And so we'll begin today's meeting with a word of invocation, which will be offered to us by command recording in progress. Stanley Mobley, who is joining us today by zoom. Chaplain. Mobley, thank you.
Could we have a moment of silence for the deputy Oakland County Law Office life?
Yes, we can do that, really, after the word of invocation. Thank you,
Father. We just want to thank you today. And I want to thank you that this is the day that you have made, and we have made the choice to rejoice and be glad in it. I thank you for the Board of Commissioners. I thank you for the city leaders. I thank you for the community leaders and the DPD, Father, we thank you for your purpose in us a plan today, a plan to work in unity, a plan to come together. And you've said there's power in unity. And so Father, today we walk in that authority, that power. We thank you for the vision that you've given these commissioners. We thank you for the purpose in which they operate in Father, to better the city, to better Lord the oversight. And so we thank you that we invite you into this moment. Let your peace reign. Your grace be profound. Let your wisdom, father take hold today. So we thank you so very much. Today, we pray for the families of each one that is represented here. We pray that they would just father. Rest in you today. See the power of father, grace and mercy, Your love and kindness, your goodness. We pray it all in Jesus name, amen,
amen. And now I ask that we all would observe a moment of silence in honor of the deceased Oakland County Sheriff. Deputy.
Thank you
with that, we don't yet have a quorum, and so we will move to our amended agenda. Will allow acts, Acting Secretary brown to provide us with any incoming communication as well as announcements. Yeah, good
afternoon, Mr Chair, good afternoon. The only incoming communication is OCI weekly inventory report for from 615 2024, to 621, 2024, and this is here the announcement the next bopc community meeting will be Thursday, July 11, at 6:30pm with The 6% hosting at Citadel appraise that address is 20280 Linden Street, Detroit, Michigan, 480, 223, and the next community meeting for August would be August 8, 2024, 6:30pm, with the fifth precinct hosted that meeting would take place at WC three Eastern campus that addresses 5901, Connor Street, 40, 213, and Mr Chair. Let me do chair that our next meeting is scheduled for July 4, which is the holiday, so the board needs to either cancel that meeting or vote to have it on another day. The announcement,
thank you.
And noting we have yet to maintain a quorum, we will again move to our amended agenda. And looking at the agenda, it looks like the only thing left we might be able to do as we wait on a commissioner to arrive is indeed to begin our oral communications. And so with that, Miss blossom, who do we have? I'm sorry, who do we have?
Good afternoon, Mr Chair. We have four speakers. Our first speaker would be Miss Shanita Williams, Minister, Eric blunt, Miss Padilla Butler and Miss Sonia wells, Tanya wells,
just want to remind all of our commenters, you have two minutes.
Hello, everyone. Hello. Every time I leave out the facility where I'm at, Detroit police officers endanger my life having people stalking me, I have all type of nuts. I have to worry about my well being and my my safety. People riding up on me with their pistols, all type of stuff. And this is not acceptable. Like chief White says he got 2000 people underneath him, and you do have some bad apples underneath you, and if they do not respect they oath, they should not be no police officers. I'm tired of my civil rights being violated. I'm tired of them trying to conceal or cover up my rape when I was over Avalon, someone put something in my system. It was somebody from sex crime unit over there, and another officer. I got up and went and got something to use the restroom, and I came back, whatever the case was, however long I was gone, when I came back, I was eating a slice of cake, and my mouth became numb. I don't use any drugs, so I never had that occur when I was there for a brunch and all of this stuff is going on illegally. You all sit on this board every week, and we discussed, and I continue to discuss, what's going on in my life, sororities, frats, Detroit Police Department, like I told the city council, it's the city official workers, and they are working with police officers when I'm on my way to make police reports. You know, they always want to play games when I'm on the bus, whatever the case is. And like I said, we could do a ride around along, and I can go to any police precinct and identify officers in a civilian vehicles. Thank you and have a great day.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, board and to the Chief Minister, Eric bunt from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, I strongly advise each one of you and everyone under the sound of my voice to view and experience the documentary that Paula tutman put together on the 30 year anniversary of the murder of malice green. It is in depth. It is damning, but it is also very truthful. And one of the things that came out in that documentary read, that was said more than once, is that things have changed in the 30 years. Things have gotten worse. This is going national, this is going international. But one of the things Paula tutman brought up was that over 370 black, unarmed people have been murdered by the police department since malice Green was murdered. So that just kind of backs up the fact that things are getting worse. So look at it, understand it, and understand how the 36th district, I mean, the recorders court, was eliminated. It was a racial move. It was a power move, and it was devastating to the justice that can occur in this city. Chief white, I understand you have an ironclad way of promoting people. The board has really nothing to do with it. They just, they have to go along with it, based on the systems that was set up in the 2022 contract negotiation negotiations, but again, I'd ask you, and I want to thank Paula tuppen on her way out, she made a very big difference in documenting what really has happened in this city. Thank you.
Thank you, and noting that we are joined by chair elect, Commissioner Darrell woods. We do now have a quorum. And so with that, we will go to our official agenda, which calls for the introduction of commissioners by acting secretary Brown,
present. Commissioner banks, excellent excuse. Absent Commissioner bail person. District Four, Commissioner Burton, Commissioner Carter, Commissioner Moore asked for an excused absent. Commissioner Hernandez, present. Commissioner woods, present. All
right, with that, again, we do indeed have a quorum, and now the chair will entertain a motion for the approval of the June 27 2024 agenda. Is there any objection to this agenda? Hearing, no objection. The agenda is approved, and now we move on to the approval of the minutes for the june 13, 2024 meeting. Is there any objection to the approval of these minutes? Hearing, no objection. The minutes are approved. Finally, we will move on to. approval of the minutes for the June 20, 2024, meeting. Is there any objection to these minutes? Hearing, none. The minutes are approved. And now we'll have the introduction of vlpc staff, Chief of Police, elected officials, representatives and community leaders by acting secretary Brown,
thank you. Mr Chair, we have with our chief investigator, Jerome Warfield, Mr drew freeze, Miss Johnny Underwood, Miss Theresa blossom, Miss Jasmine Taylor, Miss Artemisia Joshua, Miss Candace Hayes, acting supervisor, investigator Ellen Murphy, ASL, interpreter, Dr Stephanie Beatty, Mr Don Hennessy is doing the court reporter. Jason is doing the video, and soggy Quinn is doing the audio. And Sydney and is the chief himself. Mr James White, the elected Fisher, Miss Marie overall. State Representative Robin Carter's office. Miss free of Butler, president of second free stand community relations, Mr Don Davis office, Councilman member Fred drew Harley the third and former Commissioner William Davis. All
right.
Thank you. I let the record reflect that Commissioner Burton has joined us, Commissioner Bernard
just quickly, Mr Chairman, I'd just like to acknowledge because most of our staff, I'm not sure, is aware that you mentioned that Mr Drew Brees was present. He is present. And last weekend he got married at Belle Isle. He is it's just, it was a he's telling me the pictures. It was just great. I just wanted to acknowledge you drew and we, I know the board does as well. Wishes you the very best. Okay, Mr and Mrs, thank you. Congratulations.
Next we will have the board of police commissioners officers report, where we first have a resolution honoring Lieutenant Jamie McCray, who is retiring. And so I will read this into the record. Whereas, on January 27 1986 Jamie McRae was appointed to the Detroit Police Department. Upon graduating from Detroit Metropolitan Police Academy, Officer McRae began his career at the eighth precinct. And whereas officer McRae demonstrated diligence and leadership in his assignments at the eighth precinct for nine years. On October the third, 1995 he earned promotion to the rank of sergeant and served in the crimes against property unit and at the first precinct, whereas Sergeant McRae continued to show excellence in performance of his public safety duties, along with his commitment to the mission of the Detroit Police Department and the profession of law enforcement. On January 22 1999 Sergeant McRae was promoted to lieutenant, taken on and excelling during assignments to the central district and first precinct and his current assignment in the seventh precinct. And whereas Lieutenant McRae possessed a tremendous devotion to duty and received numerous honors and commendations, his awards include both consent judgment award, the 2014 Ford fireworks award, the 2006 Super Bowl 40 Recognition Award, the 2005 major league baseball All Star Recognition Award, the 2005 Rosa of Park's general recognition award, and numerous letters of commendation from residents and superiors. And whereas, such accolades are only part of the testimony to Lieutenant mccray's outstanding and steadfast performance in service to the Detroit Police Department. The people of Detroit, and stakeholders, since 19. as he embarks upon retirement on July 8, 2024 Lieutenant McRae is saluted for his loyalty, integrity, selfless public service and other qualities that have made him widely respected throughout law enforcement and the Detroit community As a consummate professional. Therefore, be it resolved that the Board of police commissioners, speaking on behalf of the residents of the great city of Detroit, recognized Lieutenant Jamie McCray and his 38 years of dedicated public service and law enforcement. The board extends sincere appreciation for his unwavering professional service spanning over decades from police officer to lieutenant and wish him the very best in all future endeavors. We thank and salute you, Lieutenant. Jamie McCray, the chair entertains a motion to adopt this resolution archives is going to move? Is there a second and properly moved and seconded all those in favor? Please signify by saying, aye, aye, All those opposed, nay, the eyes have it, this resolution is adopted, and now we will move on to an item that to be clear after receiving advisement, if there hear me clearly colleagues, if there is any discussion that needs to be had on this item, item B, under the agenda, then we need to enter into closed session. Okay, so be mindful, if there's any discussion outside of us voting yes or no, then we will need to enter into closed session. And so I'll take this opportunity to poll my colleagues to see if it is your desire to enter into closed session. Yes, right? Well, I don't have the letters, but pursuant to section eight, a of the Open Meetings Act.
The Chair now entertains a motion to move into closed session. Is there a second. So moved. Well, you made the motion. So, is.
there a second? All right, it's been proper moving a second. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing no discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. All those opposed? No, all right, the eyes have it That motion passes, we'll take a four minute recess, reporting stopped, and then we will return back to our agenda. Thank you very much. I'm sorry we need you All to clear the role. I
just let me know when we're ready Stay here. Drew we're asking that You remain You.
Once we vote on B,
See you, Pat, I,
reporting in progress, all Right, and so with that, the chair now calls this meeting back into open session. And as we do so, we ask that Acting Secretary Brown will call the roll, Chairperson
President, you can't. With that, we do indeed have a quorum now. we will the chair interchange A motion relative to the OCI investigator salary range of 62,000 to $80,000 so moved is that Second? It's been properly moved and seconded. All is there any discussion, hearing no discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye, All those opposed. No, the ayes. Have it That motion passes, and now we'll move on to the appointment of the rank of captain for Lieutenant. Cedric Dunbar,
Good afternoon, Mr Chair, if I may. Chief White would like to be present to present this agenda item. Is it possible that it can be moved down until the chief? Is
there any objection to moving the appointment till after the chief of police report? No hearing. None. Go right ahead.
Thank you The chief police report, yes, sir. Again. Good afternoon, honorable body. Franklin Hayes, Deputy Chief of the Detroit Police Detroit Police Department, and this is the chief of police report. Currently we have one officer microphone, sorry. Currently we have one member of the department, a police officer from downtown services, who is out and disabled, recovering from an on duty injury. This officer has indicated their desire to get back and serve the residents of this great community, so we ask that you wish them well on their road to recovery. As it relates to our crime, we continue to have reductions in the violence that our city is seeing with our homicides. We currently have a 17% reduction in our non fatal shootings, we have a 23% reduction. In our robberies, we have a 27% reduction. And in our carjackings, we have a 41% reduction. This is for a total Part One violent crime reduction overall of 11% some of our initiatives and summer strategies that we have include our drag racing and drifting detail as well as ATV bikes. And if I may, turn this over to Chief sure I just got through. I was just
here to talk about drag racing. Thank you. Thank you. See, okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. No problem. Go right ahead. Good afternoon again. You've heard about our crime, and certainly we are not celebrating because one homicide is one too many, but at this time of year in our city, considering we were significantly down last year, lower since 1966 and to be sitting on 20 less people killed in our city this year is a testament to the incredible work of the men and women of Detroit Police Department. And to see those numbers is encouraging that our strategies, our 12 point plan, and all the other work, our community, our CVI, it's all working together to save lives in our community, one of the biggest concerns that we do have that is very difficult for us to manage, but we're going to is these parties, these street parties and these yard parties that continue throughout our community. Certainly, we don't want to eliminate people's opportunity to have a good time in the summer. That's what we want. We want to do so safely, and we have had now a significant number of people harmed, shot and a few people killed at these street parties. And so we're going to be asking for the community's help with managing these street parties. Most recently, we've had a total, I want to say, in the last 60 days, of nine young women under the age of 30 either shot or killed at these parties. So we have to protect our kids. We have to certainly protect all people in our city. But you know, when you're seeing women being the target of violence like this, and most of it is, they're not the target, we're going to correct myself. They are caught in the crossfire of people using weapons to resolve otherwise simple disputes. I will give you a couple of big cases to talk about. I'll start with one of that is active now and it's has made certainly national news, and it's a tragic fatal shooting of an Oakland County Sheriff on Saturday, June 22 at 10:50pm officers were dispatched to the area of Park Grove and schoner for fatal shooting of an Oakland County Sheriff. Officers arrived on the scene and discovered the victim. He was shot attempting to investigate a stolen 22 Chevy Equinox. It was a stolen 2022 Chevy Equinox. We believe that vehicle was occupied by at least three black males. We know that based on some of the evidence that we have, we're investigating if there was, in fact, a fourth person of unknown race and gender in the vehicle as well. Currently, the three suspects are in custody on on other charges as the investigation continue. We also had a an additional homicide on Saturday, June 22 I'm sorry, hold on. I
at 6:50am where officers were dispatched to 1300 block of Annabelle for fatal shooting. Officers arrived on the scene and observed the victim laying in the driveway suffering from several gunshot wounds to the chest. Medic 11 pronounced the victim dead on the scene, and officers from the Fourth Precinct held the scene. Detectives from the homicide unit would notify and we determined that the incident stemmed from an earlier incident at a house party in the area. The incident is still under investigation, so there I wasn't even citing that one when I was speaking of some of the issues with the house parties. So we got a lot of work to do. We're encouraged by our numbers, but that we continue to see upticks and violence at these parties, and we're going to do everything we can to reduce that violence as well. We moving on to some positive things. We had these fireworks on Monday. The event concluded successfully without any significant incidents to report to the board. We don't have a final count on the numbers that attended, but was well attended multiple viewing areas. I do want to bring one point to the board's attention yet. You may have heard about there was this report of us closing parks for the purpose of doing the fireworks, I found that to be rather surprising and partially inaccurate. From the standpoint of we followed the same format of of deployment and parks and viewing areas as we have from for many years, certainly since I've been chief in many years. When I was an assistant chief, it goes back at least five years, and I'll explain to the board the reason why in a moment. But it was no new parks closed, and the reason for providing the majority of the security provisions to the to the viewing areas is as follows. Number one, the parks that were closed early, which started around 2pm were closed early because parks in Detroit closed between nine and 10pm the fireworks start at 1005 or 1007 it would make no sense to allow people to set up to view the fireworks in these other viewing areas in parks, if we're going to close the park at 10 or 9pm after they've been set up all day. So out of an abundance of courtesy to the community, the decision was made many years ago that those parks should be closed early or so that people don't set up to watch the fireworks, and then the park closes at nine or 10 and they can't be there when the fireworks start. What happened different this year, which probably brought a lot of attention to it, is that we publicly told people that, and we also published them both on our social media page as well as the city's social media page. And I think a lot of people misunderstood and thought that these parks were closing, but it was no different than in years past. I think was one park that wasn't part of last year, and I'll ask DC Hayes to clarify that, because it was under construction, but because it was in the viewing area and it closed during the time that the event started, the decision was made to add that one to the list as well. So we attempted to bring clarification to that for folks, and certainly those in the media reported that accurately, those who did not fit their narrative continued on with the false narrative that we were closing more parks and not allowing people to enjoy them because of the fireworks. But the fireworks were success. We issued a number of curfew violations and parental responsibility tickets, but no significant events to report. No fights. I'm sorry, several fights, but no significant issues. Yesterday, we had to welcome all Wednesday, this Saturday, we have the the peace neck, which will be held at the eighth precinct at O'Hare Park from three to 7pm and that's a partnership with the US Attorney's Office. Deputy Mayor Todd betterson will be in attendance. Us. Attorney Don Isen will be in attendance. There will be educational opportunities, expungement opportunities, job opportunities, and just an overall good day for members of our community. And then finally, I would like to just go back to some earlier comment from Minister Brown, and I just want to preface my comments with I have a tremendous amount of respect for Minister Brown and certainly the issues that he brings forward with regards to malice green, I too saw that documentary, and I took the opportunity at one of my all command meetings with the command officers to Share snippets from that horrible time in Detroit's history. Also, you know, recognizing that many of my command team, like myself were not members of the Detroit Police Department, I do think it's important that we recognize our history and that we know what some of the harm and that has occurred in our agency as a result of our agency to our community, is important to learn from it, grow from it, grow from it, and make this agency better. I've also decided that when I have our annual retreat with the command team, I will be inviting Paula to that to present you know on that documentary, as well as her impressions of the police department currently, as well as the impressions that she learned of the police department during the time of the malleus green incident. I think again, we are a better Police Department, but it's important to know our history so that we can continue to be responsive to our community. And finally, I have hired a new member of our team for the purpose of risk assessment. We talk a lot about risk in our department and how to manage it, and how to to get the best candidates and to make sure that these officers stay good civil servants, and our early identification of risk and making the appropriate decisions. Now that doesn't always mean that that appropriate decision is going to be termination. It's opportunities to coach, there's opportunities to move people to different assignments, and there's opportunities to train. And so if Miss Sherman and why is your last name, escape me right now. I apologize. Is he here? Yes. Please come up to introduce yourself to this body and what you have been tasked with, he joins our team as well as our dei our diversity equity inclusion director, to assist us in managing risk in our department.
Go right ahead.
Thank you very much. And ladies and gentlemen of the board of Police Commission as well as our guests, thank you very much for the work that you do for the citizens of the city of Detroit, microphones, and as a result, the contributions that you make to many, many other contiguous communities that interface with our city. From time to time, I've had the opportunity and my life to be involved in a number of initiatives from the federal level in Washington, DC, under at least three different presidents, and at the state and county levels in several other states, including the city of Philadelphia, the city of Atlanta, Columbia, South Carolina. I'm a lawyer by profession. I'm also a college professor. I have several other advanced degrees, and I've had an opportunity to teach at many universities, and I've written several articles that have been peer reviewed and published, and my first book will be published within several months, and the title of it is thoughts from the heart, lessons, speeches, poems. When I was accepted and appointed to this position as director of risk management, I thoroughly understand the conditions that all individuals may be confronted with from time to time that exposes them to risk unnecessarily. I am very, very interested in making sure, from an educational standpoint, we have the materials that are necessary for our officers to understand the standards for which they are required to adhere to, from a legal standpoint as well as from a moral and ethical standpoint, three different perspectives. I am certain, as a result of the Vivi, a short time that I've been here, the meetings that I participated in, and including meetings. with our chief here, that he's on the right track. And being on the right track is critically important. There's remediation opportunities that are involved, and they are preventive opportunities that are involved. I want to make sure that when we have officers who place themselves at risk, thereby placing our community at risk and this department at risk the city, that we intervene at an early stage to make sure that those behaviors and patterns and habits are interrupted and replaced with what we know is right and acceptable. I can recall in closing, if you will, my very early years in South Carolina, my grandmother, who passed away, I think, at around 97 years old, she and my grandfather were sharecroppers, and often we would look at her and say, grandmother, we don't have what the other children have. We were looking at our external environment, but she knew what our internal environment was, endogenous and exogenous, medical terms, and she used a phrase that stayed with me, especially at my years at Morehouse College, my first degree in undergraduate,
that's it, that's all I need to hear.
And she said, make do with what you have.
Maya Angelou picked up on that, and she has echoed it in a book called do the best that you can with what you know at the time, but when you know better, what do better? Better? That's right. So that's what we're interested in doing here, the making sure that all of us understand that what we may know now may get us by, but as the future moves closer toward us, it will require more, and we need to dig deeper to understand what the future will require of us. So I'm very, very delighted that I'm going to have this opportunity to leave a very, very positive mark on this department and this city and all of the great officers who place themselves in sacrificial positions every day. Due to the best that they can. It is not perfection. That is what I require of my students, and sometimes they push back on that. But I tell them, perfection comes. Yet, in another realm. But what I do for myself. Every night when I have an. opportunity to put my. head on my pillow, I just simply say that if I'm given an opportunity to rise the next day, I will What do better, and that's what's required of all of us to do better, and that's what we want to do. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Ladies and gentlemen. Can
and when the lights go on, sometimes you know you Yeah, and that's
my report, sir. All right. Thank you so very much. And so are there any questions or comments for the Chief Commissioner Bernard?
Um, a couple of things, Chief, it's good to see you. First of all, I Well, I wrote an article last month about how well the department handled the the NFL draft, and actually, I talk about you in that article. I have to give you a copy. It starts with, I do parodies with respect to songs. It starts with talking about parliament, funkadelics, and I said that Detroit blew the roof off the sucker with respect to the NFL draft, which we did the best in the history of the draft. And then further down, I talk about you, and I say, well, in the in the words of James Brown quote, Papa, don't take no mess, and Papa is you Chief white. So the whole article is interfaced with that sort of, you know, musical sort of relationship. So to what I was trying to say.
So again, I should remind you that if you leave, we lose our quorum and are unable to continue in our business.
We got six because I want to talk about good, something continue. Okay, so the second article I wrote, I finished last night about 230 in the morning, and it was different. I was disturbed and concerned about the fact that Detroiters could not watch the fireworks on the Riverwalk, which Detroiters have paid for through their taxes. And if they wanted to watch the fireworks from the river walk, they had to go to Canada. So I've been I'm sure you have well, as a Detroiter, attended the fireworks even as a little kid, I remember catching the bus down with my grandmother. We'd go down watch fireworks and all this kind of stuff. This is a major event for the black community in Detroit, major, major, major, primarily because it's free, it's summer, it's fun, and it's something that only happens once a year, like Christmas, so you don't get it there. You know, there are not a lot of of other things going online, unless you go out to Southfield, which has a sorry, one and the other communities that try to do something that aren't even close to what we do on our Detroit River. So the fact that people are Detroiters were. from the riverfront was very disturbing to me, and I say that and when I write and I appreciate what you said about the curfew on the parks and all that, but those curfews and things that you and I both know change depending on the circumstances what's happening. I didn't see any curfew enforcement during the draft, for example. I mean, would seem like we are willing to do more for others than we willing to do for indigenous Detroiters. And so that was what I wrote about. And you'll see it, it'll be published. But the so I don't find I find it disingenuous that that you think that we're going to close out, but the parks close, attend and supply work. Start attendance. We close everything ahead of time. And instead of just saying, okay, the fireworks are 33 minutes, let the parks close 33 minutes after that, it doesn't make it. It hurts my community. It hurts my people, and it hurts other poor people, white, black, Hispanic, everybody in the community who do this. And so you shut it down,
and we didn't shut it down. And if I can respond now,
you may Okay, make sure, Commissioner Bernardo, you die. We didn't
shut it down, and I've already articulated what happened, and if you look at the history, but we have to be responsible. And this is, this is one of the things that that frustrates me. You know, it was so quick to go to a keyboard and express mischaracterizations of this police department. If we opened up every viewing area in this city and we had a mass shooting, we will be asking chief, what's your security plan? What's your security plan? Why did 15 people get shot? Are we watching what's happening around the country? Do we do we ask ourselves whether were there, were there any threats? We're talking about the fireworks, something that should be a pleasant experience for everyone. When kids get shot. It's not
1000 people. You have to put them somewhere. The NFL paid for an area downtown and the footprint that provided and provided security for that. They also provided additional resources, including security provisions, cameras, drones, all the things that we needed to make our make our community safe, my responsibility. The reason that this board voted unanimously for me to be chief was to keep this community safe period. So you voted for me. So I can't we're I don't seek always agreement, but I certainly seek understanding. And as I've indicated to this board, we shut down the parks multiple years, and to compare the park to to the parks and the fireworks to the NFL draft is not a fair comparison. That's a three day event and a one day event, but, but Ma'am, if I may, I apologize when you look at number of kids that were dropped off, the number of kids that were there, the number of people that saw the fireworks at multiple viewing areas, including across the street from from Wayne County Community College, on the sidewalk with their bargain groups that Were not police, that were not issued an order ticket, because you can't really barbecue on a public street or on a public sidewalk and block walking right? And we didn't enforce that either. We let people watch everywhere they wanted to watch. And we did have a portion of the riverwalk open, and the portion was dated to
the what Detroit youth choir was there with their families, and we are. We're going to continue to expand it as we expand the security protocols. And I'm going to say one last thing, because I know that we're up against the timeline we have to provide security in all of the areas that are viewing areas where the parks are or the areas are open to watch, including on Jefferson, including in neighborhoods, including on portions of the river walk and all the areas downtown, including Spirit Plaza, we have to provide A layer of safety. I stand firmly behind our decisions to allow the parks to close like in times past, early enough where we can put the appropriate security provisions in areas where I can report to this board no significant incidents to report, including no shootings, no one was hurt, no one was hospitalized, and you only need to look back about 10 years when we had the double shooting, I remember and other incidents downtown where this very board was demanding a safety provision where people in our community could watch the fireworks and safety. And we did that this year, and we did it last year,
if I may, just really quickly, Mr Chairman, privileged people were on the rooftop of the Port Authority. Others were in fine restaurants. Everybody that had money could see the fireworks, but people from like myself, who's from Finkel and Lawton, could not see it, and could not be on the riverfront to see it. And that's the process, not
the only viewing area of the fireworks you look up once you get down to
All right, so I'm going to pause this, because, again, I think this is just an opportunity for us to agree to disagree. You know about the methodology that is used, but again, I do think that it's important for us to take into account that again, before the report that was given to those significant incidences, and I think that that should be marked. And, you know, anecdotally, I don't attend the fireworks. I don't like large crowds, but I did speak to a few who did after seeing the post about the parks being closed, and what was shared to me is that it was no less attended than attended in years past. So again, I know that oftentimes, I mean, we saw it with the Detroit sign that was there for the draft. Oftentimes on social media, we can be a bit hasty in our conclusions without having a full context of what is being done. But again, I do think that there might be some fruitfulness for future conversations now that you're aware of maybe ways that those who you feel have been disenfranchised or disqualified from being able to attend, that we can be proactive about that next year. So next year. Commissioner woods, yes.
How you doing? Chief, good sir. How are you great? First of all, I want to send out our condolences to the Oakland County Sheriff that was slain. And if, if through the Chair, if we could take a brief moment of silence we did at the beginning. Did that okay? I was late. Thank you. No problem. I was at the hospital, and I heard the screams of that family, and that was very touching. And I thank you for your leadership and your team for responding so well to that family and to Sheriff Bashar as well. Definitely, my heart was broken that night. And also, I want to send prayers to the officer this that's injured, you know, let it be clear that was one of our officers, and we definitely need to be praying for his speedy recovery. And so let the record reflect that I'm saying on on the behalf of this board that we're praying for his family as well. And, you know, I live on Jefferson, and Jefferson was lit up. You know, you had people in lawn chairs throughout Jefferson. I appreciate the fact that you guys didn't disrupt that, that you allow people to come out to be able to have that vantage point. And, you know, it was packed through and through and even from the projects, you know, right there folks, was had a beautiful vantage point in seeing the fireworks, you know. So that's what I witnessed with my eyes. So, but I don't be has said. What I want to ask is, is that are you aware of the incident with the legal monitors that were referencing Congresswoman Rashida to leave inquiry with us.
Can you be a little bit more specific, the legal monitors,
yeah. Legal monitors, who
are arrested? Legal, yeah? Monitors, yes. I was informed that the board had a question regarding the some of the attorneys I believe that were part of one of the protests, and maybe one or two were arrested.
I've been chief investigator through the Chair, if I may ask, how many were referenced in that letter. And this is not only our concern. Is Congresswoman Rashida to leave concern, and a plethora we've been getting bombarded with calls and people asking about this particular situation in terms of legal monitors, monitors issue hats, and I know you have a strong directive to say that this is something if they're not doing anything illegal, they have a constitutional right to be able to do this, but through the Chair Mr warfare, can you tell us how many was it right ahead
to the chair? I think chief, there were five who were arrested, and we did pull down some initial video. However, we still do not have an official complaint in our office, so we have not necessarily launched an investigation, because we don't have a complaint in the office, but we did all the documents. We did pull the video, and so when a complaint comes in, we're ready and we're keyed up and ready to go with it. Okay,
Chief, if you would like to
respond? Yeah, I would like to respond to that. So we launched an investigation. I think this is starting to sound familiar, with regards to the earlier incident we had with a member of the department where I made a decision to to to open an IA investigation. As part of that investigation, we're looking at every aspect of not just his actions, but the things that happened that he impacted, and that includes the issuance of tickets. I don't I think only two were arrested, if I'm not mistaken, but the other three, I believe, were issued tickets. So we're looking at all of it. If they were within policy, if the tickets were warranted, then they will remain in the court process. We'll work we'll work through that. If they were not warranted, it'll be part of the investigation. We'll make the appropriate recommendations to the court to remedy the tickets. But I do want to make it clear, we do have a very strict policy on observers, attorneys, green hats to to identify themselves, first by the green hat as as an observer, but if they are engaging in the legal conduct or legal behavior or disruptive, disruptive actions, there they will be issued tickets or engaged as any other person would be, but that action of just being there during someone else's conversation does not necessitate that we issue a ticket, so we're going to look at everything. We're going to be transparent about, and if there's any impropriety on our part, we're going to hold the officers accountable, but, but I don't want people to think because they have a green hat that that they are not subject to any other issues. If any other citizen who is not peacefully protesting would be we support peaceful protests, and we will continue to support peaceful protest, but we will not allow people to engage in Detroit conduct, disruptive behavior or assaults against community or police. And let
it be clear that the attorneys that presented themselves with the attorney who presented themselves at our policy meeting, she she led off Julia hortz
For most
civil rights. Okay, please
speak to the chair Commissioner will.
She was absolutely clear and her position that legal monitors are to act accordingly according to the law that she was very, very passionate about that, in terms of that they don't support any type of things that's outside of the law, and that they are very, very sensitive that, and if they see that, they would denounce them a part of their team. They are thoroughly trained in this aspect, and so you know, come from her and a number of others you know. And as you know, Congresswoman Rashida Talib as well, who's been very passionate about this issue, is very alarming to hear this. And I'm asking that we expeditiously try to find get them some answers. Because if it was if they wrong, they wrong. If it's right, they right. And I'm just saying that this is of great importance that we get this rectified as soon as possible, and
through the Chair, if I may, I don't disagree with you, and that's why I've made the changes that I've made. In fact, one of those changes this board is going to be considering here momentarily, hopefully I hopefully to ensure that we've got the right people over those units that have that important work. And I'm not taking anything away from the previous command team. I have not lost confidence in their ability to lead, but I do think that there, because had I they wouldn't be in the command position, but I think that there were opportunities to do things differently that did not occur, and I don't have comfort with that. Now, with regards to these tickets, I convened a special committee to look at all of the enforcement actions that were taken as a result of this particular supervisor's actions, and if they were subsequent to his actions or directed by him, it will be scrutinized. And if it is invalid, I assure you, those tickets will be remedied and that enforcement action will be remedied. But if the actions are independent and appropriate, then I'm going to support them. Now I will bring this board a report. If I can get two weeks, I'd be more than happy to come before this body with what happened with those tickets. If it's earlier, I will ask to do that earlier, but I need at least two weeks to go through all the video and look at all the actions that were taken and to bring the appropriate response back.
Thank chief
deputy chief Hayes was at our meeting. This was a two and a half hour discussion with Attorney her words and other members of the National Lawyers Guild. I'm fairly confident that this matter will probably proceed to litigation. The concerns that they have are significant First Amendment concerns. And you mentioned that we have a policy. That policy was one that was implemented by Deputy now deputy mayor medicine when he was deputy chief, and that expired a year and something go there is no policy right now, so we're working on it. And Chief Hayes is invaluable, invaluable, invaluable, invaluable in terms of assisting us with respect to addressing this issue. And he and the lawyers that were present expressed considerable confidence in him and in you and in terms of us trying to work this through from a policy perspective, because the gentleman that was here at the last meeting that who was representing you, another deputy chief, said that he had to go through everything and not push my hair stand up on my head. He had to go through everything and make sure everyone had a P number. You don't have to be a have a P number to be a legal observer. The National Lawyers guilds certifies people after training to be to be a legal observer. I was trained that way for the Obama for, you know, for elections and stuff like that. I understand the training and the certification and your and your badges and your thing, and you have to wear the green hat too. But I'm just saying that. I just wanted you to be aware of the fact that that Hayes was spectacular in a room full of professors, law students, lawyers who were seriously addressing this issue. I wanted you to be aware of
that, and I appreciate that through the Chair, and I agree that DC Hayes is in the position he holds for reason. He does a phenomenal job for us, but, but, but make no doubt about it. We're working on a policy. We work. We work in lockstep, number one, number two, he works at my direction, and number three, and he does a good job. We do have a policy now we have, you're absolutely correct through the chair that the initial policy expired, the special order expired after one year. We have a special order that we are to conduct ourselves in this fashion, which is what we're looking at. And the if the DC spoke and said that he's investigating P numbers to determine if the tickets were valid. If he, in fact, said that that's a problem, he's solving for the wrong he's solving for the wrong problem, I will educate and coach him up on that. We are looking at the validity of the enforcement action, not their P number. And I assure you, I won't be looking for P numbers. I'll be looking for actions. So I'll report back to the board in two weeks on this issue. Thank
you. See any further questions we have? I do have a chief commissioner, Bernard. I actually have another maintain the form and speaks with the Chair. Thank you. My question is relative to what you said earlier. You know, we're just now in the early parts of the summer, and it does appear that these block parties are becoming a violent problem for innocent bystanders. My concern is, is that often in securing safety, the opportunities for well intentioned citizens of good conduct, oftentimes are punished as a result of the limitations or restrictions that have to be made in order to ensure safety. So I want to get a sense on where the conversation is and whether or not there has been any engagement with like the Department of neighborhoods and Parks and Recreation to see how there may be funding or even opportunity for the city to take the lead on block party so that there are alternative outlets that still allows the community engaged with each other, but in more supervised and endorsed ways that may serve as a deterrent for these more spontaneous and unauthorized gatherings. Have that level of conversation been had?
I don't want to say through the chair. I don't want to say that we have engaged with that question, but we have certainly engaged with how can legally parties like this happen? We haven't said, hey, what if we were to take the lead on them? Because there's so many options for that. There are the parks again, there are, you know, there's Belle Isle, there's so many large venues. I mean, many of our parks you drive by in the summertime are packed to capacity. Eliza Howe Rouge Park. So those folks wanting to have those rather large events can do so what we're seeing with these black parties specifically, is they're starting with social media, and they're spontaneous most times, and they're inviting a lot of people out for and many of the people that are coming are strangers to the to the hosts. They are just, they just heard about it, and they're coming through kind of thing. And what happens when that happens is some people on social media will now say, I'm going over to blank spot to do X, and the persons, or person they're having a beef with says, oh, that's where you're going to be. And then they come over to engage them due to some conflict. And people get shot, people get hurt. You know the hundreds and hundreds of parties that happen on the weekend where nothing happens this body, and I don't hear about but we see them as we drive through. It is these very specific parties. When we look at the ones that have happened, there's only been a couple that were there was a open house for a graduation where a young lady was shot, actually she was killed. And then there was another venue that was like that. It was that type of event, but it was a repass. But the but the parties, the ones that we're seeing that are most problematic are just spontaneous social media come through. We're going to be out here, kind of thing, and those parties are going to two, three in the morning. What's interesting is the calls, we're getting a 911, and when we talk to the neighbors, they're not even invited. So they're, they're more or less concerned or complaining that the event is happening in that area, is not that they're not able to participate. So we're, I guess we're just not seeing people being forbidden from from congregating and having a good time. We're seeing these, these, these pop up parties that are problematic and violent. Well, that's clarifying,
but again, I do hope that as we move forward, there is a balance there in, you know, securing the safety of our citizens while still providing opportunities for funding engagement. There's any no further questions? Yes, go right ahead. Vice Chair,
good afternoon, Chief,
I had a question in regards to the pull up from Park events. Would that be equivalent to block parties? Or, because that's, I see that on the website a lot of times advertise that's not an authorized event by DPD, no pull up in park. So would that be equivalent?
It's very similar, and it's a struggle for us. That's, that's another one where you see it on social media. We're going to be at this location at this time. We had one last year near the ninth precinct on Gratiot, were hundreds of vehicles converged on one area and through a pop up party. Thankfully, it wasn't violent. It was very difficult to just to break it up, and it's important to break it up, because they shut down Gratiot, and it was a big party in the street. People couldn't get past police vehicles couldn't get past EMS, couldn't get past people just trying to live their normal life in their community, could not have access to those roads. Some people were stuck in traffic for hours. I mean, it was an absolute disaster. We went in, we were able to shut it down. But you're right that that's that's what social media is doing on these pop up parties. Now our crime Intel unit oftentimes can get in front of them. We'll go over into those areas to to shut them down, block off the area, put an officer in those areas, and then send out a social media post to the host. This is illegal, and majority of time they shut it down when they notice that. You know, we're engaged in and we're going to do something about it, but, but we're chasing them all over. The
city. Commissioner woods, very briefly. Great, great presentation from Mr Anderson, if I got it correct, and but I want to applaud you for your leadership. In terms of I got a message today, early this morning, that the budget was passed and that the public safety Trust Fund was passed, and that's 70, $75 million to this to the state, which said millions of dollars will come to the city of Detroit, not only for policing, but also for CVI groups, which about $25 million would go there to be able to help with community based organizations to be able to continue, appreciate the fact that you referenced the CVI groups, in terms of being able to work with what law enforcement. they help reduce some of the violence in this city. And so thank you for your leadership. $75 million is very significant, and that public safety trust fund that will be funded in perpetuity. Yes, sir. Thank
you very much for that.
Alright, so with that, Chief, you might go ahead with your appointment to the rank of captain for Lieutenant Cedric Dunbar,
yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great pride that I recommend to this body. Lieutenant Cedric Dunbar, he was appointed to the Detroit Police Department on September 29 2014 police officer Dunbar was assigned to the Fourth Precinct patrol operations after completing the Detroit Police Academy. Officer Dunbar was assigned to Special Operations team responsible for handling high risk situations and responding to hostage situations, executing high risk warrants, conducting tactical operations and supporting other units within the department. Officer Dunbar's assignments to the Special Operations Team showcase his skills and dedication to ensuring public safety and challenging situations. On June 29 2020 police officer Dunbar was promoted to the rank of sergeant and assigned to the second precinct, where he supervised patrol officers as well as special operations. On September 12, 2023 not that long ago, Sergeant Dunbar was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to Task Force administration. It's very difficult job that he had there, very comprehensive. It incorporates a federal task force, The Fugitive Apprehension services team, which we call fast and the fugitive those Fugitive Apprehension services included going at times statewide, looking for those who don't want to be caught and engaging in very high risk apprehensions of extremely dangerous individual. He did that job with distinction. Caught my attention again, as a as a leader, someone who was up and coming and dedicated to leading this organization, while coaching, mentoring and, quite frankly, not being arrogant about his accomplishments, and I like that. Lieutenant Dunbar holds a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Siena heights University. Lieutenant Dunbar is currently studying for Master's degree in Criminal Justice at Wayne State University. Al Ramada here, if I know how hard he's working, if he's trying to get a master's from Wayne State and he also took a class of strategic leadership at Clear University, and is also in pursuit. And it's surprising when I read this earlier of an additional master's degree in business administration in conjunction with strategic leadership, which demonstrates his commitment to developing his leadership skills. Lieutenant Dunbar has been awarded five department citations and an instructor certificate in defensive tactics, Taser and crisis intervention. On a personal note, you will note that he is moving relatively quickly through the ranks. I myself did that. So it's not about time in a position that's about the ability to lead and to manage people, and I've watched him take on some very, very difficult task. He had a very calm demeanor. But don't, don't, don't, don't think that there's not a lot of fire behind that calmness. He can lead in any condition. And I am confident that he will make an outstanding captain, and I can put him anywhere from patrol to special operations to the position that he holds now over our Metro Division, which is inclusive of our mobile field force which handles our protests and our civil unrest events, as well as a number of other things. So with great pride, I recommend to this body your consideration for lieutenant, Cedric Dunbar to captain.
Okay, so with the chair entertains a motion to adopt the chief's recommendation to promote the name the officer to the rank of from Captain Lieutenant after we motion. And second, there'll be time for discussion, and I will have an opportunity for my colleagues to speak. But let's read the motion on the record. So again, the chair entertains a motion. So the doctor chief's recommendation to promote the named officer from the record lieutenant to captain. He's been probably move. Is there a second? Second and all. So now any discussion just
quickly, Is he is he in the room? Yes, he's here. Yep. Great. Thank you. Mother Bernice,
any further discussion? Commissioner woods,
yep,
I did a real deep dive on this young man and called around, asked questions and looked at his background and and heard everything that the chief said, you know, and very happy to be able to support this young man and for his stellar leadership and for some of the things that he has accomplished. He has a stellar record, and his peers and other folks in the community speak very, very highly of him. I made a whole lot of phone calls
concerning. Now, you know, and because, you know, we do our due diligence. And so,
congratulations to you, young man should be voting favor. You know, you got my support for sure. But thank you for your great leadership and serving the city of Detroit. It. You keep on, keeping on, and you have a very promising career Commissioner,
Bernard quickly, we
hadn't heard from Reverend Warfield about this entity in terms of view of the record, his record. I'm sorry, Hey, Chief, that's okay through the
through the chair certainly request did come over to an office for background and information, and we didn't see anything in the record that would impede this promotion. Thank you. Further discussion,
hearing none again, the motion before this body is to accept the chief's recommendation for the named officer to be promoted from the rank of lieutenant to captain, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye, aye, all those who oppose, no, the ayes. Have it? Congratulations. Captain. Cedric Dunbar,
remarks, thank you very much, chief for the very kind introduction. Microphone. Thank you very much, chief for the very kind introduction and good afternoon members of the board, I am truly honored and humbled to stand before you today. So forgive me if I'm at a loss for words. However, I would like to quickly express my gratitude to all of those who played a role in my career to get me to this point, a special thank you to Deputy Chief Sloan, who mentored me through my process in this career. Special, thank you to my wife, who's also in attendance, for her unwavering support, and also to my kids and my immediate family for always keeping me motivated. In regard to this appointment to Captain, I would like to ensure that you ensure to you all that I'm dedicated to the citizens of the city of Detroit being born and raised on Finkel in Greenfield, I have a special bond with the citizens, and I feel like that I will provide policing excellence to them. And also, in this position, I feel like that I am the right person to continue to progress this department going forward. So again, I'm at a loss of words. I'm humbled and eager to start. So I would like to thank you all Finally, for trusting me with responsibility and his appointment to captain. Thank you very much. Thank
you. And this is saying and tongue in cheek. Well, quit slacking, man. I say that because it is educational pursuits, I start off with a 3.8 then it went to a 3.82 rather than a 3.8 and now he has a 375 Come on, let's get that thing up, man. You got
that's my Wayne State. I just finished my third semester. I believe I got two A's in it, so I got two more semesters. I'll work on getting that up for you.
Thank you. Congratulations once again. All right with that, now we will move back to Oral Communications. Thank
you. Senator Wood, who do we have
Good afternoon? Mr Chair, we're going to go back with Miss Padilla Butler, then Miss Tanya wells, Miss Bernice Smith, and I don't think I got a car from anyone else. Did anyone else have a card? Then we'll go right into zoom. Thank you.
Who was that first name again,
Miss Fadia Butler. She's trying to get through.
That was great. Yes, it was second precinct. Good afternoon board. Good
afternoon,
commissioners, how embarrassing it is to see you on television being called out for decisions you made. Some of you report to the media and then run away from the reporter when he questions how you voted on an issue. You are supposed to be an oversight body for the police, and yet, when an officer has violated the rights of a citizen caught on camera, you denied what you saw. This isn't the first time I saw and heard the officer tell a citizen to go back to Mexico, and she wasn't a Mexican. Cameras are everywhere, and I'm grateful when you are here, you're not doing what you campaign and took an oath to honorably represent citizens, some of you not dressed appropriately to represent yourself or the constituents you fight and even walk out To keep from having a core Stop disrespecting yourselves and us. What are you doing to our communities? What are you doing in our communities? You're not helping to keep us informed on issues that affect us. We don't have fair representation because of redistricting. All politics are local. What did you do or say about the drawing of our district after being sued, a panel of three judges said that it was a racial issue and the district must be rejoined. Did you inform your constituents why you should do more than just sit here when I attended the meeting, I was number 53 even after explaining and given the information at our monthly meeting, you are not only disrespected by the constituents, and I believe you are not highly thought of by the leaders in the city. Stand up, think and know and do your job here and in the community. Respect yourselves and us. Thank you.
Don't call me Miss wells.
You can you can state your name for the record.
My name is Tanya wells. To my immediate left is my autistic son. He was attacked, assaulted, made to urinate on himself by a member of the staff at Charles Drew transitional center. Emmanuel can't speak. He can sign. He's responding to my voice because he knows that I'm very angry and listening to everything, all these accolades and everybody going on what they like, nobody has investigated who made my son piss his pants, drove him across the floor, pulled on him, cussed him, and did all these things that if I had just two minutes in front of every last one of you, he would never, ever try to do that to my son. Never. I want the principal at Charles Drew Academy arrested until he comes to the conclusion of who that person was, who he paid through the Detroit Board of Education to be an aide in the classroom. I saw that boy twice since then, and it took everything I had with Jesus for me not to disappear into myself. I saw him two weeks ago. We thought school closed out him a chart that time we took God. So I'm asking you, I'm asking every one of you to please form some sort of committee to look into the children who are being abused by staff members as what is called a center based school. It is a center where kids go to school who are disabled. He's disabled to the point that he is now because they didn't teach him anything, everything he knows. He knows from me and my family. I want the principal at Charles Drew transitional center arrested until he stops discouraging justice. He needs to give that name up so that he can that boy can come to justice that way I can sleep and he won't be screaming every hour, when we get home, he screams for an hour. It is disgusting. What happened to my son? Thank you. I reported it to the police department on number two, cook and did nothing her supervisor. Thank you. I need help.
Thank you. Well, let me encourage you, first of all, again, not to take matters into your own hands. But then secondarily, we are limited in our authority in this regard. But I do encourage you, if you have not already done so, I'm sure that you have to make the same presentation to the Detroit Public Community School District, and if there is any resistance of that guard regarding maybe there is some assistance that we might be able to offer. But again, our authority is limited to DPD,
I can't say the same thing. The DPS has his own police department. Taylor did the investigation. He came up with nothing. DPD, number two came up with nothing. I seen him twice and caught both of them.
Your time is actually expended. But again, I'm only sharing with you what is very clear about our limitations. But again, we'll do our very best to ensure that whatever assistance you need to get to the right person, to hold them accountable, we can aid you in that regard. Get
a good keep coming back saying the same thing.
Thank you.
Can we ask a question? Chief, Assistant Chief, can you look into that? This is very serious, and I'm saying this one because what you said, but I just referred an abuse case of an 81 year old person to the police department. It is very important that we actively engage in both child abuse and elder abuse issues, and I don't care what DPS is doing, but people look to us. Can you do that please? Oh, absolutely. And then report back to us. It's important through the chair. And then officer Tyus is out there right now. Tasman roll so out there, taking the information from her right now. Thank you. Thank you. Our
next speaker, Miss Smith, please. And then we'll go into zoom.
Thank you.
We have three speakers in zoom, and then we'll that'll be it. Thank you.
Your stick. You need your cane back there.
I'm going to be brief today, but I have so much good news to tell you, I don't know where to start. Number one, the fireworks was wonderful. My police were out there in droves, and I understand that the parks were closed because my son and his wife, they had to come to where I was because they said I had a better view because the parks were closed. But the fact was, I had a good view. I was between channel four and I was between the service workers car I usually park there, right there, at the end of Woodward. So I had a good view. And I just want to tell my police, I'm proud of you, as usual, you did a good job. There was no problems whatsoever. And then when a security car, black car, pulls up and went over across the street and park, and who comes out by our dear chief. And he looked over there, and he stated, when he got to me, because he looked at me, and I just waved. And when he got to me, he came over, and he said, I had to come over here and see who was sitting over here in the middle of the street in an orange looking coat, looking at me. And he had his crew with him, because, I guess he wanted to make sure that was no no damage to him. But anyway, seriously, speaking, it was a wonderful evening. I enjoyed it immensely. And my daughter in law came in from Atlanta. She she never been to a festivity like we put on here in Detroit. So she talked very highly about that, and I'm so proud of my police department I don't know what to do. I'm down there at Greektown also, and what I saw Friday was outrageous. What's wrong with these children and these women having a behind out? But when I told the chief about he said, Mother Bernie sand cannot do it, only the drugs, but ladies, they have to stop wearing that singer that has a strip between her rectum and she sings, I know you all know what I'm talking about.
Thank you. That's your time. Thank you so very much,
because, let me tell you the rest of it, thank you so so very much for your time. I love my police department. I told them that, and they all love me down there. Thank you same though, to see them girls.
Next we're going to go to zoom. Our first speaker will be former Commissioner William Davis, one of the coldest and Stephen harein,
good afternoon. Can I be heard? Yes, you can go right ahead. I'd like to start off by saying that I think these meetings are too long. Also, I think it should be some consequences for people to do not show up at the meetings. It's supposed to be, you know, you know, I know you get a monthly stipend, but perhaps for people who do not notify the board in advance that they not come in at all, there should be some consequences. I work for the city for 34 years, the last time I called in sick was October 8, 1992 you know, I rose. I was a union steward. I rose to upper management. We used to fire people didn't show up on it was chronically late, you know, you know, you need to know. People need to know that they you know, like, I'm planning on coming to the the sixth precinct, you know, welcoming the board of police commissioners in July. I don't want to come to a meeting if there's not going to be an official meeting. You know, there should be some severe consequences for people who don't show up. Also, as relates to legal observers, you know, legal observers have been armed and have been ticketed in the past in the city for doing their job. A legal observer do not have to have a P number. The city, Detroit got attorneys. One of them used to come to this meeting that don't have P numbers, you know. So we want to make sure everything's above board. But I'm strongly, I want to strongly emphasize legal observers, unless they actually do something wrong, should not be harmed in any way, in any way, and they have been in the past, just a few years ago. So hopefully y'all would make your bylaws stronger. And you know, you know, if you want the responsibility, take the responsibility and do something. If you're not going to show up and do your job, you need to get off the board. Thank you. Thank you.
Our next speaker, what are the code is
very your sound is very distorted, so very distorted. We hear you a little bit better now, but still I
board.
Okay? I apologize. Sure that this person is able to have an additional two minutes at our our next meeting that they desire. Again. I apologize for the technical difficulties, but we're having a very hard time hearing you.
The next speaker would be Steven Hawk ring.
Can I be heard? Looks like can you guys hear me, yeah, we can go right ahead. Okay, awesome. So I'm here to complain about the scooters. You know, ever since they came out, they have been a nuisance, and they just keep getting worse and worse. You know, four times last week, I nearly got hit by a scooter going, I would say, about at least 20 to 30 miles per hour on a private sidewalk after a tiger's game. You know, these scooters are getting out of hand. And you know, we've seen people on these things intoxicated, you know, going through alleyways, which you're not even allowed to put bikes. And you know, it's just gotten so out of hand. There needs to be some type of ordinance, and they need to start taking people who are out of control with these because, you know, they are a total safety risk, completely. And you know, we have a senior home right on Woodwards. So, you know, a lot of seniors are out there. You know, they really need to do something about it. And another thing is, I'm just sick of all these blocking off, closing parts, locking up sweets, you know that? And you know what the draft is. It was like, I believe, two months or, you know, they started closing down the streets. And then, you know, the Grand Prix. It was about a week after, and you know, the parks were open, but there were these security guards. They did not look legit at all. They were just literally telling people they couldn't go in the park. No police, no signs, nothing. Just telling you, you know, when people did try to, I mean, they would just your profanities and you know, they didn't look like legit security guards. I'm talking about no teeth tattoos on there. It's just the type you want to expect. You know, if you want to, you want something to be close apart, that's fine.
Mr Chair. I'm sorry, overlooking no problem. Victoria Vicki,
Victoria, are you there? Hello, yeah, go right ahead.
Good afternoon, board. This is Victoria from district seven. I'll be brief today. Chief white today indicated that he has a strong policy regarding legal observers, just asking if the board could kindly advise for the public the directive number for that policy. Thank you.
Thank you. We can try to locate that before the end of today's meeting, that will be helpful. All right, those are all of our public commenters. Again. We thank you for your contribution to today's meeting. Next, we'll move on to the presentation to the board by our human resources bureau director, Patel.
Patel, oh, sorry. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Through the Chair. I'll be presenting the month of May. I think you all previously had the slides from last week, yes to the department, and this is all for the month of May. So the department was currently filled at 95% for sworn they were filled at 97% at that time, we had 91 overall police officer vacancies. Police assistance were filled at 97% with the overall one vacancy for civilians, we were filled at 89% and we had 85 vacancies for the month of May. At the end of May, this
is behind tab four for my colleagues. Go right ahead
next slide. Thank you for the next slide. You will see where it says 2003 24 sworn recruiting beginning of the fiscal year to may 31 so during that period, we had 4775 applications. We had hired 182 personnel. 400 were in processing. We had 104 applications withdrawn. 2000 applications were archived. 972 were temporarily disqualified. 835 were permanently disqualified. And then at that time, we had 282 personnel awaiting imposed testing. Next slide, the next slide should show him calls testing for May we had for the written test. 171 scheduled. 101 appeared. 59 had passed, which was a 58% passing rate. 38 had failed. 38% failure rate for reschedules and 70 no shows, and then for the physical agility we had 194 schedule. 105 appeared. 55 pass. 52% passing rate. 46 fell, 44% failure rate for reschedule and 89 no shows. The next slide should show total new hires for the month of May. We did not have a class that started, but we had three and former members who returned and were sworn in. So they were reinstated. We had 33 civilian new hires, and for total 36 and then we actually graduated. And waited again, an academy class that graduated on May 31 with 34 next slide to show the residency. I can't see the slide up here, so I'm hoping that you're on the residency slide for Detroit five, sworn 425, civilian 15, police assistant for non Detroiters. We had 1963 sworn. 289 civilians, 18 police assistance. And of those new hires for the civilians, 16 were Detroit residency. We're also participating in the mayoral fellowship that started June 1. We have eight college interns that are here within our department interning, and therefore the Grow Detroit young talent interns. The program is going to start for us on July 1. We actually have between us here in Detroit Public Safety Academy. We have some our chief neighborhood liaison instructors over there.
Excellent should be the attrition slide for the month of May. We had 12 sworn that created 22 civilians, zero police assistance for a total of 34 next slide to show your leave of absence for FMLA. Continuous, we had 12 sworn for civilians for FMLA. Intermediate, we had 99 sworn 76 civilians for paid parental leave. We had five sworn to civilians military leave, one sworn for restricted. We had 171 sworn to restricted for disabled. 27 sworn to disabled for civilians, and then for sick. 18, sworn to civilians. Next slide, and then for the monthly separations. There were total 12, as I said, nine police officers, one sergeant, one detective, one captain. And then there were 30 suspensions. That's 27 police officers, one corporal, one sergeant, one lieutenant. We had 517 members and the drop program next slide. So your next slide should show the academy classes. We had four classes that were the academy total of 128 students. As I said, three officers reinstated with the department. Our next class actually started today. So that's the reason why Assistant Chief you and myself was a little bit late, and that class will have a size of 40. So they will start today. Next slide. The next slide is just some of our recruiting initiatives overall. The left hand side for our DPD fit camp, that number actually increased by 25 because we did have a career fair last Saturday. So instead of 188 being enrolled, we now have 213 that are enrolled. 56 have passed, and we actually have 27 that have started the Academy for media engagement, we are actually have already started our new media campaign, and so we're doing pretty good on all platforms of media. The last slide just shows you our calendar events that we did last week. We did our DPD great resources program, where we had 36 District Court certain Metro out here it was for any citizen who was interested in a career in law enforcement with the DPD. We went through the application phase the process. They were able to ask questions to the background investigators, meet different various department members as well, apply on site. Then we had a resource spring into summer resource rally, where you seen the fire department, other different law enforcement agencies, National Guard, they were out here on Friday. And then we had our career fair on Saturday, where we completed most of the hiring process in one day. We had over 150 applicants to come out to apply for the police department and as well as the civilian careers. And then, just of note, as of July the first the pay starting salaries will be increased by 4% so someone starting the Academy will start at about $48,672 and when they graduate, they'll graduate at because they get an increase $57,325 Penny. Need a question.
This concludes our presentation for thank you so very much. Commissioner Hernandez, thank
you so much to the chair for usual great work. You just continue. Since you started on day one when this board hired you, you've continued to elevate the work in the recruiting platform. So I appreciate that. Do we capture language proficiency as a skill?
We do not capture it. We have to have some talks about it, but we do not capture it as like specific data, because,
I mean, they're now, I'm going to go down a rabbit hole a little bit. But if we captured language proficiency, language proficiency as a skill, and that helped inform rotational opportunities, it could inform retention, it could inform leadership capabilities, etc, all the above that you already know. And maybe we could even tie in additional compensation, because it's a skill. No, I'm not just referring to Spanish, the Bengali, Arabic, et cetera, I
understand. So I will take that back and discuss that with the leadership. Cool.
Any further questions? Commissioner,
just a couple of things. Excellent report. As usual, the total sworn officers who are Detroit residents are 575 the non Detroit sworn officers are nine, 1963 roughly 2000 officers. What if, have you been able to identify any initiatives that would encourage Detroiters to apply to be officers, because this is a big, big, big issue. So
I can tell you, from a recruiting standpoint, we are in all of the high schools in Detroit. We're also in all of the different communities. We're also doing events when the chief does his walk a mile Wednesday, were there. We're partnering with different athletic departments, youth organizations, so we are in Detroit heavily recruiting. So we're doing everything that we can, from social media to that's paid and non paid, to marketing, to all of our bills, boards, being up to just getting out on grassroots recruiting. We're doing everything that we can.
I know you're in the Detroit public high schools, which is helpful, but it seems to me that maybe we need to start to groom kids to to be interested in law enforcement at an earlier age, for example, like for the military. Of course, as you know, they have, I forgot what it's called right now, but you know what it is? Help me?
JROTC, yeah.
Uh. ROTC, here
we have the police cadet program and but they make sellers with your that assumption is that they'll stay in Detroit as they age. So I mean that that's the difficult part in a very transient society that's only becoming more mobile. You know, as you know, technology advances. So I mean, but not to discourage, you know, further thinking around what we can do. But obviously, I think that you know, our options are limited. You know, with residency laws, or at least the lack thereof in the state that you know, makes it very difficult for us to incentivize residents as police officers.
I understand that. But the ROTC gives people interested in the military because they're in the school, you
know, and we've had numbers of meetings even in the community of current police officers who started off in the summer youth employment program or the cadet program. So, I mean, it definitely is
happening. And we have the Explorers program into piggyback off of the comment about the JROTC. We actually have met with some of the JRT instructors as well. And so for some of the youth that are not going to go to the military, they have allowed us to come in and talk to those students to see if they would want a career in law enforcement.
You have a campaign specifically designed for teen teenagers, high schools, junior seniors in high school, to get interested in the police department. Is there a target? A targeted program to get them to come? Because this is very just you mentioned. I mean, the chief mentioned malice green, it was and Reverend mentioned it earlier as well. I mean, this is a percolator situation that can blow up at any given time. The more Detroiters that are involved in the Detroit Police Department, the better I think.
Commissioner Hernandez,
thank you. I don't know how I'm going to articulate what I'm going to say, but hopefully you can help me. There's a lot of rhetoric and conversation about sworn officers who are, quote, not residents of the city of Detroit. Currently, that still discounts a large number of those individuals who actually did grow up and lived for decades in this city. Is there a way that we could either canvas or survey, and I don't know if you have to check in with law department or what you can or can't do in surveying, but could we canvass or survey officers to determine the level of residency that they've had in Detroit. Because, again, if we're only counting current Detroiters, it could be someone who just moved to the city and doesn't have a connection to the community, which is really the root of, I think, Commissioner Bernard's inquiry, it's having that community connection. So I think a way that we might be able to dispel that is by figuring out how many of our officers actually were born, raised and lived here for a very long time. We just had a lieutenant a couple weeks ago, because of familial reasons, moved out of the city, but lived in southwest Detroit for almost 30 years. So we can't I get the metric on it in terms of capturing that individual as a non resident, but they have so much history and connection to the community that we're just completely disregarding.
Can I just piggyback on what you said? Quickly, please, very quickly, just became apparent as a result of that discussion, Commissioner Hernandez was the respect that the people in the community had for him. As a matter of fact, they said that when this person was no longer with our force, that is when Wayne State University decided to break up the encampments of the students there. The businesses had so much confidence in him that he could talk to the kids, make them, you know, act right. No, no, no, foolishness, that he was the leader, so to speak, that kept a kibosh on any kind of issues that might arise, and had the confidence in the business community. So it's absolutely what you're saying is absolutely appropriate, because several business people from Wayne State had mentioned him to me and how great he was and how how much confidence they had in it. So you're absolutely right. So
that's something you can deliberate on. If there any further questions or comments you have to work. All right. Hearing none. Thank you so very much for your support. Now we moved to unfinished business. Under tab number eight, there is a board of police commissioner's organizational chart. I'm assuming that this needs to be approved. So the chair and contains a motion to approve the organizational chart as presented to you in your packets.
Can before we make a motion, can we just get a very quick download as to why I know this didn't come to personnel and training?
Acting Secretary Brown, yeah, Mr Chair, through the chair during the IG OIG report. That OIG report stated that Secretary to the board does not supervise anyone, and therefore the organization chart need to reflect that. And by having discussion with IG office, she agreed that the report that you guys had, if the report that you need to vote on,
so this is one of the measures to be responsive to what the OIG report recommended. Yes, others, any so a question, discussion or motion. Okay,
on that issue, the IG saying that board secretary does not have authority over any employees that correct
occur according to the standing organizational chart. Well,
you trying to us comply with the city charter they have. Is that what you're saying this,
this chart does do that, though,
sorry. Commissioner Bernard,
I'm just trying to get clarity. Yeah, say it again. Commission Bell, that city charter give that authority to the board secretary. It's the highest ranking.
No, it doesn't.
I think we have a issue here. My opinion, we have to get some feedback on that, because the board secretary is always functioning by the city charter. They have supervision authority over other employees that we have on the board. So I don't think we need to take that vote and unwitting this in terms of time. I think we in the process of having a hiring a board secretary. So we need to be crystal clear of what we're doing in terms of the organization chart. We have had four or five organization charts in the last several years that I've been on this board. Yeah,
and that happens in any you know, evolving organization that you amend the organization chart to the scope of work in the current context that you're in. And so I just encourage you to actually look at the organization chart and see if there's any objection that you have to it. I do understand your sentiments, that you feel like it's already enumerated in the charter. So this might be redundant, but again, if out of the OIG report, they're suggesting that there is some confusion relative to how the organization charters ran, I think that this does indeed capture what is in the intention of the charter language around our board? Secretary, I think
that a committee should weigh in on this particular matter in reference to bring that type of feedback.
Okay, any questions? Is that what he suggests? Sorry. Commissioner Bernard, he was really trying to ask that a question. Thank you. Commissioner woods, yeah,
I think this is clean up some things, and it's not saying one way or the other. You know, we we can handle that situation. And the charter is very, very clear. I've been baptized in the charter for for a month now, you know, and as well as our bylaws, as well the fact of the matter and our website, our website is, is not updated, is grossly behind, you know, in terms of being able to put this on our website to So, so people can see where the positions are and who's operating in certain positions, you know, and so we can walk into bubble gum on this
commission. Hernandez, sorry, just one last comment, just because and independent of the outcome of today's vote, if we end up having a vote, we can vote on it six ConSec consecutive weeks. Org Chart is not something that's defined for forever. We can always make adjustments as needed. So
correct. So with that, the chair entertains any motion relative to the organization chart. So moved? Is there a second? Second? It's been probably moving second that we approve the organization chart is presented to us in our packets. Is there any discussion? Hearing? No discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. All those opposed. No, abstain. All right? The ayes have it That motion passes, right, all right. And next, we entered a new business where we have a policy committee memorandum from the chair of the policy committee, Commissioner Linda Bernard, just
quickly, I've covered some of the things that the policy committee addressed. At the last meeting, we had a number of attendees, including Commissioner woods, Chair elect and Commissioner Burton. The other community attendees were acting Secretary Robert Brown, Deputy Chief Hayes, crime strategies Bureau, Jasmine Taylor, administrative assistant, Molly morning. Wayne Law graduate Professor Rebecca Robichaud Wayne, state law school attorney, Julie Hurwitz, President, Goodman Hurwitz and James PC, Victoria Camille from district seven. Victoria Camille from district seven, Grand River community, black club president, Coalition for police transparency and accountability. Shea Howell, and also from the Coalition for police transparency and accountability, we talked about the fact that I had promised that we were going to try to bring a proposal back to the board on a policy regarding legal observers, and also, if you will, an expansion of that the constitutional rights of people who are protesting as long as they are peaceful. So that was really the discussion. It was a, as I said earlier, very stimulating two hour discussion on the issue. We looked we were provided the policies from Baltimore and two other cities help me out, it was Baltimore, and what were the other two? But anyway, two other cities, major Chicago and Baltimore. Oh, Chicago was one of them, but, but Baltimore is like our size, so we're in the process of reviewing those and putting together a proposed policy for the next meeting, which is two weeks from Tuesday. So that's what happened on that the the department has responded to our concerns regarding the surveillance van, in part, but we didn't discuss that, so we have nothing to discuss on that, and we the other two policies that we were supposed to review that we didn't get to because the issue of the deputy the issue of the legal observers and protesters rights took up the whole meeting we didn't get to patrol training or drug and alcohol abuse by department personnel policy and Mr Chairman, that concludes my report. Thank
you. Are there any questions or comments for the policy committee's memorandum hearing, none. Is there any further new business Commissioner Hernandez, yes,
sir, just a very brief it might be an announcement, I don't know, but very brief update, I believe we have, and keep me honest. Mr Brown, 19 applicants for board secretary and so next steps again, that as a reminder, the job posting was up for a two week period. Next steps will include a review of those postings and subsequently, will then lay out a plan in partnership with HR so that we might be able to interview I think I'd like to take and again, I'll recommend it to the board, but I'd like to take a pretty quick approach, similar to what Commissioner Darrell Woods did in terms of a special committee that might actually tackle all those interviews in one day, so that we can expedite a
two day delayed process, 19 people.
Commissioner Bernard, thank
you so that we can expedite the process.
Thank you so very much. And so let me say before I entertain a motion for adjournment, this is my final meeting as the chair of Detroit board of police commissioners, I would say firstly to my colleagues, thank you for entrusting me to lead this body. Over the last 12 months, it has presented its unique set of challenges, but I do think that we are better off now than we were when we began. There is still so much work to be done, but my level of confidence is unwaining as our chair elect shows a level of passion, focus and dedication to the work of this board, and so I'm looking forward to supporting him and our Vice Chair in this next iteration of the board leadership. Let me say also that I think all of my vice chairs that I had the privilege of serving with, from Commissioner Holly to Commissioner bell to Commissioner Tamara Liberty Smith, I wonder if that's a record of how many vice chairs have existed in one tenure. But again, thank you to the citizens of City of Detroit. It has challenged my leadership skills and proclivities. But again, while unable to achieve all the goals that I hope that we would be able to accomplish in my tenure. Again, I do hope that again, we see some advancement in progress in what has been done. Acting Secretary Brown,
yes, Mr Chair, before you adjourn the board, need to make a decision about next Thursday's meeting.
Yes. Commissioner woods,
I think it's on the record, you know, it's on the Fourth of July, and I think is in a part of our agenda. We approved the agenda, and so we have a meeting on on july 11, as opposed to July 4.
All right, so let's state that, as a matter of record, the chair to change the motion to suspend next week's board of police commissioners meeting because of the Fourth of July holiday, with our next meeting being Thursday, July the 11th. So moved, it's been proper moving. Second, is there any discussion? Hearing? No discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. All those opposed, no, right. The ayes. Have it That motion passes, Commissioner woods,
yes, I want to personally acknowledge you for your leadership and how you have kept the meeting steady and fought hard for the citizens of the city of Detroit, for being so dignified and dedicated to the citizens of the city of Detroit. And so while I was in Washington, DC, was able to go to the United States Supreme Court. And when I was there, I was able to go into the gift shop, and I said, let me give, get give my good buddy a gift.
Y'all knew I liked you for some reason, yeah. And
so got you a gavel funding from the United States Supreme Court,
I could have used that at the beginning of my opinion,
on behalf of all of us, my colleagues and everyone we want to thank for your grace and let reflect that under your leadership, you was able to Get this our staff almost fully staffed, you know, which is very vitally important, and doing the business for the city of Detroit and reducing those citizen complaints, you have been led to charge to suspend the number of officers without pay who have done some things that wasn't appropriate. And you have also done this thing in a stellar way. And so we want to thank you that we are moving the ship under, we did move the ship, under your leadership, and we want to thank you, standing.
That's unnecessary, but thank you so very much. Right. With that, the chair. Now, entertains a motion for adjournment. So, is there a second back in. All those opposed, no. The ayes have it, the.