year's in Las Vegas and in New Orleans, where terrorist event happened and they ran over folks in order to target hardening, because the eyes of America was looking at us doing Ford Field with our lions run, I had them send additional resources to target hardening areas to keep our fans and our Detroiters safe without compromising resources within the neighborhood. So they sent me things. They sent resources. FBI Oakland County Sheriff, Macomb County Sheriff, they sent me all the resources I needed to keep the citizens safe. So collaboration is the key, and with me, if I'm lucky enough, and you all see fit for me to be the chief of police, collaboration will continue, and I will continue to bring additional resources to this city.
Thank you, sir, at this time, obviously, thank you for your interest. That goes without saying. Thank you for your commitment and your work. We'll leave the floor to you. In case you wanted to add anything. To wrap up this portion of the interview, feel free to add whatever it is that you might might see fit.
One of the things that I'm going to do is definitely really and it's been something that over the course of my career and working for other chiefs, but we have never did it and got it done, right? But I'm going to make sure that we do, and I'm going to increase the size of our Missing Persons Unit. I'm going to really increase the size of that and also I'm going to increase the capacity of our cold case units. Because the board of police commissioners, I know you all have heard the complaints from these mothers who are grieving, and our officers at Homicide need additional capacity as well so that we can thoroughly investigate these cold cases and bring some closure to the to these families, so to Andrea Clark and to mothers keeping boots on the grounds, and also to my friend, the late Brenda Hill, who initiated mothers of murder children, along with, like I said, Andrea Clark, I'm going to make sure I get that done.
Alright. Thank you, sir.
Thank you very kindly.
At this time, sir, would you
give Thank you very much. We appreciate you, and if you have any other questions or do so, if not, we thank you, and we'll be in contact with you soon. Alrighty,
board. Appreciate you all so much. I just want to end just say that I have the up most respect for this board. I'm I think I'm one of the only chiefs that ever attended Naco, and I had a chance to present co present with Commissioner Carter. That was a wonderful experience. But when it comes to the respect of the board, I have the utmost respect. Thank you all.
Thank you. Thank you. Applause.
Yeah, I want
people saying that my numbers ain't got no specifications.
We are transitioning, and we do have for the candidates that are going to be presented. So for those of you that are interested in staying, we just giving each candidate an opportunity to leave so they Don't run into each other as they come through
nomination.
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Get a point of order. Get a point of order.
Next candidate is coming in. Tanya.
Commissioner Hernandez,
welcome, sir. For the record, if you could just state your name please. Dr Joel Fitzgerald, welcome. So the way that this will work is going to be consistent across all candidates. There are a series of seven questions that we're going to ask every single candidate at that point. At the end of the seven questions, we'll give you the opportunity to add anything else that you might want to we'll then deliberate in closed session and evaluate based on a rubric that we have in front of us, each candidate and their rating. So at this time is there, do you have any questions before we begin? I do not no perfect question. One, it's an opportunity for you to brag about yourself and talk a little bit about your background. Please summarize both your educational background and work experience and what is your greatest accomplishment that you've achieved in your law enforcement career?
So I'll start off by saying Detroit's a phenomenal city. It's phenomenal in many ways, but I'll tell you this to really connect with the Commission and the folks in the audience, you've got a interim police commissioner here who does a great job. So that goes without saying. I'm here to interview for the job. I'm definitely interested, and I very much want the job, but understand that much like in 2021 when the lions traded Matt Stafford to obtain, you know, Jared Goff and a number of picks, you know, you saw the team go from great to outstanding. And I think when you look at succession planning and you look at putting people in great positions, you also want to bring fresh eyes and ears, and you want to have people that have seen different things, have done different things, have been outside of the organization, and can look at things with a fresh perspective. I've been a police chief for 15 years in five different places. First black police chief in every place I bent. I understand the dynamic of major cities. I've worked in a major city with over 900,000 people and drove crime down prior to COVID. I have a PhD, bachelor's degree, obviously, a master's degree in business administration and public administration, and I've gone to FBI Academy for Major City Chiefs. I've sponsored other chiefs and taught and mentored other chiefs in the country. And I think Detroit offers a fine and outstanding opportunity to not only develop its staff further, but take this great organization to outstanding and I think that can be done in concert with the with medicine, and with others within the agency who I'm familiar with, who can drive the agency forward. So just a little about me and where I've worked for the public. I've been police chief in Fort Worth, Texas. I've been a police chief in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Missouri, City, Texas, Waterloo, Iowa and RTD, which is the Transit Police Department in Denver, Colorado, has served about 3.0 8 million people. We you know, I've had a pretty interesting career. I lost my son in the line of duty, so I'm very much someone who identifies with loss, and my wife's a police officer as well. So we understand and we can identify with the people that are victims of violent crime. I think that is a tipping point for what I bring to the table here. I am a zealous advocate for community policing. I'm a proven recruiter. I've been able to create mental health units and work with mental health agencies to further the police departments that I've worked for and their engagement with people with mental health and substance abuse issues. Have a real understanding of, you know, some of the things that Detroit already has going on and already does very well, like technology and other things that you know, perhaps some police departments are reclamation projects. This is not this is a department that, again, can be empowered to do a lot more with a fresh set of eyes and ears like mine. Thank
you for that introduction. You're welcome. The next question is going to be around police reform and innovation? Yes, what reforms or innovative approaches would you prioritize to modernizing policing, improving officer performance and increasing public safety? And
over the last 15 years or so, departments have moved away from beats now, I think we all I'm looking at the board, and I'm not trying to judge, but we're probably around the same age, and we understand that there was a time when we saw police officers walking through our community. There was a time when Officer O'Malley swing his bat and and walked around and you knew him. He popped his head into your store, he spoke to you, he addressed people he understood and knew, you know, the dynamics of what went on in the community, because he was the consistent person that was there every day. Departments across the country have gotten away from that. They've stopped emphasizing some of the community policing efforts that need to be reinvigorated and in cities across this nation and Detroit so different. We're never going to get back to having every police officer walking on foot and you exactly knowing who's working your area. But we can strive to achieve that, and how we strive to achieve that is reducing the size of beat, making police officers more accountable for qualitative performance. Qualitative performance in the form of making contacts with members of the community, developing relationships, creating community groups, anti violence groups are great. You have a lot of great work being done by individuals who are funded by the city to go out and to interrupt crime and to take a preemptive approach to handling the things that blossom over into events that we're not proud of. What we need to do, and what I bring to the table is the ability to make and empower every officer to do that. My expectation would be that officers start creating those relationships there become more community problem solvers we have, and I know here there's a community policing unit. The responsibility for community policing is everyone's responsibility, not just particular people. And what happens in police departments, and I've seen across the country, in the places that I've been Are you have officers that show up and say, we're moving to the next call the community policing folks can handle that, or your neighborhood policing folks can handle that. That's an unacceptable response, and the paradigm shift in organization has to be one where everyone accepts the responsibility of picking up the phone and making contacts throughout the city. So I'll give you an example. The contacts throughout the city should be if there's a problem, let's say with a water main break, and the water main break leads to infrastructure problem because your potholes are growing well when a neighbor is calling 1015, times about the same issue, and the police officer shows up, the police officer should be able to pick up the phone call someone in another city department and get the ball rolling. To get those things accomplished. We are the most frequently seen and contacted folks across the city, and when we empower our folks at the lowest levels of the organization to start solving problems. We start seeing folks really trust what we're doing. What we call it now is procedural justice, but people start trusting in the fact that our police officers are going to do their very best to solve the problems. And when they push that information up when I come before the board. Here, I can share with the board you know what's going on in each and every area within the city. That way, when you go to community meetings or you're addressed or about problems, you have some answers, qualitative and quantitative, about what's going on in the areas that you represent. So I could go on forever. But in short, those are some of the substantive changes that I think you would look well you would be able to see take effect as as the new police chief here in Detroit.
Thank you. The next question is around crime prevention strategy, sure, what are your key strategies for reducing violent crime in the city, while also addressing root causes such as mental health and education,
so that that's a multi prong question. But what I'll tell you is, you know, there's great crime fighters everywhere. We understand that we can be a occupying presence in the community, or we can be people that that help, and people that help. Come in on a precision based we come in in a precision based attack mode. And by that, I mean we tackle the right people, we target the right folks, and we arrest the right people. We provide help to those that need help. And again, you have juvenile crime that happens, and juvenile crime is a problem throughout the country, but we have to be mentors for those juveniles, and as part of that community policing and more neighborhood oriented policing strategy that I mentioned before, we need to be building those relationships with the juveniles within the communities that they trust us, that they Understand, that they can have conversations with us. I was a young power, so you were able to get mentorship and guidance. Those are things that are that are lacking, but there are also things that are low hanging fruit, items that can change easily, the crime fighting aspect of things, again, precision based strategies, based on where crime happens, what time they happen, and again, the right folks. You have infrastructure here within the city of Detroit that's fine, a fine infrastructure, I should say, with Shot Spotter, with other programs that help target those those problematic areas, but I know there's a difference between the east and west sides of the city. There are subtle differences everywhere, and the subtle differences have to be attacked by and continue to be attacked, because my understanding is that the precinct commanders have great latitude with making some decisions as far as how they tackle that crime, but again, tackling the crime in a really crime focused manner has to be in total partnership with working with neighborhoods, working with communities, to empower them to come back and start having block captains again. We need to be the people that introduce Hey. We want to talk. We want to we hand out flyers in a neighborhood and say we want to schedule a meeting. If you don't have a block captain, perhaps we start that conversation. We have a different we have a different duty and a different charge. Now in 2025 and if we want to be successful as a city, if Detroit wants to be successful as a city, we've got to change the way we've been conducting business. Some things work. Having community policing officers works. However, when we're not capitalizing or using or leveraging the entirety of our force to move in the same direction, that can lead to some slippage, and that's where I've spoken about moving from just great to outstanding. This department functions pretty well, but we can do better, and better should be expected, and better can be expected when you have experience and you understand that there are different ways of tackling crime in different communities across across the city. I know also that there's a difference between how you handle things and the downtown area and how you handle them in neighborhoods. And sometimes your neighbors in neighborhoods feel underserved. We have to correct that in the way that you correct it is having a better relationship with those folks in the neighborhood. There are three people and each beat or each sector that work those same areas every day, and consistency is a must. Consistency may lead us to even know who those people are that are working and what their cell phone numbers are, as opposed to having a dial 911, for every loud music call violent crime is something that, again, Detroit has a great program for, you know, violence interruption and initiatives that that is working, that would continue, however, there would be a huge focus from the patrol aspect on developing those further relationships that help us get the intel that allow us to arrest the right folks, be in the right places and solve the crimes that are outstanding.
Great. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You've touched on this next question, which is around community engagement. How do you plan to build trust and foster relationship between DPD and the diverse communities it serves
well, and I can, I can actually speak to that in in Fort Worth and other cities where there was a divide, bringing in community members like yourselves, people interested in seeing the gap closed between police officers and people in in the community, business owners and such, what you need to do is start involving folks on panels and boards when we have our hiring you know what? How would How would you feel if you sat in and interviewed a police officer for hire. Would you have a vested interest in in the fact that this officer provided the services that you expected when you sat on that board and helped hire them? I see by the nodding of your head, you probably be pretty happy with sitting on those boards, and actually, you know, asking some questions of the people that we hire.
I say that to say
that's an example of the type of outside the box thinking that has to occur when you're hiring new people, when you want community members to trust who you're hiring. It can't be just a Civil Service Commission that they go through these interviews, these processes have to be made competitive and open. I'll give you a quick example, and I promise to be quick with the example, and that is, I had a young black female officer who was hired by a score to 95 and had some outstanding traffic tickets. We were removing her from the process because she had some outstanding traffic tickets, two children, single parent, doing everything that she needed to do to be a great community person and wanted to add value to the police department. That policy of, hey, you have an outstanding ticket is something that permeates agencies across the country, you have older background unit folks that systematically discard candidates that are good candidates that would add value to a police department and help bring the community together, and we're losing those people from with archaic rules. I had to step in and say we're not disqualifying this candidate. How is it that we're How will we ever develop as an organization if we don't allow you know someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and try to add to the department and the community that person was hired has been promoted twice in another organization, and I have tons of stories like that, but what we've had to do is, as police chiefs, even in agencies of you know, 1000s of police officers, look at what we're doing in recruiting, look at how we're retaining people, but also take a good critical look at the people we're disqualifying that are trying to be A part of the change that they want to see in the community, because that's the challenge that we throw out there, and they get disqualified. So we've proactive police chiefs now make it their business to have a whole group of command staff level officers looking at those disqualifications to ensure that we are giving people an opportunity to be great police officers and to be the folks that will lead in the future. That's one of the ways where the community can get involved. The community can be involved in some of the selection processes, and heck, we even, I've even had situations where folks within the agency didn't feel like they could get promoted because they weren't in the right click, right so to fix that, we had to, we had to make sure that the groups that were doing the interviews were balanced. And you can't balance them racially, but what you can do is make sure they're reflective of the community that you serve. And having community members, again, makes that process more pure. So you saw some diversity within the ranks in the organization, you would see a little more input and caring about actual community members, because we all know that we're not just recruiting people from inner city, Detroit, we're recruiting people from outside areas that may not walk talk or chew gum like us.
Thank you. The next question is going to be around accountability and transparency. How will you ensure accountability within the department, especially in cases of misconduct or excessive use of force,
there needs to be a surety of punishment in cases where there's unnecessary and excess force, there can't be a there, there's obviously progressive discipline exists in every organization. However, we need to be open and honest about what we're doing in the community to be able to give citizens the, well, I should say, to give people that we provide service to the feeling of trust and procedural justice that I mentioned earlier. They can't feel that way if they don't feel as if their their problems, concerns or complaints are taken seriously. When they feel that way, it's in a large degree, to the fact that they're not seeing or hearing anything from our internal investigators, and they're not getting any feedback about what actually happened in a circumstance when a police officer does violate policy, one of the ways and means that I've used in the past that's been consistent with statute and other states, is publishing some of the arbitration results so that I could point to the fact that this is what the police chief decided upon. This was the logic that we use to implement the discipline and publish our disciplinary matrix. Make sure folks understand that if you know a particular rule, policy or procedure is broken, that hey, this may not exactly warrant you know the type of disciplinary action that the public may think it warrants, but on the other end of the scale, when it does you better be able to show the notes of testimony to show in an arbitration that your police chief stood up and said, that's not consistent with the policies, procedures, rules and regulations of this organization. I've done hundreds of arbitrations, so I've stood up the discipline that I've that I've had to implement. But with that being said, it's also changes the culture within the agency, because the good folks that are working every day, and I'm going to tell you that 99% of the police officers in the organization every day are doing great work, but that 1% that never sees the chief take any action. They never see the chief take any action on when I asked them to go and do the things that need to be done and in the different parts of the city that I talked about earlier, it doesn't get done because there's, there's no trust, even internally, when there's no surety that you're going to be treated with internal procedural justice. So we, you know, I'm glad you asked that question, because, you know, it doesn't mean you have to be overly you know, you don't have to be a person that punishes all the time. There's education based discipline. There's all types of ways to correct behavior, but we have to address the behavior, and it starts at the lowest level of the organization, with the sergeants and lieutenants, and in many ways, with your officers having enough confidence to say, Hey, I didn't like what happened there, right? We want people to intervene, and we want people to report when they have to intervene or they see or say something that doesn't it's not consistent with what you'd like to see. So again, we give officers that ability. We empower them to do those things when they know they have a chief that's going to ensure that folks you know actually that deserve to be punished or punished. But my understanding also is not not to go on too much longer, is that we have to really take a look at some of the lengthy punishments that some people do get. Some are deserved, some aren't, and they have to be equitable. If it's not seen as equitable within the agency, you're again going to have a great majority of folks within the police department that will see it as being inequitable and will say, Well, why should I do these extra things that they're asking for us to do?
Thank you so much. You're welcome. This next question, which is the last of two, is a little bit of lengthy questions. So feel free to ask me to repeat it, but it's basically about your first six months on the job. Identify, based on your knowledge of the city of Detroit and its demographics, the program areas you would focus on, and describe how you intend to undertake these tasks as new chief of police during the first six months. So
you know as part of the process, and I know you all have the 90 day plans, so I'll speak in generalities on that, but I will tell you that a 90 day plan for an external police chief, an external hire, you have a slight disadvantage, because you obviously have to get to know the people. I have to get to know each one of you to get to know City Council folks, the mayor, you know, make sure I make time for fellow department heads. Because if I am, you know, attempting to address, you know, police officers making phone calls that you know the location of occurrence when something happens, and I expect them to be able to, you know, liaise with different departments within the city, then I'm darn sure going to have to meet with those department heads and get on the same page everywhere that I've gone, I've created a strategic plan. Even if there was a pre existing strategic plan in play, it's important to keep key goals and action items in an existing strategic plan, but it's also key for a new chief to come in and have each one of you introduce me to people that are going to be part of the focus groups, to be part of, meet all the gun violence intervention folks that we have working out there, The folks that work with the juveniles on the ground, that work with the gang bangers on the ground. And I need to meet them too. I need to talk to them and tell them what the new set of expectations are going to be from from this agency and from the city. We need to have some really good, frank conversations to help me devise what our new mission vision and values are going to be, and then we can revise those goals and action items. So within the first 90 days, you can expect invitations to focus groups and to sit down and for us to talk about what works, what doesn't, and why. I'll do an assessment internally to see what works, what doesn't, and why I'm going to meet with all the command staff and meet with the majority of police officers at roll calls and talk to them and pull officers to the side, whether it be at roll call or on the street, and have open and honest conversations about what works and what doesn't. Many times, new police chiefs come in and they don't, or they assume they don't talk to the rank and file, or they just assume, hey, I'll talk to the union because, or the unions, in this case, because that's how I'll get my information. You get your information from the young ladies and the young men here that work out there every single day to see what supervisory things are working and don't work with policies, with with mantras that they have to go out and and fill every day what works and what doesn't comes from them. So you have to be in touch with every last rank and file person that you have in the department. They have to see you. They have to have access to you. They have to be able to feel as if you can have a conversation, whether it, I say it tongue in cheek here, and that is whether you like what this conversation is about, or you don't. You give people a chance to express themselves. And if there's something we can change today or tomorrow, it doesn't have to take 90 days. It's something that we can do is low hanging fruit and make a change that may impact or help what they're doing every single day. And it may just be a swipe of a pen to do it, and no one's willing to do it. So again, it's, it's simple. You have the plan, you understand. And I talked about mental health, you understand. I talk about violent crime, I talk about leveraging, you know, the different technologies that that are already being used here. I'm a techie. I love to to to grab new technology and to use it. I put guard rails on it, obviously, to make sure we're not miss misusing things. But with that being said, the crux of what I'm sharing with you now is that we are precise. We are going after the right people. When I send officers into a particular place, or when their command staff or pre sent commanders are sending them into a place, we're not sending them in to stop, you know, any of our parents, you know, driving a car, and then to put statistics up there that are meaningless. We want the qualitative things done in each one of the communities that you're representing, because it's going to be different. And some, some have commonalities. Yeah, we have shootings in some areas, and that's going to be a commonality. But then there's thefts or burglaries that go on and affluent sections, we have to take different approaches, and part of that approach is making sure we listen to them, make sure that we capitalize upon the intellectual capital that we have in the organization. And I'll and I'm going to round it out by saying I had success in other places by using police officers at all levels to be able to communicate with our citizenry. Many departments don't allow their folks to tweet out information to talk about. You know, what a life, what a day and a life of being a Detroit cop is like, the people that are thinking about becoming police officers aren't listening to just recruiting units. They're listening when you show up on a scene of a crime, and they're pulling these people to the side and saying, Hey, what's it like? They may not say it loud, you know, but we have to have give folks the ability to still communicate with the new the new age recruit, right? We've got to allow them. We give them guns, but we don't give them the ability to do certain other things. And I'm not even certain whether that's a restriction here, but I know that in some communities that is and it tremendously inhibits the ability to recruit. Again, creativity in recruiting is going to be huge as well. I've allowed our, you know, public I call it the protein and other places, but it's public relations office to put together videos that went viral. And I presented those videos to Major City Chiefs, you know, to all of the largest police departments across the country. And the feedback I got was my $6,000 Yes, a $6,000 investment was rivaling at the time. Eddie Johnson over in Chicago's 700 to $800,000 budget on recruiting, just by giving some officers with video backgrounds and that knew how to put together, you know, different internet content out there. And I went from 300 officers down to maybe 10 officers above my allocation because of attrition. That's huge, but it's it comes from the ability to understand as a leader, that you listen to your people you lead, and you're stern when you need to be, but you also understand what everyone in your department can offer. And I put those people in the situations where, again, you may have seen some of the videos and Fort Worth, where the Star Wars videos went to Good Morning America several times again. That's that's listening to the ground level of the organization and then changing the sort of culture that we have in recruiting.
Thank you. The last question will be around crisis management. What experiences have you had managing crises such as large scale demonstrations, natural disasters or incidents of mass violence, and how did you handle them?
Well, I mean, as a major city chief, I've handled almost everything. Serial killers. I've handled you know, Texas Motor Speedway with 100,000 people a day. You know, coming to events. Handled Republican National Convention. Have handled
you, name it, presidential visits, major sporting events.
You know, part of that is understanding your operations putting together operations plans again. I'm not from Detroit, so I'm going to sit down with Operation staff, and I understand best practices and operations and putting together things for the city of Philadelphia or putting together in Texas, but I'm going to sit down with with those staffers and figure out who it is within the organization has the core competencies to help put those things together right now, I know former Detroit command staff members that were, you know, that put things together in the past. But the My point is, you know, getting to know, you know, individuals. I talked a lot about getting to know the officers, but getting to know your command staff in your first 90 days, being able to have those face to face, day to day interactions where they understand that there's going to be accountability for for crime, there'll be accountability for also creating those relationships that I talked about, that that's a huge part of the day to day process of what we do operations planning. I'm not going to, at least you should be Jack of all trades, master of some right? You're going to master things. I worked in narcotics for years, undercover narcotics. I've run operations, done undercover buys, been the city's on call expert, so I thoroughly understand investigations and but if you ask me about dispatch, again, I've never been assigned to dispatch, but as a chief, I've had to buy dispatch materials. I've had to buy headsets and chairs, and so I'm thankful for having those, you know, well rounded experiences. But again, I've got to work within the agency with what we have, bring what I bear, and that is the experience that's achieved five times, and being able to assess things. Because one thing I found is, you know, and I don't want to get too far off topic, but one thing I found is, when you look at things critically, and you've had that experience, you'll see what we're spending sometimes, and you'll say, Hold on, this can be reallocated somewhere else, because we're buying a chair for $3,000 that may cost $1,000 somewhere else. So having that kind of experience matters. I've gone into organizations and really trimmed some of the budget and got it reallocated to hiring or got it reallocated to some overtime that we needed in in areas where, you know, we one place we had was the largest liquor sale area in the entire state of Texas, was was in my city. So, you know, we had to reassign officers down there and pay for it. So no one wants to see that come from other neighborhoods. So we have to find a way to do it within the confines of the budget that we have. So meeting with my staff, understanding that I do have a background, and, you know, being a chief in a major city, understanding what the line items should look like, and then, you know, getting their feedback on why it looks that way here, and then working with them to trim those things that that will happen in 90 days again, your question, at least this question, had more to do with not so much the 90 days, but the operational planning. But that matters at this point in anyone's career as a police chief, you should have had some operational experience with major events or major catastrophes. We've had snow catastrophe, I want to say snow events, major snow events, ice events in Texas that have killed multiple people. So obviously, coming from a place like Philadelphia, I know how to handle ice events and snow events, much of which you deal with here, you know, events where we have to bring people that are on house off the street for Code Blue, or in on days that is very hot, you know, coerce people into coming off the street and bringing them in the shelter. So all of these are experiences that you can count on. As you know, working with the existing staff, we will flesh out and have a real understanding of moving forward how we can best staff these events, how we can do so in a way that's consistent with your expectations here in Detroit, but also consistent with you know what, some of the standards are nationwide.
Okay, at this time, that'll conclude our set of interview questions. Thank you for your interest. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for traveling here from from where you came from, from Colorado. At this time, we'll allow if you have any closing remarks that you'd like to provide, and then we'll move forward to additional candidates.
I I absolutely appreciate your thanks. But you know, what type of applicant would I be? How serious of an applicant would I be if I did not come? It's important for people to be able to put a face to a name. It's important for members of the department and members of the community that have showed up to see that, you know someone from the outside is not, you know, entirely bad, right? I understand, as someone that's been around for a long time that it's sometimes hard to fathom bringing somebody from the outside. But as I said, fresh set of eyes and ears is always good. Someone that's going to communicate and cooperate and collaborate with the existing partnerships that we have with the programs that are so successful, with some of the gun violence intervention and just on the street programs that you have going on that you know people are people are motivated, and you want a new police chief or a police chief, I should say that is going to continue to motivate folks. But again, step on the gas pedal, you know, heighten the expectations a bit, and move from great to outstanding. And I don't know that you'll get that with someone that doesn't have experience as a police chief, and I don't know that Detroit, as a city on the total Upswing is can afford to not have someone in a position that can move things at an exponential level forward. So I thank you for your time. I thank you for your attention. I wish I had more time to talk to individually, but if that opportunity presents itself, please share my contact information. If there's something you need more information or insight on, I certainly will give it to you
absolutely. Thank you so much, sir. You're
welcome. Thank you all. Thank you, doctor. You
I'm our next candidate is going to be Joshua Wallace,
who I know on our RN is prepared commission. I do want to just give a special thanks to Dr Fitzgerald, because he did come on his own dime, and he also picked up his own hotel and all other expenses to go along with that, so just shows you His care and concern and his real commitment for how Serious this job is. You
Amber,
Sure, but they're trying to clarify. Oh,
Yes, we do. Wow,
rarely to Be safe,
oh, Thank you so much.
Thank you. I'm a Marie, okay, appreciate that. Sent you a text the same one. That Good to see you. Six
hot mics, people. Hot mics,
I'll be good. So I'll send you back time in the afternoon. The other thing is that there's a lot of water now in the basement. Even more i
They'll be you talking about state farm with some schedule. I'm sorry. Oh, okay, all right, okay, no, no, I can remember what time on Monday. Sinus, maybe that too. The
first interview, I think when he when he'll know later, you'll be able to also the city. Makes it easy. We don't even need the closed session. I'm sorry.
Yeah, oh yeah, I remember that. That's fine. Yeah. Be
okay. Okay, you too,
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Commissioner Hernandez, ready. All right through the chair. We will continue our interviews. Next would be candidate Joshua Wallace, who I believe is online virtually. So if we can project Mr. Wallace on screen, raise his hand. Can we ask Mr. Wallace to raise his hand online? Please? I
Mr. Wallace, if you could be so kind as to raise your virtual hand online so that we can identify and project you in The room. Yes, it's
did They test him yesterday? I
all in the back he's online. Yes, he's getting connected now,
I'll take this opportunity to actually thank our wonderful AV team who always supports us. I know you're sitting along the wall there in any condition, you're always here providing exceptional service, so we appreciate you.
Thank you, even in retirement. Applause,
I don't have any just
check on it.
Yeah, so if we could have candidate Joshua Wallace, raise his hand virtually on zoom so that he can be identified and projected in the room.
There you go. There we are welcome, Mr. Wallace,
welcome. Thank you. Thank you, how
you doing? Miss Wallace, doing well, how are you?
I'm doing spectacular. We appreciate you joining us today, and we're going to turn this session over to Mr. Herman Hernandez, who's going to be doing the interviews.
Get a point of order in the room first, ask everyone to be silent in the room as we are online so that everyone can hear it. Thank you. Very kindly.
Thank you. You may proceed so again. Thank you. And the hearings are going to be conducted by Mr. Commissioner Hernandez, by way of our of our chair. So if you would, at this point in time, I'll turn that over to Commissioner and then so he can proceed with the process. Excuse me. I chair. Darrell woods,
thank you so much, sir. I hope that you can see us as clearly as we can see you. Thank you for your interest, obviously, in applying for the position of Chief of Police for the city of Detroit, we have a series of seven questions that we're asking every single candidate for consistency. I will ask these questions of you, and at the end, we'll give you the opportunity to provide closing remarks as well. In the in the spirit of efficiency, we're going to ask that you stick or keep answers to about three to four minutes each for each of the seven questions. And at the conclusion of it, we'll provide you with a little bit more information at this time, is there, is there anything that you'd like to ask before we actually deep dive into these interview questions? No, not at all. Perfect. So this first question is really about your background. It's an opportunity for you to brag about yourself and share more about who you are, summarize both your educational background and work experience and what is your greatest accomplishment in law enforcement and why?
Okay, so
I have been with the Chicago Police Department for the past 25 years. Chicago Police Department is the second largest police department in the country, with 12,000 officers. Operating budget of $2 billion city of Chicago has a population of $2.1 million I've worked my way up the ranks. I've been a supervisor with the department for the past 12 years. I received my first command and I became the commander of the second district. Chicago Police Department is comprised of 21 police districts. In that district, I oversaw 350 officers, 70 plus supervisors, 25 civilians, and I had an executive officer. That district alone had over 100,000 residents, two major universities, a the only trauma center on the south side of Chicago, as well as it's home to President Obama's Chicago residence, one of my biggest accomplishments while there was the reduction in crime that we had the increase in recovery for illegal firearms, as well as the increase for rest for illegal firearms. From that position, I transitioned to the Bureau of counter terrorism, where I am currently assigned as the commander for our criminal network group. Our criminal network group oversees our Narcotics Division, gang Investigations Division, Vice control section, Asset Forfeiture Unit, trouble building section, confidential analytic section, as well as our technical lab. I also at full strength. I have 1100 officers under my command. I also have 100 officers, 100 or so officers assigned a federal task force, including the ATF de A HSI, FBI and IRS. We work hand in hand with the Joint Terrorism Task Force on many operations. We were most recently recognized for for excellence in law enforcement, for our work we've done combating the Fentanyl crisis in the city of Chicago this past this past year, I was the intelligence branch Commander for the Democratic National Convention during that week, which was a great opportunity for myself. I am a board member for the Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association. I am a subject matter expert on search warrants and currently part of the board rewriting our policy for our current consent decree. I am on our strategic planning committee with the Chicago Police Department, I am a IACP section member, and for the section of Officer wellness, I am the co host for our department's podcast. I have also attended what many consider the top three executive leadership programs in the country, including the FBI National Academy, the Northwestern University School for police staff and command, as well as the senior management institute for police. My education, formal education. I have a master's degree from the University of Phoenix in administration of justice and security, and I have a bachelor's degree from St Joseph's College in law enforcement Management.
Thank you so much. The next question is going to be around police reform and innovation. What reforms or innovative approaches would you prioritize to modernize policing, improve officer performance and increase public safety?
Well, you know the thing, innovation is constantly changing. And when I look at Detroit and what Detroit currently has in place, they are currently at best practice. I think one thing we have to understand is just keeping up with it. When we look at obviously, body worn cameras, you know, less lethal options, we have to ensure that we're staying ahead of those things as we move forward. I know one of the biggest, one of the big technologies coming out, or what it's talking about most, is artificial intelligence, whereas you can utilize your body worn camera while you're interviewing a victim or a subject, and that body worn camera footage can begin to write a report for you. Now, it's as it is, new in infancy. It is still, you know, it's, it's leading technology and innovation that is currently out there. Also one other thing we, you know, you would like to look at, or a couple other things you'd like to look at, drones as first responders. Knowing that Detroit has a drone program, we talk about drones as first responders the ability, especially with the ability with the, you know, the issues we have with recruitment and police departments not being at full strength. We look at drones as first responders, where drones can be dispatched from on top of precincts to calls before officers get there, and while the drone is there, it can look over the scene and let officers know what they're encountering, or let them know that the call was not bona fide, or when officers show up on scene, the drone can also be that eye in the sky while officers investigate the scene. All of that is, you know, great innovation to move forward. But you know, when we talk about in regards to reform, obviously, body worn cameras is at the forefront of everything that we do and ensuring that the department continues to stay in full compliance. When I think about body worn cameras, I also think about the ability, just because we have them, ensuring that we're doing daily audits on the cameras, to ensure that our officers are utilizing the cameras as required, activating the cameras when they're supposed to be activated, no late activation, early activation, just ensuring that we're you know, we're in full compliance and transparent with the public in our approach.
Thank you for your answer. The next question is going to be around crime prevention strategy. What are your key strategies for reducing violent crime in the city, while also addressing root causes such as mental health and education? So,
you know, I'm very focused on data driven solutions, ensuring that we're at the right places at the right time, but I think also when we look at violent crime, or we look at crime in general, crime is focused around certain things, locations, individuals, spaces. So there's, there's what we call crime, place network investigations. Those investigations focus on those four things, the contributors to crime, the places in which the crimes take place, the people who allow for the crimes to take place. So I think, you know, you look at that and that has to be a whole, a whole, a hands on deck approach. Not only do we hold the people committing the crimes responsible, but we hold whether it's not, it's a business that's allowing for crime to happen, or businesses that support criminal activity, not only do we address the individuals, but we address the locations as well. We have to, it has to be a full on approach, but we also should bring technology into that as well. You know, we need more. We need eyes in the sky to to combat those things. But when we talk about technology, also we talk about our gunshot detection. So we're getting if we're using our data and we're using gunshot detection, and we're seeing where things are happening more often than not, we put the onus on our precinct commanders to ensure that we're deploying in those areas that we know that the data is telling us where we're seeing the biggest uptick in violent crime or gunshot detection. What was the last two parts of that question?
It was specific about root causes, and how you would address root causes such as mental health and education. Well, when
it comes to mental health, you know, one of the biggest issues with mental health is the fact that people go undiagnosed, get diagnosed and do not stick to their plan. So you know, when we talk about the CO responder model, it's so vital and so imperative that, you know, not only are our officers trained in CIT, but we utilize the CO responder model to when we are just dispatch to a location that is handled appropriately and is handled in a manner that it builds trust with the community. It's handled in a manner in which the person that we're responding to gets the treatment that they deserve. It's handled in a manner in which the law enforcement doesn't have to take the primary approach to it, you know. And it's handled in a manner where de escalation is put at the forefront of what we're doing, you know, we talk about root causes, we have to ensure that we're partnering with the community to address these root causes, because nobody knows what's driving violence better than our community partners, and as long as we maintain a stable and healthy relationship with them, that's where we can work together and come up With viable solutions and initiatives to answer these, these, you know, ongoing issues and problems that we face.
So that's actually a really good segue into our next question, which is around community engagement. How do you plan to build trust and foster positive relationships between DPD and the diverse communities it serves? Well,
it all comes down to transparency and building relationships. When you're the face of a department, you're expected to be seen, you're expected to be in, out and about, in the community and engaging, I think, far too often though, within police departments, we come up with ideas, as I how we should engage with the community and expect the community to show up for us. I think we should really be asking the community, what are you doing, and how can we show up for you? And it doesn't always have to be showing up in uniform, because we all know that officer in uniform can be that turn off for the community. There's nothing wrong with showing up in plain clothes and engaging the community and having that outreach with each other. I'm very I'm very pro foot patrol and getting out of your vehicle and being present, because you cannot police from a vehicle. You have to be out. You have to be engaging. You have to be engaging with everybody. You have to be engaging with the guys hanging out on the block. You have to be engaging with the business community. You have to be engaging with the elders, the clergy, the activists. It's, it's an all, all around approach, but it's, it comes down to creating those, those great programs that we see benefit in. But again, I think far too often we rely on what the police department is doing, what event we're putting on, that we can have the community come to so, you know, it comes down just to having that great dialog and those great relationships, but also being transparent, being visible, being available. You know, that's what it is when you you take on this role to be the head of a police department. That's your job. That's your job to be the face, and you need to live up to it, and you need to build those relationships. And your your officers need to see that too, and you need to be that role model for them so they know how this is how we treat the community. This is how we interact with the community, this is how we make ourselves, selves available.
Thank you for that. The next question is going to be around accountability and transparency. How will you ensure accountability within the department, and especially in cases of misconduct or excessive use of force.
Well, when it comes to accountability, you know, the biggest thing is ensuring that laws are upheld. We don't. We have policies and procedures in place for a reason, and those policies and procedures are expected to be followed. The thing is, when we see misconduct, when we see deviation from the policy, is incumbent upon good supervision to address those concerns and address those concerns early. That's why it's, you know, it's great to have a early intervention system in in place that you know you can keep track of instances where you have to make, whether it be counseling or some sort of discipline recommendation for an officer, so you can see if they're headed in the in the wrong direction. But I think also, when it comes to accountability, we don't necessarily throw the book at somebody either we look at the what took place, we see how we can address it. Now, we all understand that some policies, you know, some some things are egregious, but some things are not. Some things are a teaching moment. So how do we teach a young officer, or an officer in general, to do better or to be better, and it's accountability. How do we teach them the lesson from what they did? You know it, but we have to understand it. It promotes fairness. It's got to be consistent. But again, I really think it needs to be a teaching moment as well, but as long as it's being done fair and across the board, the rest of the department should be on board and should understand like, Okay, this, this is where we're at, and this is how we respond. And it also shows a very high level of professionalism when you're holding, especially from the top down, when you're holding yourself accountable to the policies and procedures that you have in place. So if you know that you're holding yourself accountable, everybody else knows they're being held accountable to the same standard.
Thank you for that. The next question is, is a bit of a lengthy one, so feel free to ask me to repeat it. It's regarding your first six months on the job. Identify, based on your knowledge of the city of Detroit and its demographics, the program areas you would focus on, and describe how you intend to undertake these tasks as new chief of police during your first six months you
so
I know one of the the big things that you know, I've read about or been hearing about, is the programs or what's being done with the community to help, you know, drive down the violence within the city of Detroit. I think that's unbelievable. It's actually Detroit is right. It obviously is the national model now for for getting it right. And that is where I would start in the first six months. How can we maintain that? How can we do better? I know a lot of that comes from funding. You know, are we at risk? That's one of the biggest things I look at, especially right now, where we're at in this country. Are we at risk of losing that funding? If that's the case, do we? Can we secure alternate funding? But how do we, how do we continue? How do we keep this momentum, what do you need from the department to keep this going? Do we need to shift? And if we need to shift, why do we need to shift? And how do we need to shift? But this is these are all conversations you have, sitting down with the community, sitting down with the stakeholders who know the community the best and know just exactly why the violence is dipped, and where else in the city of Detroit this these kind of programs can be beneficial. Again, definitely a great standard across the country for what's being done. But you know, we have to understand and ensure that it's sustainable, because we don't all the success that Detroit has been having. We need to sustain that success, and we need to make ensure that we have an alternative in place as well. In case you know how we're how we're being, the funding that we're utilizing to be successful dries up or disappears, or whatever, we need to ensure that we have buy in, regardless of where we're at when it comes to that funding. But I think, you know, obviously, that being one of those key things that's been talked about and been very helpful with driving down violence within the city of Detroit, that's key. That's paramount, and it's important that we we hold on to that, that program, those community organizations, and walk lock step with them and letting them know, you know, we understand what it is, because I come from a city we have the same we use binders, interrupters, and we're not seeing the success that Detroit sees. So I understand how important it is that when it's not working, what it looks like.
Thank you. The very last question that we'll ask, which is question number seven, is around crisis management. What experiences have you had managing crises such as large scale demonstrations, natural disasters or incidents of mass violence, and how did you handle them?
So I've had quite a few involvements in that, most recently, the DNC. You know, we did a lot of work behind the scenes when it came to disrupters, you know, in a covert capacity, taking disruptors, using the intelligence we gained, and pulling disruptors out of crowds and taking them away without much notice, so that You know, there was no disruption to the DNC during civil unrest, we had incidents in my particular district because, of course, the night before our city, the downtown Chicago, was, you know, it was looted to bare bones, and the only other option for them was to go to the neighborhoods. And unfortunately, my district was that, was that one of those districts that became ground zero for just that. And so a lot of command decisions I had to make. And one of those command decisions I made was what's most important for the citizens in this this neighborhood, in this community, and I made the command decision that grocery stores and pharmacies were going to be the things that we protected over everything else, because at the end of the day, that's what the residents wouldn't need the most. They were going to need medication and they were going to need food. So I, you know, required ask for additional personnel, and we ended up safeguarding over seven grocery stores, five different pharmacies, you know. And unfortunately, there were, there were, you know, other non essential buildings and businesses that that took the brunt. But I had to make the command decision about what was most important. And on top of that as well, we had the police headquarters was located in my district as well, and I was quite often the incident commander for mass protests on a regular basis that would often encompass the police headquarters on a weekly basis. So being in command and control of how to move large crowds, how to move large platoons of police officers, and how to safeguard you know public buildings has been something that I have dealt with quite often, even being the incident commander to lead protests through the middle of the city of Chicago, from the south side of my district all the way into downtown. And you know, understanding what best practice is when it comes to dealing with that sort of incident, and not only that, often having to safeguard former President Obama's Chicago residents, when it comes to threats on his residents, or on his life when he comes to town, and knowing how to handle that and knowing how to collaborate with other agencies, you know it's, it's just becomes one of those things that is second nature Because of the size of the city of Chicago.
Thank you so much. That'll conclude the seven questions that we've asked every single candidate at this time, you have the opportunity to provide any closing remarks that you'd like to give to the board and to the public.
Okay, so I just think I want to you know, we, we you mentioned transparency, but I just want to talk about transparency real quick. I believe transparency is key. I come from a city that has civilian oversight as well, and I understand it, and I have no problem with it. I understand that it has to get out there, but I also want at least for the public to understand as well that transparency is not always what you think it is. And I speak from that, from experience having been a victim of an error in transparency as coming from a state with an open records law where our disciplinary histories are able to be foyer from our police department. Some incorrect information was for you from a non for profit organization, and that information was put online, and that information is incorrect. You know, it alludes to me having a five day suspension for excessive force. However, I was exonerated for that. What, six years after the incident, and that was to be removed from my disciplinary file. However, someone made a mistake and didn't remove it, and that information was given to this not for profit organization, and they have since put it online. And, you know, we talk about transparency now, we were transparent to them, and then they've been notified that the information is incorrect, but they won't be transparent enough to remove it, so I always find myself having to defend that with a letter of exoneration and my current disciplinary history. How I believe transparency is is, is vital and crucial in law enforcement at this time. I think, I really, truly believe it goes both ways. But, I mean, I've been in this profession long enough I will. I can. I have no problem standing, standing on mine and owning what I've done and what I have not done. I just think it's very important that we get the correct message out there and the correct information out there. But you know, anything in my personal life is never taken away from my professional life, you know, and and I want to say that because I think far too often we forget that men and women in public safety and law enforcement are just as human as everybody else. At the end of the day, we take off this uniform, and we, we have lives. We go home, and a lot of people don't know what we're just we're just as normal. We have issues that we deal with. We have things that, you know, some people can never believe, that you would think they deal with. And I just, you know, I always want the public to understand, hey, I've been there. I'm just as human as you. I can relate. I have empathy towards what you go through. But with that said, I just truly appreciate this opportunity to be able to answer some questions and even to be on this forum with everybody. So thank you.
Thank you so much, sir. We appreciate your interest and for joining us online at this point that'll conclude the interview with you. And I think we're as far as next steps, we'll have to deliberate here amongst amongst the board. Okay,
thank you.
Thank you, sir.
And with that through the Chair, if I may, yes, there's, there's a little bit of an announcement. I know that we announced originally at the start of this meeting that we had five candidates that we were going to interview. Of those five, we obviously have interviewed candidates, Todd Betten, Joel Fitzgerald and Now Joshua Wallace, the remaining two candidates that were scheduled to interview have actually yielded their candidacy.
I won't necessarily name
the reasonings as to why they they have yielded, but I will share that one candidate actually yielded their candidacy and endorsed Todd medicine for the position as well. So just in the sake of transparency and providing that information, but at this point, I think we are okay to move to closed session.
Commissioner Presley, you have motion. I
move that we move into closed session pursuant to section 8f of the old meeting, meetings, act MCL 15.26, 8f to consider the qualifications, competencies, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, employees. Second
motion made by Commissioner Presley and second by Commissioner Hernandez to go into closed session any discussion. All in favor? Say, aye. Anyone opposed, the motion is carried. This is a
Are we moving or the we are moving, the public can stay here,
yeah, yeah, the public can stay here, yeah. And so this is a what, five minute since we're Moving, 10 minute recess,
they Take this recording stopped. I
recording In Progress.
Thank you. It's 552 january 30. Board of police come back in order in session.
Please call the roll Commissioner woods, present, Commissioner Smith, present, Commissioner Bernard, Commissioner Bell person, Commissioner Carter here, Commissioner Moore, President, Commissioner Hernandez, yes, present
That's our code. They're asking if you're present. Here
I email them. Thanks.
Are you here? Commissioner, President, Walsh,
all right. I um,
we have a quorum, and let the record reflect that, uh, commission Dewas is here. Um,
through the Chair. Yes, sir.
So in regards to the the interviews that that were held today, I have a motion. I move to submit the following candidate names to the mayor for consideration for the appointment to the chief of police for the city of Detroit, pursuant to section 7.805 of the Detroit city charter. Todd Bettison, Joel Fitzgerald and Joshua Wallace, report, motion
made by Commissioner Hernandez, second by Commissioner Moore. Any discussion, all in favor, say, aye, aye. Anyone opposed, the motion is carried. Let's we have johnte. He
has
a public comment to make. We did consent to let him do that based upon all of the things that's been going on. Go ahead.
Good afternoon. I just want to start by saying, I got a big shout out to command Commissioner Cedric banks and helping out with the with the wrongfully incarcerated individual. I feel like that work is very important. Also want to say, I want to say it very is very emotional in the work of activism, but I say it's very irresponsible for anybody at all, especially another activist, to put down the work of other activists. But I do want to apologize to commissioner, Commissioner Smith, I don't think I lied on you what I said, but I do apologize for coming at you in a certain way, but when you come at people who are working on a certain case, it affects them. Even if you don't specifically name a person, it still affects them. Like, if somebody's talked about the people working on the Ziya Harris's case saying that there is somebody in custody and this and that. And so the activism work is not necessary. That will be offensive, and it will be offensive to everybody working on it. So I like to say that also, I can say when it comes to situations like, you know, just the interview process, but when it comes to leadership and department, it's very important that we hold leadership accountable into a different standard. And I do have to give former chief white some credit, even though I don't care if his work, he left the city, the city and department with several scandals, but he suspended Lieutenant Brandon Cole, he spent about seven months at home without pay, and he's just through arbitration, got all of his money back. He is reinstated his exact same position. He is overall protest. I protest often indices, and I don't feel safe with him out there, because that man took a personal stance that was racist, that was political and that was uncalled for. Talking to an activist in Detroit who didn't even realize who he's talking to and making statements like he's a part of a unit that I would never find out about. There are a lot of officers who do an excellent job. When you have people like that in a leadership position, it stands to have a very, very bad culture. And I feel like he has come back and he hasn't done anything to show any retribution to his actions. So I feel like, as a board, is there anything that you guys would like to put in place to stop this type of behavior and shift the culture, or at least question the culture, and question, when we have situations like this, can we do something about it, versus letting people come back with 40 to $50,000 in back pay?
Yeah, yep.
Um, thank you for your comments. And let's say this, I want to thank the board for being very, very attentive today. We got through this very, very well, and appreciate everybody being here for this service for the city of Detroit. I want to thank Mr. Tom Adams and TJ Adams and Associates for the great job that they did in terms of interviewing dozens of candidates, a stellar job. This is the third police search that they have done, from my understanding, and I want to say thank you. Your staff was very, very professional. We appreciate them immensely. We want to thank the procurement department, in particular, Miss limit from the procurement department, who has done a phenomenal job in making sure that this, this thing is ran very, very smoothly. And let it be very, very clear that we are continuing to stand ready to to hold anybody accountable that do wrong, and we're going to continue to fight the good fight. And so thank you, commissioners. Anything before we close out? Yes, sir. And
so in the spirit of gratitude and congratulations, I do also want to express gratitude to the chair of the personnel training committee. Thank you, Commissioner Jesus, her name.
Okay, and new business? Any new business? There being no new business here, I move to adjournment motion made by Commissioner Presley and supported by Commissioner Moore. Any discussion? All in favor? Say, aye. Anyone opposed The motion is carried.
