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Board of Police Commissioners: Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Board of Police Commissioners

Detroit Documenters24min

Unknown Speaker

00:13

Recording in progress.

Speaker 1

00:19

Good afternoon. Today is September 26 2024 The time is now 3pm the city of Detroit, police of board commissioners meeting is now called to order. Invocation today is by Chaplain Darren Penson, who is on Zoom. Are you present? You

Speaker 2

00:44

we're having difficulty getting the chaplain on at the moment. Okay,

Speaker 1

00:48

thank you. Okay, so we will have prayer by Reverend chief Warfield.

Unknown Speaker

01:00

Let us pray,

Speaker 3

01:03

Father, we come once again just to say thank you for this day, for this hour that you've allowed us to make it to in this day. As we come here to meet on community concerns and on the community behalf as it relates to policing and community, we ask Father That Your Spirit will guide us in this conversation, and you will provide answers and solutions that we need to make our city a better city and a better place to live. Bless those who are conducting this meeting, our commissioners. Bless the citizens who are here and the staff and all those involved. We give you honor. We give you glory in Jesus name. We

Speaker 1

01:35

pray Amen. Amen. Thank you for that prayer. Now we're going to have an introduction of our commissioners by our madam sickle theory.

Speaker 4

01:48

Commissioner Woods is asked to be excused. Commissioner Smith present. Commissioner Bernard is asked to be excused. Commissioner banks asked to be excused. Commissioner Bill asked to be excused. Commissioner Burton, Commissioner Carter, Commissioner Moore, President, Commissioner Hernandez, Commissioner Presley, Commissioner de Walsh present. Three commissioners present, Madam Vice Chair,

Speaker 1

02:24

thank you, ma'am. So we do not have a quorum, so we'll start our oral communications. Who do we have for that?

Speaker 2

02:32

Madam Chair? We have four speakers in the room. We'll start with Bishop bland,

Unknown Speaker

02:41

Miss Bernie Smith and MS, pradia Butler, please state your name and speak directly into the mic.

Speaker 5

02:52

Bishop

Fletcher bland, I was here last week, and I had made recommendations regarding the handicaps parking at the end of the building, and I suggested that the parking of the first two rows be handicapped. But after I left the building yesterday, realized that from the four handicapped parking spaces all the way up to the door, all of this concrete and flowers weeds, landscaping. You can extend the handicap parking now from those four spaces all the way to the building, whatever the code is for a number of feet before the building, but all of that could be handicapped, so people like myself and others don't have to walk all the way down. Plus it's getting cold, it's going to be snowing, and it'll be nice if the handicap spaces could be enhanced So from where they are, all that space that's just sitting there unused could be made handicapped space. Second thing I want to suggest is, you know, we have a lot of people with mental health issues. And as the gentleman was shot the other day, had a mental health issue we've had in the past, people with knives, acts and other weapons. And I like to suggest that each patrol car be housed with a shield. You know, when you had Detroit breathe on seven mile if, when officers walk up to a house, they don't know what they're walking up to, they don't know what's confronting them, but if they had the shield, so if somebody's shooting or they have an ax or a knife, not only can they be protected, but they may be able to deescalate the situation and talk to the potential perpetrator and get him or her to disarm themselves. So if everyone had in their vehicle a shield. When they walk up to a house, they won't be ambushed. Another suggestion I had. Well, those are the two, but we need the Oh, one other thing, when you're walking up to the building from the parking lot, right in front of the door should be a handicap ramp, just for people who may not park in a handicap but they're parking in the regular parking space when they come up to the door, like I have a walker, I had to lift my walker up.

Speaker 1

05:33

Okay? Thank you, sir, that is your time. Thank you. Let the record reflect that Commissioner Burton is present,

Unknown Speaker

05:42

Miss Smith, after Miss Smith, Mr. D Butler,

Speaker 6

05:57

good afternoon commissioners, good afternoon I constantly watch my news at 11 o'clock in the morning, channel two, and each morning seem like it's getting worse and worse. As far as crime is in our city and things that are unsuitable that's going on in our city, I love this city, and I'm sure it's a lot of Detroiters love their city, and we want it to be the best that we can be when it comes to a child that's been missing over three months, and I see on the TV today, 14 years old, can't find a body yet. The chief was appearing and made his presentation. Our attorney, she made her presentation how in the hand that we parents are not more cognizant of our children and where they are. I used to take my children back and forth to school. I used to pick them up back and forth. Not that I was worried about the danger, but I cared. I was a monitor in the junior high school there at Western and at Mayberry, over in southwest Detroit, for all of my children the time that they were in school. Why can't parents be more Condes? I guess that's the word for it. I want to say of their children, they're looking like they're just letting them go and no interest in them whatsoever. I feel sad for the parents, true enough, but anytime you got a 14 year old young girl that's been raped several times and you don't know anything about it, I'm mad. I'm mad as hell, because being a mother and a grandmother, I know how it is to take care of children, and I don't know what's the matter with these parents that they don't take care of their children. Pay more attention to where they go and what they do. It's encourageable. The fact that it's horrible and I feel bad today. I really feel bad because that child didn't belong to me, but I felt as though that I have three daughters, and I took care of them. I was very careful of who they associated with and so forth. But I'm just discussed it today, really with these parents in this city. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

08:03

Thank you, ma'am.

Unknown Speaker

08:10

Good afternoon.

Unknown Speaker

08:11

Good afternoon.

Speaker 7

08:12

This is just a continuation from the last time I was here. According to several reports in the New York Times, there are officers who are Klansmen joining police departments. Most, I believe, live outside of the cities. We have problems here. Of our young men applying to join the department but not following up, and some unable to pass physical requirements. I'm very concerned, because I believe that working where you live, one has a vested interest in maintaining the quality of life, and it's more than just a job. I have reported earlier that some of the mayor's top administrators don't live in the city. Our tax dollars are being going elsewhere, supporting other cities, which includes paying lawsuits. Something needs to be done because the reversal of decisions by the Supreme Court project 2025, and redistricting, we are living in an armed camp, police, bar, siders, the work start started in the work, the word stated, I'm sorry, and project 2025, has been going on for some time, so many of us are not paying attention. We need to stop complaining and take a look in the mirror. As I have asked before, what are we doing? Where we live? Working together, we can change what is happening. We must move forward. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

09:47

Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

09:50

Minister Eric blunt,

Unknown Speaker

09:56

then we'll go into zoom.

Speaker 8

10:02

Good. Afternoon board. I am Minister Eric blunt from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, good afternoon. I'm asking for a moment of silence. For Marcellus Williams, you

Speaker 8

10:28

Jesus wept for his friend. So I'm sure you can afford me the opportunity to weep for an innocent what a vast majority of people feel is the innocent black man who was executed this week. And I hope you realize why some of us come here with very, very serious demands on this board of police commissioners. We're here for police officer misconduct, but the corruption on this board doesn't allow us to address the duty we have, yes, Vice Chair, you have the ability to interrupt the chief of police and say, Look, we're not here for a crime Summit. We're not here to talk about kids and everything else. We are here for police officer misconduct. So have the police department first talk about their efforts in the risk management system they have to detect bad police officers. Let them talk about internal affairs and what they've discovered and what they're doing to prevent bad police officers, and even OCI, just a few months ago, did an analysis that warned us that cops, bad cops, are handcuffing innocent citizens but not arresting them. That should be an alarm that something's going wrong, and you need to get to the bottom of it, and not just talk about crimes and things that happen.

Unknown Speaker

12:05

We are waiting. Thank you, sir, that is your time. We're

Speaker 2

12:14

going to go into zoom and put our first speaker will be Miss Tara Brown and former commissioner, William Davis,

Taura Brown

12:26

thank you. Commission. My name is Tara Brown. Can you hear me?

Unknown Speaker

12:31

You can be heard. Thank you.

Taura Brown

12:32

Thank you. Commission. My name is Tara Brown. I was going to speak about Sherman Butler, but today I'm going to speak about something that's been really getting on my nerves. This meeting is at three o'clock every Thursday, except when it's a community meeting, and those are later, and we know where they are. I don't understand why this commission can't be here on time. And start at three o'clock like it's supposed to. It is 312 and from my vantage point, it looks like maybe two or three people are sitting there. This is important. I don't know if you all need to change the time or what needs to happen, but the same people are always late. And I don't care where this meeting is held, whether it's held here at a different location on the moon, they the same people managed to be late every single week. This is a commitment. This is serious. The time doesn't change, and when it does, you know in advance, I don't know what is going to but the rest of this Commission needs to learn to get here on time. This is ridiculous. People set aside time to come here for public comment, to come here for observation. You got senior citizens well into their 90s. You got pastors. You got people who have left work to be here for this meeting, and for some reason, the damn commissioners cannot get here on time. It is ridiculous, and they have more excuses, and I don't know what as to why they don't get here on time. The other thing I want to mention is we are still waiting for body cam video from Sherman Butler's murder, and at this point, Imma call it a murder and not a shooting, because it's clearly a cover up, because they come up with more excuses as to why not to give this camera. We are just now finding out. Well, I'm not just now finding out. I've known for quite some time that Craig Gregory was a former DPD police officer. They claimed they can't find none of his personnel records. His name has come up in two lawsuits for civil rights violations. I want to know, when should we expect a video? When should we expect a police report? When should we expect to know what happened to Sherman Butler and see video that tells us Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

14:32

Thank you. You.

Unknown Speaker

14:46

Former Commissioner Davis,

Unknown Speaker

14:48

good afternoon. Could I be heard?

Unknown Speaker

14:52

You could be heard? Go ahead, please. Okay,

Speaker 9

14:54

I like to start off by saying I agree that the handicapped parking should be closer to the door. I found that to be a problem when I was down there, especially with some people that's elderly and handicapped, they should be able to have parking closer to to the door, like in most places. Also, I think that there is even a greater need for this commission to track wrongful arrest and wrongful convictions. It should be a regular quarterly report done to update the public on what's being done about that. Also, it should be a report dealing with officers that are frequently involved in wrongful arrest or wrongful convictions. You know, this board can do a whole lot to improve its image by doing more to let people know that y'all are aware and working on the challenges that some people face. Because you know, if more and more people think that, you know people are being arrested for no reason, or being arrested because somebody can get away with it, and also it should be a report generated every time an officer put handcuffs on someone, you know, if you're putting handcuffs on someone, especially a young black person or a young Hispanic, you know, just so that you could talk to them, that's a problem. We need to make sure that everything is above board with this commission and with this commission and with this department, we have most of our offices are outstanding offices, but you know, if you let bad officers get away with stuff that makes the whole department and the board of police commissioners look bad. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

16:36

Thank you.

Speaker 2

16:37

We do have another speaker in the audience, Mr. Ronald Foster,

Speaker 10

16:54

good evening through the Chair. Good evening first, everyone says, I'm really really appreciative of you guys this community. Constant ear to the community. Always see Commissioner Moore down downtown and in the community, as well as Miss Smith is always in the community. I'm very grateful today for you guys, this partnerships that you have and knowledge that you all done, I think those are great going in a great direction, as well as the new department to help address some of the crime victim rights. I think that's very admirable and needed. And so I'm very, very grateful for what you guys are doing and the efforts that you all are making. They are visible and tangible things. And so we ask that you guys keep it up. I have anything really bad to say today. I just really, just encourage you all to keep up the good work. Keep an ear to the community and tighten up the areas that need to be tightened up. And thank you all for listening. Thank you.

Speaker 2

18:07

Miss Williams. I think that's all that's in the audience. If I missed someone, um,

Speaker 11

18:25

hello everyone. Hello. Today, I just want to speak about honesty and integrity and being responsible and health, being held accountable for whatever you didn't done, and respecting your job, whatever your position is. I've been speaking about a whole lot of stuff a year and a half concerning Detroit police officers can't say the whole 2700 and at this point in time, there's really nothing left for me to say, because I didn't say it so much over these meetings and making police reports and everything that's been going on in my life, nothing's changed. All I continue to do is come in here to put stuff on record Freedom of Information Act, because at the end of the day, everyone that's in these positions are fully aware of what I've been complaining about. And all I ask for you all to do is do to do your job correctly and comply to the law, rules and regulations instead of doing what you guys do. I can't speak for everybody at the in this room, but I'm talking about integrity and doing what you should do in your position. Period, last weekend, I went to the market. Now, who's gonna the taxpayers pay for the helicopters to be put guys in it? I mean, you know, fill up, fly around. It's no way in heck, a helicopter should have been stalking me for five minutes. That's not acceptable. I can't even go to the market, even when I was at 1200 12 900 drones and helicopters all of the all over the place. And then they say it's no officers in there. I could take what you guys say on record, but I'm far from stupid. But at the end of the day, like I said, accountability at the end of the day, it's nothing else for me to say. Thank you very much and have a good day. Thank you, Mayor

Speaker 2

20:30

Madam Chair, there's one more speaker in zoom that grew.

Unknown Speaker

20:39

Go ahead, you could be heard.

Speaker 12

20:43

Okay, this board of police commissioners now y'all Chairman Darryl Brown, after the board voted to subpoena the records from the Detroit Police Department and the Michigan State. We investigation, review, investigation the DPD case number two, zero, dash, 11112, on that Thursday night, he went in Friday morning and told the board secretary, they, I believe here, not to start the subpoena process. Now, it's been over a month now, and now in your packets, I understand it's a letter from the Michigan State Police denying the request for some videos or something we y'all didn't vote for to subpoena. He you served his power, you served the board's authority, and went in there and told the board secretary not to do something it's all voted to do. Now. Dale Woods got to go. He got in the way too. Everybody in nene's way gonna have to get out the way. That's from the mayor all the way down the line to Dale woods, and then somebody on the school board getting the way they got to go to they've been cheating in Detroit elections since 2020 that could prove and tomorrow, Friday, number 45 gonna be out there in Warren, in Macomb County, at Columb County, college, out of war, he got the information that he was cheating on in Detroit in 2020 I gave it to him. I made sure he got it on three different occasions. Now he didn't get it, and he knows all about it, so they didn't. Went through the state of Michigan and found, I don't know how many cases absentee ballot fraud. They got nothing to do with Detroit, but I'm gonna focus on Detroit. All these elected officials here in the city of Detroit, highly suspect. No, they've been cheated in. That's what's been happening. They all cheated in, every last one of them, elected officials on the city council. They'd have stacked the council, the board of police commissioners and the school board, and they lying and cheating so they can still

Speaker 1

22:48

Thank you. We're now moving forward to report from our board secretary, Madam Secretary,

Speaker 4

22:58

the report from the board secretary today under tab 11 is the Office of Chief investigators, weekly inventory report for the date September 14 through September 20, 2024 the announcements for today are as follows. The next meeting of the board is Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 3pm here in Detroit Public Safety headquarters. The next community meeting is Thursday, October 10 at 6:30pm third preset, which will be held at Goodwill Industries Career Center. 2777, East Grand Boulevard in Detroit. 40. 211, the October monthly committee meeting is as follows, citizens complaints committee meeting Tuesday, October 1, at 3pm here at public safety headquarters, the policy committee will be meeting three times in October all at 5pm on october 1, October 15 and october 29 that concludes the report from the board. Secretary office, Madam Vice Chair, yes,

Speaker 1

24:15

thank you, Madam Secretary. So the time is now 324, and we still do not have a quorum. Thank so can I get a motion to adjourn.

Unknown Speaker

24:31

I think we can't even vote on it,

Unknown Speaker

24:36

meeting as a gern Thank you.

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