Yes, ma'am. You okay? Trying to move forward a little bit. You know,
it's today is three o'clock. Is three o'clock. It Today is October, the third 2024, the board of police commissioner, order please call what invocation for by Chaplain David Boyd, is is you on Zoom?
Chaplain, you start your invocation, sir, when
we going to get started? Chapman, David Boyd, can everybody hear me?
Yeah, yes,
okay, let us pray Father in the name of Jesus. First want to tell you thank you, Lord, thank You that last night wasn't our last night, but that we are so grateful. So now, God, we ask that You would enter into this room. God, we ask that You would give us vision. God, bind us together in unity and peace. God, Lord, we pray for the chief of police. We pray for the committee. Lord, we pray for every Detroit police officer. We ask that you continue to protect them and watch over them. Lord, our whole city. We pray that this meeting will go in order. God, that you will be blinded up with the will, with your will, and God, we give you all honor, glory and praise. It is in your Son, Jesus, name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Introduction of commissioners, please call the roll.
Commissioner woods, present, Commissioner Smith,
present,
Commissioner Bernard, Commissioner banks present. Commissioner Bell present, district
pool.
Commissioner Burton, Commissioner Carter, Commissioner Moore has asked to be excused. Commissioner Hernandez present. Commissioner Presley here, Commissioner DeWalt present. Chairman Woods seven present, sir. Thank
you. So we have a quorum. So I entertain a motion for the approval of October, the third, 2024, agenda, so moved by Commissioner Hernandez support, supported by Commissioner Dewas. All in favor. Say, aye. Aye. Any discussion on the motion is carried. I entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes for September 19, 2024, so moved, moved by Commissioner Presley, second, second by Commissioner Hernandez. All in favor, say, aye, any discussion on the motion is carried,
Mr. Chairman, if you could please ask for discussion before you carry the vote. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Get me together.
Yeah,
so entertain a motion for the approval of minutes of September, the 26th 2024
Can I ask a question to the chair? Yes, do we actually have minutes given we didn't have quorum?
Yes? Is we have the minutes that were done, thus, public comment and all that type of type of stuff. Okay, yeah, and let the record reflect I was online in Chicago, so, but I do entertain a motion for approval of the minutes of september 26 2024 so moved, move by Commissioner Hernandez, any discussion. Am I going right? Madam, yes, sir, all in favor. Say, aye, the motion is carried. Thank you very kindly. Introduction of bopc staff, Chief of Police and elected officials and representatives
present today, chief investigator, Warfield, parliamentarian, Dr Francis Jackson, Robert Brown, Teresa blossom, armycia Joshua, Mary barber drew freeze, supervising investigator, Sloan interpreters, Ms Yakata and Dr Beatty, court Reporter, Don Handyside, RDL, Sergeant Quinn. Media Services is present as well. Police Chief James White, elected officials and representatives are Marie Oliver, State Representative, Tyrone Carter's office. Frieda Butler, president of second precinct community relations, Ladon Davis, from the Office of Councilman Fred durhall, former Commissioner William Davis, Vice President of DPOA. Ron Thomas, I think that is it.
Thank you very kindly. I just in my report, I would just say, I just want to absolutely applaud the effort of Commissioner Tamara Liberty Smith. And I wasn't here last week. I was in Chicago on business, but for her leadership that she had displayed in this community, the leadership that she does display in this community in terms of helping those who are suffering, those who are hurting. You know, commissioners are not just, you know, sitting by the sideline, but she's a leader who's been out in this community, and I know that she was deeply wounded by the situation when Isaiah Harris, in which this department stepped up from the beginning, I had a chance to go out and knock some doors and look for two days, but she was there all the way through, and I Just wanted to applaud her, you know, for her leadership. I know this was something that was very, very painful for her. And then also, you know, I just want to continue to encourage this commission to continue to do the great work that they're doing. So that's, I'll just say that, and the the I didn't get a chance to speak last week, but that situation was very, very troubling to this community, and the chief leadership on that was nothing but amazing to be able to work hard and diligently to to find answers for that family and and I know that is the priority that this department has for lot of those families that have missing children, and I've seen it work diligently, and one applaud mama D out there in the audience as well, a person who son was victimized by homicide and has been consistently participating in helping transform the system here with DPD, working with the department to make sure that there's answers for families. And so I appreciate that, and thank you for being here, Mama D, and thank you, I'll just say, let's give two of these stellar ladies a round of applause for their leadership,
having said that we're going to go to the chief of police report,
good afternoon. Board,
good afternoon. Good afternoon.
Thank you, Chair, for your kind words, and I echo the efforts of Commissioner Smith and her work has been amazing, getting us in the spaces, getting us able to talk to folks who may not have necessarily had the comfort without her to talk to us, and she has been pounding the ground on poor little desire Harris since the day it happened. And unfortunately, I don't know if the board recalls, but an additional tragedy for that family was that her dad died, you know, clearly, from a broken heart, literally from her heart failure while searching for the little girl. The unfortunate reality is that the investigation reveals that the perpetrator was, in fact, a person who was a pedophile, a person who intentionally pursued women who had young children. We have records and evidence to suggest that he was very deliberate and who he chose as a partner for the purpose of victimizing their children, and I'll leave it there, because anymore would would jeopardize the investigation. But I'm very thankful to Vice Chair Smith, as well as the prosecutor, who stayed locked in with us and our team things that we cannot talk about publicly as to not compromise investigations. And unfortunately, we took a tremendous amount of criticism, but we knew we had to be delicate in our approach in this investigation, because there were a lot more victims that we didn't want to scare off. But through the diligent work of our homicide team, Shannon Jones over our missing persons report, Amber Roberson, our deputy chief and our commander, as well as our captain in that unit, homicide and missing persons, they knew what they had once they found out that it was unlikely to bring her home alive, we knew we were on a recovery mission, and we had to be extremely cautious and deliberate in our approach. So thank you to this board for allowing us to do that without asking us those sensitive questions publicly. Everything will come out in court. Some has already come out at the prelim, and more will come out during the trial. But we've got a very dangerous person off the street, and the investigators should be applauded for it, absolutely. Moving on to STATS very quickly, the department continues to see record number of crime decreases, contrary to what some may think. And as I always say, we are not celebrating these numbers, but we have to have a basis for the work that we do and recognizing that what we are doing is in fact working. When you look at what we did last year. We came in at record numbers, lowest since 1966 we knew we were up against a very stiff challenge, because we were competing against ourselves, quite frankly, for this year. The interesting thing about major city crime numbers and having a lot of colleagues around this country that I talk to on a weekly basis about crime, many of them have returned to their pre covid numbers, which was their their normalization of what their data look like covid through everybody's charts off, you know, off the rails. When they return back to their covid numbers, they were able to classify that as a reduction in crime. Detroit, along with a number of other major cities have blown past our pre covid numbers, and so the numbers we look at are, quite frankly, historic. We have a 20% homicide reduction, that's 41 less families victimized by homicide this year. Then at the same time last year, we have a 15 and a half percent reduction in criminal sexual conduct. That's 79 people that have been not victimized. Aggravated assaults are down. Roughly 500 robberies are down. Over 200 burglaries are down. Roughly 50 motor vehicle thefts are down, 946 our part one, violent crime overall reduction is 8.6% a property crime is 6% a non fatal shooting numbers 29% reduction that that means that 191 people were not shot this year that were at the same time last year. That means that 191 attempted murders, because, let's face it, a non fatal shooting is in fact, an attempt to take someone's life. And if, if only 10 or 20% of those have been successful, we would be looking at a lot more people than that have been killed in our city. But as you talked about mama D being here and and others that still feel you know, the loss of their loved ones. We're never going to celebrate any murders in our city, but what we will look at is the fact that we're methodically and continuously bringing them down, and we're doing that with the hardworking men and women of the Detroit Police Department, our CVI, our community relations work that you're doing, work that the Vice Chair is doing on a daily basis, and others on this board that continue to help heal our community, as well as work with the police department give people a degree of comfort, because without the community, we couldn't police the community. We don't have enough people to police 650,000 registered folks and another two to 300,000 visitors. So you have to have the cooperation of the community, and you have that you're able to see the things that we're seeing right now as it relates to the reductions. And we're going to keep that going as I move into some some updates and some significant events. I want to highlight one in particular, and that's yet another young child in our city that was shot. This was a double non fatal shooting that occurred october 1 5:45pm officers were dispatched to the 9200 block of plain view to investigate a double non fatal shooting. Officers on patrol heard approximately 13 shots fired, and again, that's officers on patrol in our neighborhood. So those are the things that we're seeing that's causing some of these reductions that we're seeing in our B and ES and a home invasion, or all of them, if you've got officers patrolling the streets, they're not just going up and down the major thoroughfares. They heard 13 shots fired area Plainview in West Chicago. Then the dispatch run comes out to 9200 block of Plainview, and a shot spider notification simultaneously comes out at 5:48pm, officers arrival on the scene observed evidence of a shooting at the location. While at the scene, officers receive an update that the victim. The first victim was a five year old female. She was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds to her leg. And then there was a second victim. Number one was with her mother. Her mother and the victim number two leaving the 9200 block of Plainview. The second victim, they were leaving the location and allegedly shot. The child is expected to make a full recovery. The other victim is expected also to make a full recovery. But the investigation continues. On September 27 at 10:20pm officers were dispatched to the 8700 block of Epworth to investigate a fatal shooting. Officers responded to the scene. Observed the victim lying in the yard, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Officers administered first aid until the medics arrived. Medics transported the victim to a local hospital, where the victim was pronounced deceased. Officers from the 10th precinct preserved the scene, and detectives from the homicide section were notified. The case is still under investigation. We had another fatal victim, September 28 2pm and the 4200 block of joy road also in the 10th precinct, officers were dispatched to investigate a suspicious person. Arrived at the location and observed the victim in a passenger seat of a U haul truck suffering from a gunshot wound. Detectives discovered that the U haul truck was stolen and arrested a suspect that was also linked to that vehicle nearby, the suspect was transported to the detention center to Texas. Were unable to determine if he, in fact, shot the victim, and that is again still under investigation. As we move on to a few other things of importance, and switching gears a little bit. One of the things I want to bring to the board's attention is we lost a couple of people this week. Let me do something else. First, want to update the officer that was shot in the hand last week. He has had surgery. He's recovering. He's expected to make a full recovery. We're in the course of conducting our investigation, we did, in fact, confirm that the suspect who shot him was in fact suffering from mental illness. The officer was courageous in his actions. We're looking now at, you know, things that we could do to improve our response. One of the things that gives me concern is that he was operating independent of any other officers. He was in an atom unit, which is common for our department. I would much rather see that not be an officer with the amount of time he had on the job, be working by himself. He was about a year out. But that doesn't mean he did anything wrong. I just think from a management perspective, we need to take that into consideration before we make those deployment decisions. So I'll be looking at that.
By all accounts, everything he did was, was was appropriate. We're going to look at opportunities to make sure that we ensure the safety of our members and not put them in those situations going forward. So that portion of the investigation, now that the criminal part of the investigation has concluded with a warrant being issued against the suspect for attempted murder. We'll now look at the administrative components and things that we can do better for the officer's well being. But preliminarily, there's no misconduct on his part, and everything he did was was heroic. As we move into next week, a couple really sad things. We have to start off our week with retired deputy chief Harold Cureton died, for those of you who know him, I'm sure Commissioner Bell knows him well, if I'm not mistaken, you all were around the same time and the department and he died recently, and his funeral will be Monday. My partner, Anthony Top, very, very difficult week for me. Died 51 years old, and so it's going to be really tough week for me next week, been dealing with his family. And you know when you have to to deal with something that you never thought you would have to. It was just last week we were or two weeks ago, we were doing talk track, trash talk about fantasy football. We're playing each other, and few weeks later, you're you're going to a funeral. So you know that, if nothing else, it illustrates just how valuable time and life is, despite the fact that we seem to take it for granted and major in the minor end up in conflict over things that are just simply not, not that important. So those two funerals are next week. We conclude Wednesday with our final walk a mile Wednesday for the year program that has been very successful for us. And we're also incorporating something. This would be the last thing I have before I take any questions. If you remember, I believe it was April 21 we had a student police officer, actually, it may have been april 2020 by the name of Connor. And he was, it had, would have had to be 2020 he was working in our covid team response. On his way home, he see a straight he sees a stray animal on the freeway. He gets out to help the stray animal. He is hit by a hit and run driver, and from that point on, he's suffering from a close head injury, some paralysis. Will not make a full recovery. His life has completely changed. Next Wednesday, every graduating class, we do a graduation run. We incorporate it starting next Wednesday, the honor Connor run for every graduate of the Detroit Police Department, and the any proceeds raised from the honor counter run will go to his family from this point forward, to help with his medical costs and his around the clock medical needs from nursing and other medical professionals. So that will start next week with our we'll do our walk a mile, and then we'll do the honor counter run. And going forward, each graduating class will have their respective donations to the honor Connor fund so that his family can assist him and his long term needs, which they will be plenty. So
with that, I
will take any questions Absolutely.
Commissioner Hernandez,
thank you through the Chair. First, I'll start with condolences, prayers, obviously to you directly, but also to the entire agency. And if there's any way that I can be involved with the run in supporting I mean, I don't know that. I'll run too many miles, but please let me know. I have a question that's somewhat tied to our department, and it's more along the lines of what protocol looks like with other surrounding agencies. It seems that there's been somewhat of a recurrence of high speed engagements. I'm going to call them specifically from Warren police. And there was a very recent incident, obviously, that's ongoing in terms of of the investigation, but two individuals were obviously fatally struck. Warren Police has come out and actually confirmed that there was no high speed chase or no no chase that the officers were actually involved in. There's lots of video evidence going out into social media. Can you just speak to what that interaction, or that protocol looks like whenever there are chases from other departments leading into the city of Detroit, because it seems like there's been way too many, and specifically, there have been way too many from that police department.
Thank you through the chair. So let's start with outside agencies coming into Detroit for felonies, or obviously agencies have the authority for felonies to cross jurisdictions, they should notify us to ensure that we're not in the area on another operation that could potentially create it's actually called deconfliction where so that we're not in conflict with what they're doing and that we don't run into each other. I mean, that has literally happened in our own agency, but it's a very quick process that to call out that we're there and to notify us. We have policies regarding chases that actually also encompass getting engaged in chases with other jurisdictions that are in play the moment an agency comes in. So you know, we have a very strict Chase policy felonies, and the felony that we're engaged in the chase for violent felonies, by the way, and the chase itself can't be the felony. So it has to be a independent violent felony that allows us to chase. Even with that, other considerations have to be made. We have to notify a supervisor, zone dispatcher. We have to know traffic conditions, weather conditions, schools getting out, schools in the area, and a supervisor who monitors at any point can call the chase off. Obviously our policies are not the policies of a neighboring agency. That's why that notification is so important. If in the in an instance where a supervisor in DPD encounters or chase that he or she finds to be risky without any other information based on some other factors, they do have the authority to get engaged and either see if we can make notification to that agency to find out what's going on, and very rarely done because of how quickly things unfold, but they do have the authority in this particular instance, as you know, that particular Chase did not come to Detroit, but as you indicated, there has been many, and we have had conversations with Warren and other agencies.
In fact, when the new chief is installed, it's my goal to welcome him with a meeting up to talk about this very issue. Can
I follow up? Yes, sir,
thank you. Is there a pathway for accountability that exists, whether it be through state police or another mechanism? Well,
it depends on the violation. I think there's accountability across the board for chases that are improper, there's accountability for chases that that infringe upon civil liberty and things such as that, but, but there's so many variables that that can impact that. But when you talk about accountability from a departmental standpoint, obviously we can't impose policy on that department and their power if they don't have a mirroring Chase policy as we do, then there's no accountability from us. There's no and if they're within their guidelines, there are some agencies that pit maneuver, which is essentially bumping the car and having it spin out. I've chosen not to adopt a policy such as that, because I don't see a pathway to success with that. In our city, the lanes are too narrow. It is a proven technique that works, but you need the space to be able to effectuate it. We have helicopters that we use, and we have flare that allows us to track, to track a vehicle, and then get to where the vehicle is headed, and then meet them there and make the arrest. And our officers have been very successful. So it's kind of a risk reward. We only engage in chases that we've got a violent predator or a violent suspect that's likely to hurt another person if we don't get them. And we've been, we've been very strict about it. Thank you.
Yes, the follow up on that, are you guys check in to see if there was any criminality on the part of those officers, you know, because it has been egregious in terms of what Warren police has done in this city, in terms of, I know at least three times that they have chased individuals into This city, and there's been horrific crashes. Are is that being investigated by this department or or do the step State Police step in, into that
commission? I don't want to give you bad information. I would have to check there are instances where we could run a parallel investigation if someone is dead, and it's in our city, and it's a result of a chase. But again, it could be an independent state police investigation, because it's law enforcement agency. I am not familiar with the three incidents that you speak of. I'm familiar with three answers to speak. I'm gonna correct that. I am not sure if we took the lead on those three. I'm actually sure we didn't, or I don't think we did, rather, so let me get back with you on that. I think one of the cases MSP took, and we're we can run a parallel and stay involved in the the outcome, but we do not have an active investigation involving Warren. PD, I'm pretty confident on that, because I would have been briefed on that, but I'll get you accurate information. Report that back to I'll send an email to the body, appreciate that. I
know the new chief is being interviewed by the Commission tonight, and so hopefully they select that Chief and we can move forward, because I know they've been without a chief for a while. Any further questions? Commissioner Bernard, thank
you, Chairman Woods chief, our duty both everyone in this room that's a Detroit who's involved with law enforcement. Our duty is to protect Detroit citizens, and if, if they are or have a pattern or practice of being threatening to Detroit citizens at all, I think we should take the initiative with respect to that you, yourself, initiated you and even chief Craig a no Chase policy, we don't do that in Detroit because we don't want it. We don't want the consequences of it. And I understand that jurisdictional issues, you can do it all, but if it's necessary for us to go to the state legislature to make that clear that you can't chase in Detroit or wherever other communities. I don't know how other communities feel, but I think, I think we have to take the initiative in that regard. This is totally unacceptable, and as you've pointed out yourself, it's not the first time.
So with regards to that, I don't think I would support a no Chase policy in nature. We don't have a no Chase policy. We have a specific Chase policy where you have to meet certain criteria, but at the same time, you know, I would not be a supporter of across the board no Chase policy, because all that will do is encourage people to run from the police the moment they commit a crime. So you'd have people walking out of stores, persons getting snatched and people taking off in vehicles. So, so that's not what we would want, but I but I think a responsible Chase policy like we have in Detroit is one that that should be adopted, but I can impose policy on other agencies, but I can certainly speak to the concerns that I have, which I'm prepared to do once the new chief is installed, and we can talk that through, but it is not something that, you know I can impose on Warren. PD, I just want to be clear on that, but certainly, much like before we go into Warren, there are certain protocols that we find. We go into Warren all the time to look for perpetrators, but we do it in a way that we make notifications and that people know that we're there. Sometimes we involve that agency. Many of these chases are hot pursuit. They're coming right into the city, and the results are very troubling.
Well, that's why I said, Let the legislature address the issue. They can put in place the protections that you that you've indicated here. I mean, if we need to protect our citizens, we need to do that.
Yeah, I don't disagree. And it's, you know, profound as a soundbite is that you're making it's not realistic for me to approach the legislator to impose that rule. That would be something that maybe this body would consider doing that would be most appropriate for me as a law enforcement person. What my job is to do is to ensure that the chief is aware of what has happened, to work with that chief to ensure that both agencies are operating with respect to our citizens and the safety of all involved. But for me to approach the legislator to impose some type of long form would just be highly inappropriate. Well, we could ask
city council to get involved as well, and then we can go to our legislators right now, while we can control the legislature, it's the time to do it if we're going to
do it. I don't disagree.
Any other questions of the chief
through the chair, yes, sir
Chief, I had a meeting today with a gentleman who received, you know, a few $1,000 and and blight tickets. Blight tickets was issued by DPD. And the the concern that he has is that, how do the department determine or differentiate whether is, you know, boat pickup versus paid boat pickup? So on the city's website, you a person can pay for pickup to have their stuff picked up. And so that's a different option. And so I don't know if you can answer that question, how the officer determined whether this is a pay pickup or a regular pickup, but you know some of his tickets he was able to get waived because they were not written by DPD, but the ones that were by DPD, he tried to challenge those as what he said and and they wouldn't challenge they, you know, they couldn't waive those because it was written by DPD, and he's showing them as he goes down and he talks to building and safety. He's showing them where he scheduled for a bowl pickup. And so it's it's not one Detroit resident is bringing this concern. There's many Detroit residents that are bringing this concern that live in, you know, the fifth district. And so, in addition to that, I like to know, can you provide to this board, you know, a year to date, how many blight tickets that this department writes, as well as added to your weekly report breakdown by precincts, because you know you have, you have severe poverty, poverty, childhood poverty, and working class poverty, and $1,000 ticket here, a $2,000 ticket there. It all adds up end of the day, especially when someone is doing everything by the book. So we know that the city picks up trash weekly, but you can also pay for additional bulk pickup, which this person have done everything. So
can you answer that question from Chief through the chair.
So there's a lot there. I mean, we are going to enforce blight. We're going to enforce abandoned vehicles. Our city deserves it. We have to move past this notion that being impoverished mean that we have to live in filth. They are two totally different things. I grew up very, very poor and very, very clean. Okay, so I think they're different. If specifically you are talking about a situation where this person has wrongly received tickets. I'm very interested in that,
and I will do yes, they wrongly, they paid for Okay, so if they actually have their statements. They showed everything, okay, let them finish answer one, order
seven, finish answer. Then you can respond so and speak through the chair, through
the chairs specifically to that issue. We'll look into that, because that if that is, in fact, the case that he paid for boat pickup, and can prove he paid for boat pickup, then there should be a remedy outside of court that we can work through on that, but, and I can provide you with a report if that's this body's desire regarding boat pickup tickets or blight tickets rather, but you're going to see them, and we're going to continue to enforce it, just like we're going to continue to enforce abandoned vehicles. We're going to continue to enforce, because I hear from people all the time our community that their kids can't walk to school because there's trash out front, or people are just dumping in our community. We were going through that trash. We're finding addresses, and we're writing those tickets, and we find people outside of the city that are coming in doing it as well. So but I will take a personal interest in this particular situation. If you could provide me with the name, not on the record, but offline, and I will reach out and find out precisely what happened
to the chair chief, the person that brought their concern to me for the record, I want, want to say that these are, this is not a legal dumping. They are a homeowner in a very influential community in my district, and they paid for, you know, boat pickup. And so there's a option where you could pay for boat pickup on the website, as well as you have additional, you know, you know, bow pickup, which is like weekly and so, so, you know, it's, it's not just one or two people that are, are Bringing their concerns to me. I have, you know, over, over 10 people reached out to to me about this same concern. They go and they go on a website, they schedule for this. But some, somehow they get a ticket written, you know, and it's the ticket is unfair and it's unjust. And they like the, you know, they like the the board to look into this.
Okay, so, so here to look into this, and I'll just restate what I said earlier and add one more piece.
But you didn't answer the question about how did how the officer determine or different whether a person scheduled or paid for vote pickup versus the weekly vote pickup that every Detroit resident receives. I'll kind
of tell you what. Go ahead. Go ahead, Chief. I can't tell you what an officer used to determine why that ticket was valid. That's why I need to look into it. Maybe the officer looked at a variety of different things. Maybe the officer looked at the fact that documentation that he had was inconsistent with the bulk pickup schedule. I simply don't know, because I simply don't know what you're talking about, but if you provide me with the name and the date, I can reach out to him and I can give you an informed answer and an intellectual response, absent that we're both kind of talking with, you know, significant blind spots. So if you could give me the information, I can do that also. One last thing, sir, through the chair Department of Administrative Hearings, anytime you disagree with a ticket, you are able to file an appeal and go through the process of having a hearing and prove that you in fact, did have a scheduled boat Pickup Date or a personal paid for bulk pickup, and then we'll work through that. But I am going to look through the chair,
through the chair, Chief, you tapped into a words, once again, the person received other tickets. Excuse but they no point of order. Excuse
for point of order. No
point of order.
Excuse me. Excuse me. Point of order.
But the thing is, I say a point of order. Eve other tickets, and they were hurting me to get those wave you know, whether it came from
the mission of burden, you out of order? Whether you out of order right now? No, so that he's answered that question several times, and I see he's asking you to provide. He asking you from me, Commissioner Burton, bpW, Commissioner Burton, to get one of those, or two of those way. But the one, Commissioner Burton out of order, not able to get those ways. You're not being recognized. You're not recognized, and so therefore you're out of order. Point of order, I'm not out of order. I'm
I'm bringing a concern. I don't want your concerns five.
I want your concern to be addressed. Excuse me. I represent a district that has over 100,000 people. I live in that district, excuse me, excuse me. And then you represent the excuse me, that are being appended to the mayor, Yes, praise the Lord, yeah. However you want to say it, Chairman for my he's out of order right now. He's being disrespectful and disregarding other rules of engagement. And so the fact of the matter is, is that the chief has answered your question several times, and you have not provided him any information. He said he would be willing to take a look at the information. And so he's asking your question. There's nothing else that he could do other than you providing the information to them and for them to take a look at it. Other than that, it's a question of, how
do, how do officer determine or different whether a person can't schedule a paper boat pickup versus the weekly trash that everyone
entitled to? If you don't have anything further, we actually can go on the website and pay and schedule, okay, if you don't have anything that move along. Alright, yes. Commissioner banks, you're recognized. And then Commissioner Bernard, okay,
through the chair. Blessings and peace to you and your household. Chief white. Chief white, you started the the walkathon. How is that coming, and when you started the walk of thought, I mean the walk a mile, how many people started with you that's still with you, that's current with you today, when you started that walk? A time, if you can give a roundabout number, or if
I started to walk them on Wednesday when I was interim chief about three and a half years ago. Okay, we've kept them going. They're very popular. We move them through every precinct throughout the summer, right? Sometimes we get people from different precincts out of 10, we've got about 20 people that are consistent, regardless of precinct we're in, from when you first started, from when we started. But good. But each of them range anywhere from 50 to 150 people each week. They've become quite popular. Okay, I
got one more Chief. Chief. Have you seen anybody in that three and a half year period? Have you seen anybody get in shape?
No, that's a great question. And the answer is, there's a member Walker.
Hold on,
there's a there's a member with ceasefire who boasts that he has lost 60 pounds now it's not my weekly walk a mile. He has taken that to launch a better fitness lifestyle and eating right, and he looks great. I just saw him a couple weeks ago. Wonderful.
I'm all set chair, Commissioner Bernard, just,
just quickly, perhaps Commissioner Burton, we the chief, can designate someone you can speak to afterward to find out the answers to those questions regarding the issuance of tickets versus the registry of people who've paid for bulk pickup. That's a good question, actually. So perhaps, Chief, would you mind? He
already made itself clear, Commissioner Bernard that that he would do that we don't have to reach now. He made itself absolutely clear about his answer, you know, saying that that was more than available to him. Anything further?
No, it's a good question. Okay,
okay, alright, yes, sir, I'm
sorry to elongate this process to the chair. My question is, how are you feeling about the progress with a potential proposed strategies around communications to families who are looking to hear from detectives after cases. Yes,
and thank you for bringing that up. Commissioner Presley. We have implemented family, our family advocacy group, and I want to speak specifically to that work, not being a replacement for the detectives work because there are some some miscommunication around what exactly they will do. It is still the detective's responsibility to reach out to families and talk to families and let them give them updates. But what we found through the chair, and not through the chair, but literally through the chair and through the vice chair and others, that that just wasn't consistently happening. And so the chairman, the Vice Chair, deputy mayor, and others have contacted me. And there's these families that don't have the cadence appropriate to know what's going on with their loved one. And so number of different things that impact that. Sometimes, when the case goes cold, the person that they initially designated as the the family representative, has fallen, fallen out of favor. Sometimes they're not necessarily communicating what, what we're telling them. And so what this group is going to do is close that gap. They're going to, they're they're going to independent of the responsibility of the detective. Reach out to these families, let them know, have you or ask them, have you talked to your detective? What's going on? What do you need from us? Have a quarterly meeting with them, the case update for all of them, and even the cold cases, and have conversation. I'm going to be in attendance. The deputy chief will be in attendance so that they know that their loved one matter to us. So far, we have launched, of course, with like everything else, there are some bumps in the road, so give us a couple of weeks, and we'll have a strong report for you. But it has launched. We some things that we didn't anticipate. There are a lot of people who are now coming up saying, hey, it's been 10 years and I haven't heard anything. And so now this has become a call in and tell us that you haven't been heard unit, as opposed to dealing with the cases and going out. So we're managing those. We don't want to turn them away, and we're not going to, but we're going to need a little bit more capacity, because it's bigger than we thought. But we're also ensuring that the folks know, and the victims of this heinous these heinous acts, know that the detectives still have a responsibility to contact these these families.
Thank you. Any further Yes, Commissioner dewats,
hi, Chief, yes. My question has to do with recruitment of officers. I notice in the report that year to date, we've lost 119 officers, and we still have 94 vacancies, yes, and I know you're having regular, you know, graduating classes and classes starting up, but how are we doing in terms of kind of reconciling that number so that we have more recruits than we have people leaving? Yeah, so
that's, that's another fantastic question. I'm glad you asked, because the data, as much as I love data, data can be shaped if without context and to tell a different story. And so what is absent there? If you look at the whole number, we have 300 more officers today than we had january 2023, so with plus 300 then we take over the transit unit, which gave us 41 or 42 openings. Okay, so now, so immediately in that 73 number, was it 73 or 7670 I don't have it with me. I'm going from memory, 7673 so we got 41 openings right there that we created by virtue of taking over transit. So they're still out there, and they're still patrolling, and they're still they're they're still in uniform, still driving police cars, but I got 41 officers added to my budget so that that number is present and right in right there for you to see. I also promoted about 35 people over the last couple months, and sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and so those create openings as well. So I am not concerned about our fill rate. We're still moving in the right direction. We got 117 police officers in the Academy right now. We've got 2017 hired. We're going to hire another 22 to start at October Academy before the end of this month, and we're going to be on a cadence of about 35 to 40 a month till the end of the year, which will bring us up to full capacity. But once I hit the list, I'm going to I'm going to create opening when you make sergeants, you take police officers up to sergeants, so and then. But I'm the recruiting unit is doing a very good job. There's certainly, you know, the emphasis is to recruit Detroiters. We're doing a lot of different programming. I was just talking to the HR director earlier today about some of her work with Captain Brown, and they're talking to the local radio stations. They're going to be going into churches to to on the week or on the Sundays, to actually get a couple minutes to talk about recruiting. They're doing a really good job. The other thing this board should know is we have had, since our raises, about 65 or more officers request to come back to DPD, and we have taken the majority, majority of them back, so we're seeing our officers return. We had three, ironically warned recently, two of them have already put in the comeback. So it's those types of things that we're seeing. So we're confident that we're going to continue on the right path. The race has been very powerful tool for us, and believe it or not, other major cities are looking at us, asking us how we're recruiting so well. So we're doing pretty good.
Great. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. And so the any of other questions, there no more question. Let me ask you the officer that was shot in the hand in terms of and which I'm always interested in a far as the mental health response to that officer and to the various officers who found it find themselves being shot in in these type of situations, understanding, there's a lot of PTSD there, and there's, you know, I will, you know, I want To understand what the public understand, what is that when when that officer come back online, is you see he or she getting treatment, and how do that treatment look like? And are they given the time and space to be able to heal, not only physically, but also mentally, from that traumatic episode they
are, and thanks for asking that question through the chair. So if an officer is shot, it's a little bit different than if an officer fires shot, but but on the same line, there is a psychological evaluation done. They get treatment. There's a peer support component where they're able to talk through what's what's happening. They go see a psychiatrist who emote about all the different factors that led to the circumstance and how they feel about it. And then, instead of putting them right back into where they came from, they get about a 45 day rotation in the department. And generally speaking, I try to put them somewhere to do some job application so that you know that they want to do something different down the road in their career. Give them a sneak peek at it for 45 days or so, and then we check on the seat ready to go back in. And they say, yes. We send them back to to patrol. If that's where they come from. They say no. Then we work through some options for them. But there's a lot of support that's given to the officers, particularly with the peer support. I'll give James Craig, my predecessor, credit for that peer support program that he built coming from LA that's a very valuable tool for the officers to talk through with a peer what they're going through, which is very different than talking to someone who may not have gone through it. So it's a very strong piece of the work that we do, and we make sure that the officers are both physically and mentally healthy enough to go back into patrol,
absolutely and then we also, finally, my final question is, and that we been getting a lot of you know recommendations to us by members in the community, especially Reverend blunt, to be able to release the video cam of those officer involved shooting. We have it on the agenda for the policy to commit committee to take a look at that. And we are asking that that we come to the table and negotiate and see if we can negotiate something more robust in that particular area as well.
So Commissioner through the Chair, if I may comment on that, yeah, and I guess I would ask the body to consider a few things with that. First and foremost, what are we solving for? And before you answer, let me give you a few reasons that I asked that. So you know, as I do that, the moment I made the decision to do that, because that's not what we used to do. That is something that I took on. It was an unprecedented act for transparency. When you make those decisions to release a body camera prior to a prosecutor making a decision on a crime, you, in essence, could compromise the case, but in the interest of transparency, I was willing to take that risk and implement a policy that had never in the history of the Detroit Police Department been implemented, that within 45 days of using force, I will release the video, the audio, the 911 call and everything else. Now, prior to that moment, it had never been done. I simply said, looking at best practices around the country and other agencies that were doing it. Some did it in 90 days. Some did it in 30 days. What would be our best path forward at maximum? Not not saying that it's always 45 days, but at maximum, it would be 45 days. Why 45 days? Because it takes time to first get all the video right, because you have to. There are some video that, yes, we have on body camera, but there are other perspectives that we have from other sources. We don't just walk in and say, Hey, can we have your camera? We have to do search warrants. So with ring doorbell, for example, ring doorbell is not wide open, and saying, Come and get everything you want, you issue a search warrant for ring door bill. They execute the search warrant, and it takes time and other sources. The 45 days was a was a big enough cushion for us so that we can get all of the facts, all of the circumstances, and do a presentation for this body, as well as the community, and then permanently affix it to our social media pages so people, from now to eternity, can download it, click on it, play it on the news without having to keep going in and changing it. Because when you have to go in and change it, or you have to add to it, you lose credibility and the process and people no longer trust it. And the 45 days has been working. To my surprise, what I thought would probably be met with at least positivity has turned to No, not good enough. Now we've gone from a place we didn't have anything to a place where we get everything in 45 days, at maximum, 45 days. Now we want to change it to lesser days with really no context to how lesser days make sense other than to say it's less than 45 so then, if it's dropped to 40, does that make it work? No, let's do 30. If we drop to 30, let's do 20. There's so many factors that feed into the reason why 45 makes sense. Again, I close with what are we solving for if we're getting it and we're getting it when we never got it. And if you talk to the prosecutor, she was not a supporter of she thought this is going to hurt some cases, and she and quite frankly, it could, because the same people looking at the video could actually be at trial. I don't think it's beloved by the unions, but they To their credit, they understand the need for transparency. I'm not going to go on record and say that they necessarily support that piece of it, but they have understood the department's reaction, and I'm appreciative of that, because we understand, and they understand that we want to be transparent to this community, but I need time to give the actual depiction of facts and circumstances, and the last thing I want to do is put a video up in 20 days, and then a search warrant comes in that shows a whole different perspective of what occurred that is not in that video, and then have to amend that video and lose the entire credibility of our process. I just don't think that's a good idea. So I would ask that the board look at all factors. I would ask that we have further conversation to understand why, yeah, and that's why
I asked that have somebody come negotiate in good faith at the policy meeting, because the Reverend wanted in one day, you know, but, but the the fact of the matter is, is that we can discuss these nuances, you know, in a policy meeting, and to have a robust conversation. Because I think all the all factors need to be considered, as you said. I mean, if you saying up to 45 days is then the language whenever possible, that's not going to jeopardize anything. You know, so, but you know that's to be measured out in the policy meeting with some real good faith discussion and negotiation, and that's all I'm asking. Yes, sir, yeah. And if there's nothing further,
just very briefly, very briefly, Mr. Chairman and everybody should be very brief. But anyway, the chief the department releases video. I understand. I listen carefully to your concerns, and they're legitimate. I understand that, but the department routinely will release video when the video totally exculpates The officer immediately, like, like, when that lady was shot, me, you out of order, on on San Juan and on order in my district. Me, you release it immediately, so that the so that the community calms down. And that makes sense to me. But the on the other side of that, the community wants to know why you can't do that with all video. Like other, like other cities do Chicago, others? Not
true that they other through the chair. So, so again, you know, we just have to be careful searching for the sound bite, but, but not the facts. So when you talk about what other agencies do, we studied other agencies, and when you talk about the San Juan cases, are you speaking of the I can't let it okay. So that case was very different. I wasn't the chief. Number one, the department didn't have a policy on video release a decision, an independent decision, was made at that time, because what was being stated during a time of protest with law enforcement was that we murdered a person, and that was not true. And so the chief, which I support at the time, made a decision, because he had to to go forward and say, here's what happened. This is not the case. And thank God he did, because there was bad information out there. And, of course, because it was negative, people believed it. But then, if you know, if you would remember, from that point forward, we went right back into the same protocols that we have, and it wasn't released. Other subsequent videos were not released. What I made a decision to do is to release all video involving officer involved shootings, not when the videos exonerate officers. All videos okay, whether the officers had a policy violation or not, all videos and at the maximum of 45 days. And I've already stated in detail why that 45 days is necessary. I stand behind that. I think it's important to get it right, not get it fast. We are transparent. You look at other agencies, you know, I see shootings on the news like you do, and I see a tweet about what happened. I don't see people standing up at a podium with their entire command staff flanking them, giving specific details of date and time and everything else, like we do in Detroit. I don't see a follow up with the media, sometimes with with this body standing with me, discussing what happened in specific detail, and then followed by that, 45 days later, a video that's either supporting or refuting precisely what I said the moment the incident happened. You've also got a command team here in Detroit that every officer involved shooting. You're if I'm in town, you see me, if I'm not, you see, at the very least, an assistant chief and the multitude of Deputy Chief. Why do we do that? Not because we all want to be on TV. We want the entire community to know that we're aware of what happened as a command team, and that we're going to be transparent about it, and we all speak in specifics on what we know now is that happening in these other cities? I don't see it. I see a tweet. I see a press release, somebody got shot. We'll let you know more later, maybe. And there's, there's no call for anything there in Detroit, we do it different, and rightfully so. Our community demands it, and our community deserves it, and I support it. I took it to another level, because I don't want to have these discussions. I don't want to have this view from some that were not being transparent, so let's now release all the video, but I just need time to do it the right way.
Thank you very kindly. Let the record reflect that Commissioner Carter is present. And I don't know if I stated earlier that, Let the record reflect that Commissioner Bernard was present to for the record. Thank you, Chief, and appreciate you. And let's go to oral communications here.
Have four speakers in the room. We'll start with Minister Eric blunt today, Hankins, Miss Joyce e Jennings and jadonte Smith,
good afternoon board. I'm Eric blunt minister. Eric blunt from Sacred Heart Catholic Church. I have no problem speaking to a grown man face to face, so I'm sorry that Chief Craig decided to leave before public comment. Chief, white chief, well, one in the same. And that's one of my points. Yes. Um, I had a moment of silence last week for Marcellus Williams, yes, because so many in Detroit could have ended up. We don't have the death penalty here, but they could have ended up on life without parole. Michael Jackson, the young man falsely charged, arrested, charged and accused of killing. Samantha wall, the prosecutor decided not to recharge the case. That should tell you right there, the police department did not supply enough evidence in order to charge this man, but yet, he's another black person in this city that gets charged. Who else am I talking about? A pregnant, eight month pregnant, black woman. The false technology arrested her for carjacking. She was nowhere near it. One of the things we need to ask ourselves, whether it's Craig or white, they run the same gamut. So we need to know, what are the political violence training that DPD is going through the last election, DPD step sat idly by. Why? White supremacist banged on the window of Cobo Hall. They shouted and threatened poll workers. They took pictures of them, and DPD stood right by. Why? Because the chief of police, then Craig James, Craig showed his full and unabiding support for Donald Trump. How much more time do I don't have a clock. I don't know.
Seconds I get you 20.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. We need to know how these handcuffs that OCI has determined should be investigated. Handcuffing citizens without arresting them is nothing more than intimidation and brutality against our own citizens. Thank you.
Thank you. And you and please advise the citizen on the time you guys let them know if they have 10 seconds left or 20 seconds left. Yeah. Next you may be hurt.
I would like to know if I can
pass something out using my process
for it, you
say you would like to pass something out to us, some background
information? Yes, ma'am, I don't have copies of everything this cover page. I have more copies than a complete packet. Okay? Thank you very much.
Excuse me. Okay, thank you.
Okay, let me know when I just left. Okay, good afternoon everybody. I'm
today, Hankins,
can you talk in the mic for us, please?
Sorry. Good afternoon everybody. I'm today, Hankins, I appreciate this opportunity to talk Um. I'm not going to get into the background. Reasons why I'm here. The gentleman is passing out some of the information, and I will find out before I leave, how I can send you all email of the complete report. The bottom line, I'm here because I want to stay alive. Okay, Officer Parker MPO, the 10th precinct, escorted trespassed on my property, escorting a person was facing charges that I charges that felonious assault charges when she tried to kill me, threatened to kill me, etc, etc, and that's why I'm here today, because he had no right to trespass. He had no right to assist this person who had the cases already at the prosecutors, and more importantly, he had no right to help her build an obstruction that's keeping me from having free access to my property. And I'm concerned about that, because when I looked at my ring video and saw armed officer escorting the person that said they were going to kill me and my family first, but he has no right to put anybody or give anybody permission to be on my home second place, that gives her a certain amount of emboldening. You know, in other words, DPD is supporting her, and, more importantly, is going against the other officers when I put in my complaint in terms of being the, you know, the bricks and all of that off the investigators. They're the ones who called it felonious assault and send it to the prosecutors. Those officers at the 10th precinct told me not to address that lady. Do not move the obstruction without calling them. And if I call them, call 911, tell them I need an assist. This is the situation. So what I want to know is, how do we prioritize my safety? What do I do now? I'm ready to get my stuff back on my property that officer Parker has helped. You know what I'm saying? Yes, ma'am.
So we're going to have, we're going to have one of the officers to take you and and take your concerns and and address your concerns. Stay with you, right, right behind you. Okay,
but can I put a clock here? Because I would have started from the back forward. I thought I had, like, two minutes or something, West minutes. Okay, there's no way for me to know. Yeah,
I know. Okay. I understand. All right, yes, yes. Hold on, ma'am. And
we also seen with her, one of our investigators, yes, or the complaint against officer Parker, I think was his or her name, thank you.
Can I ask question? Yes, ma'am, to speak with somebody with the authority to honor what the the first officers did, in other words, to protect me, so I can move the instruction obstruction, so I can get my vehicles back on my property.
Uh, Deputy Chief, can you have someone you know, a supervisor, to speak with her?
Okay? All right,
thank you. All right,
do the chair next? We have Joyce e Jennings,
hold on one second start. Are you good? Commission can't hear, okay. Go ahead. Yep. All right, you may be heard now and that we will give you the we'll give you the 32nd warning, the 22nd warning, and then the final warning. You know, thank you, and we apologize that technology. We have a problem with our technology, and so we'll work with you as best we can, but with they'll help you to give you some verbal warnings and let you know where you're at on the clock. Okay, yes sir. All right. Thank you. Good
afternoon, everyone today. Thank you for your presence and your service.
Thank you Good afternoon. If
we don't deal, we don't heal. This month is recognizes Domestic Violence Awareness Month on November the second 2017 my mother, Patricia Diane Jennings, passed it 64 years old. I am the oldest of six children, and I grew up in a home impacted by domestic violence in my mother's latter years she was impacted by elder abuse related to one of my siblings. When you have grown up in a family where the person who has been impacted also grooms you to protect the person that is the Violator, and when they finally get to the point when they need help, it can be confusing, but I've always been the type of person I'm not afraid to speak up about what is righteous. And I would like for our department to look at how we are looking at domestic violence or elder abuse or sexual abuse reports, because I did come to the police department with the documentation that the hospital as well as chief Bivens and his staff from the prosecutor's office helped me to put together. But at the DPD, the detective asked, Do you really want to do this to your family? But I was coming at a request of my mother and my grandmother. My mother is not here today, but before she passed, she said, I may never live to see the justice that you're fighting for me, but if you keep fighting, justice will come for others. So I would just like for us to look, as a city, how we handle as a police department that is to protect situations where families have been impacted generationally by different forms of abuse. Thank you on today,
yes, ma'am and sorry for the trauma. Yes, next,
next, we have jadonte Smith. And then following jadonte, we have MS sharnita Williams.
We call sharnita First ms Williams, and then, because you can let the gentleman know he's outside, or whatever someone but you come on.
A couple weeks ago, Deputy Chief hay said that there was no police officers in the shelter because chief White had to sign off on it. Unfortunately, the that's not the truth. I realize, um, I'm at the Salvation Army now and then, um, whoever's doing the recruiting, the classes just graduated. They come from different states. But see the problem is they coming in this state and they taking up beds that homeless people should have not someone that can pay rent start off with 50,000 they should not even be in that shelter. They are in there living free with a weapons. It's an issue with that federal buildings no no weapons should be allowed in there. But like I said, let me take talk about my well being too. I have to deal with a lot of nuts every day, every time I leave out any facility, because officers who do not respect they badge or they owe whatever the case is. I am licensed, and I live in fear 24 hours a day when I'm out in this world dealing with these nuts and I'll be trying to diffuse the situation. But apparently, don't nobody want to take this seriously. I've been coming here over a year and a half. 10 seconds. I've been I went to eternal affairs and put this on record too, and imma continue to talk about this illegal corruption.
All right, thank you. Mr. Smith.
Jante Johnson Smith, the record. Thank you. I mean, Commissioner woods. I want to talk about a few different things I appreciate, I guess, the mention of the contact between the detectives and family members who have murdered relatives. I think it was probably because I'm in a room, because it's never been talked about until I started to bring it up. Mother's keeping boost on the ground. Mentioned this a year ago. We're still waiting on our meeting with Chief white. I want to say it's very interesting to Eva du wash and Darrell woods, our board members of the Detroit Wayne and greater health network. And now we got Lieutenant Cole coming out saying that protesters are being monitored. And now chief white conveniently wants to move on over to that board and just escape his, his his, his scandals that he's created here. Um, I want to say that this, this video release needs to happen when it comes to charming Lee Butler, just because it's this is literally cover ups, cover up to cover up. And I feel like if we ignore it, it's not going to go away. We're not going to go away like my friend Tori Brown. She is, this point, the queen of FOIAs. And we're going to get all the information we need, and we're going to stay putting pressure on you. Also, I just feel like it's kind of weird to see people that are board members on several boards sitting here and making decisions and saying that they're friends with officers and, oh, we got to ask them for permission. You control the budget. You control what happens. You can suspend officers with or without pay. And it's very, very interesting to see that you got friendly people here, especially officer woods. Officer woods, 3030, my time, whatever. All right,
let the record reflect that. You know, disparaging comments is not tolerated. And excuse me, sir, it's very disparaging. You've come in here and you've came in, you come in this room and threaten me several times, and you threaten me in other spaces that, oh, so please do not be the disparaging Thank you. Next person, next person,
next we will go into zoom. We have five commenters. I'm sorry, five speakers. First, we'll start off with Torah brown following William M Davis,
good evening commission, can you all hear me?
Yes, ma'am.
I just want to say I'm really disappointed that the chief got up and left before public comment, because I don't know if anybody realizes it's been 12 weeks, 83 days since Sherman Butler was murdered. His family is not being updated. The public is not being updated. We still have not seen an unedited body cam video, and no matter how they try to spin it with this is an ongoing investigation. It does not feel like one. And when people are sitting around waiting to hear back about whether somebody will be held accountable for the killing of their loved ones, what they don't want to see is emails of the prosecutor's office taking the day off at taxpayers expense to watch the Tigers game at the office. What they don't want to see is emails going around the prosecutor's office about how excited they are about food trucks coming at 1045 in the morning. We want to know what happened to Sherman Butler. And although everybody keeps saying we're providing transparency, absolutely not. I have FOIA several documents, some of which I don't even believe have to do with Sherman Butler, and they are denied, denied, denied. And the denial is, oh, we're denying this because it's an ongoing investigation well, and based on what you're requesting, it may deny somebody the opportunity for a fair trial. Are they ever going to trial? Because again, this is taking longer than what it should have taken. And I don't expect these investigations to be closed overnight, like law and order, but I do expect there to be some sort of investigation when it comes to somebody's been there for almost 90 days and their family still does not know. And I want you all to hear something right quick.
Alright, that's, that's, that's time.
I know I still have time. Oh,
she okay. I'm sorry. What? It
kick 10 seconds.
Give her a 20 seconds. And
that was Sherman Butler being shot. And again, we hear the call is inconsistent with what we've been told, and we want to see the unedited version of the body cam video.
Thank you. Thank you. Next,
good evening. Can I be heard?
Yes, you may be heard.
Really. My name is Chris Gilmer Hill. I'm a lifelong resident of the city's Second District. I'm calling once again to urge this board to do something about the police department's failure to uphold our air quality ordinance, specifically our trucks idling ordinance, as I've mentioned several times now, this is this has been on the books for about a decade. This or this ordinance was passed to protect our right to clean air, which is fun, a fundamental environmental protection. This is a human rights and human life issue. Air pollution in Detroit kills people. This is something that we know. We know that the overwhelming presence of industrial pollution, truck pollution, all of these things have a real impact on people's lives, especially in places like Southwest down in the sixth district. We know that the presence of these pollutants in the air causes huge rates of asthma. We know that it literally kills Detroiters. We also know that the Detroit Police Department in 10 years has not issued a single citation under the truck idling ordinance, even though we know that trucks regularly ignore that and will just sit in our streets and idle their engine for as long as they please. I'd like to thank Commissioner Burton for bringing this up a few weeks ago. I'd like to point out that the police department still has not given this board an answer as to why that ordinance has not ever been enforced and what the next step is. I'd like to remind chair woods that after my initial comment on this, he said to the public and to the board that the he would follow up with the DPD and get an answer as to why this hasn't been taken care of. It's been several weeks and that hasn't happened. I'd like to urge this board to follow Commissioner Burton's lead and really press for an answer on this. This is urgent that I know it's perhaps been a long time, but that doesn't mean that we need to keep just waiting on this. We have the opportunity to hold the DPD accountable to perform the oversight duty that this board is tasked with, and to get an answer from DPD and four steps forward to protect our clean air. Thank you.
Go to chair. Yeah,
yeah. Yes.
I'm asking the attorney to research that ordinance and give us answer on, on on this particular ordinance, and give us some feedback on that, on in terms of this air quality ordinance, if Commissioner Burton is familiar with the particular ordinance that he's talking about. Please send an answer to the board about this. Yes, sir, yeah,
through the chair, yes, sir, Mr. The chair. It's been three months now since Sherman Butler's death. DPD have not followed up with the family about their loved ones. Can we get some type of clarity and understanding on this, where we get some type of follow up, to follow up with that family, with their loved one? Has it been three months
Deputy Chief,
so with the advent of the chiefs, new unit family, what I did was took this information down. I know there have been prior conversations and the family was supposed to have been reached out to, so I will follow up to ensure that that they are reached out to and given an update with regard to this situation. Oftentimes, in some of these circumstances, what ends up happening is various different members from the family reach out. So oftentimes, those when you talk about members of the homicide unit, they prefer to talk to one person. They don't want six people calling having to give the same story. So what will happen is this one will call and say, I want to update. The other one didn't talk to me and give me the update. And then that kind of takes up a lot of the investigators time, but I will ensure that the family rent unit reaches out to
them. So if I may, Commissioner and we don't know if the family has been communicated with or not. And so if you can update the board in terms of Where's as far as the status of whether the investigation that is, we will, we'll appreciate that, because we don't know the level of communication, what going on with the families. When you when you have a variety of family members, and then you have people in the community, you know, homicide is not obligated to communicate with folks in the community about a specific case. You know, they are obligated to communicate with the family member, and it's a designated family. It's the next to Ken. And so there's some convoluted stuff there. We don't know exactly what happened, but if you can update this board as to the status of this investigation, do that helps Commissioner banks, yeah,
now, Mr. Chair, I was just going off of what the lady said, the family have not been reached out. We don't know that. That's what I was going off of. I
understand, but we I didn't make this up myself. I know that. I know that. And so I was just bringing clarity in, in a sense that we don't know who's being communicated with. We don't know who homicide is communicate. We don't know the family members. We know this is the Miss Brown who's communicating with us. She's a strong, passionate community advocate in which we respect, you know, but homicide is not obligated to communicate with her about that their loved one. Now, far as what we had an investigation, you know, hope you know, we can be updated on that. Far as with the investigation and anything that could be the community, community can receive right then we can appreciate that as well.
I got it now. Appreciate it.
Just quickly, Mr. Chairman. I think the point of the conversation is that whether they've been you're going to find out who who to communicate with. But the point is that they're entitled to see the video the chief just said, under his exec, under his existing directive, since it's been more than 45 days. So what we want to make sure of is that the family, that, after you determine who that is and everything, sees that video, the whole video unredacted,
so through the chair the Sherman Butler case that I'm not mistaken as the bailiff, shooting Correct? That is not an officer involved. Shooting there, right? Oh,
that was the guy with the right, but he was a former officer. That's not an
officer involved shooting. That is a criminal case. Yeah, no, there was a shooting. Yes, yeah. It's not an officer involved shooting.
Officer trigger, but it was a shooting, and officers were there through the chair. Speak to the chair I am. And the point if, I mean, if you're not shooting me, let's say, But Chairman, wood shoots me right here, and you have video of that as an officer. I mean, if the community wants to see what happened, that's all this is. So I was present and videoing at the time, so they want to see that video.
So I understand that. And again, that does not meet what we have determined an officer involved shooting the 45 day release of the video qualifies as with that, but then
we need to change that. Okay,
I got it. Yes.
Thank you through the Chair. I just wanted to see if I can seek some clarity on the instruction you gave to the board attorney relative to the public commenter statement. I don't know if that will actually address what they're trying to get at to find the details of the ordinance. I think what they wanted to know is whether or not it's actually been enforced by DPD. If I can remember Commissioner Burton's comments a few weeks ago, I think it was like, how many tickets have actually been written under that ordinance? So I think that's more of a question for DPD to respond to, and then the board attorney. Now we can get that information, but I just want to be able to address I don't I'm sure the public comment is going to ask for that information again, just to clarify. Well,
absolutely, any and all. But you know, the we I want to know if the ordinance exists, you know, I know if I remember correctly, we need to go into the minutes they were saying that they don't have a unit. They don't address air quality issues, you know, when was at the meeting, at the community meeting. So I want to track down this ordinance and see what this law is, and if it's something that DPD is not enforcing, then we need to have a conversation about that as well, you know? So so so you duly noted through the chair, yes, so
it's not, it's an idling so the trucks are standing idle wherever in southwest Detroit, wherever it is, a group contacted me this week, Southwest truck coalition, and requested a meeting with me with regards to this specific issue, so I plan to meet with them next week to see what their concerns are and to talk about the ordinance that they say has not been enforced by DPD,
okay, yep,
just through the chair. To add to that, I'd like to know jurisdiction as well, right? There's certain depending on the ordinance or the item. There are certain items that state troopers take on, as opposed to city of Detroit Police. So I think I'd like to know that as well.
You got that, Mr. Attorney,
Yes, Commissioner, actually there is a ordinance is Section 46 dash four, dash 81 for prohibition of commercial vehicles exceeding gross vehicle weight rating of 8500 pounds. So there is a statute from city of Detroit.
Yes, sir, absolutely. So, so, so Deputy Chief we, we want to know again, to the commissioners, point, how many tickets been written in that for a violation of that ordinance, are they are enforcing this ordinance, or they, are they ignoring this ordinance? And there, there's any resources directed towards making sure that air quality is there. You know, they're being protected in the city, Detroit. And I can appreciate Commissioner Carter having this meeting with this group, and maybe you probably want to work with her in that group to get the answers there.
So through the Chair, if you can send something to the chief's office detailing the ordinance that you're speaking of, so that we can do our own investigation as well and provide you an answer,
yep, and make sure you tag all commissioners on that. All right, thank you
through the Chair. I just wanted to make a correction the last speaker was Mr. Chris Gilmer Hill, and now William M Davis will be speaking next. All right, thank
you, um, Commissioner Davis, you may be hurt.
I Hello, yes, sir, you may be heard.
Can you hear Hello?
It was still saying. I was muted. Anyway, okay, yeah, we can hear you now. Okay, I like to start off by saying, just for informational purposes, I'm sure was an oversight on a mistake. I frequently pass out. You know, on Facebook I have an agenda posted, and it has to zoom numbers for people to punch in. The ones that I have posted for this week is incomplete. It doesn't have all the numbers, just so that y'all could correct that for the future. Also, I would like to make sure that the board and the department aggressively protect citizens, starting with the early voting, because, like when I was in the board, I know there was a number of incidents the last time a certain person ran. So I want to make sure that people are protected in the city of Detroit, you know, voting at the early voting sites and at the collection point where the ballots are going to be counted at, because that has been a problem, and I expect it will be a problem. So we want to make sure that our citizens are protected and they feel comfortable voting. Because we want to make sure that we have a high voter turnout in this city also, but just for information purposes, other municipalities enforce the idle trucking ordinance. You know, the other municipalities have that on the books, like Detroit has for years, and they enforce it because I used to work for the city of Detroit and water department, and we knew that that was an enforceable thing, because we had to be worried about running our trucks in idle for too long. So hopefully y'all will be able to do more to help, more to help to improve the quality of life and the air that we are all breathing, because that was a special problem down in southwest Detroit. So thank you for your time.
Yes, thank you very, very kindly. Yes. So yeah, we need to stay on top of that for sure. Any other comments?
We have two more speakers, all right, Joanne Warwick, with the last numbers of 124, and then following. Cynthia Clark, you
may be heard. Miss Warwick.
Miss Warwick,
yes, I was just unmuted. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes, ma'am,
okay, thank you. My condolences to the injured officer. I was very happy to know that an officer actually tried to save them. Sorry to hear what happened. Also very disappointed that police chief white, as he frequently does almost all the time I've been there leave before public comment, which is why I don't think he should be appointed to the head of dwin, because he doesn't care enough to listen to the residents who come here and when we get ignored by this body or in other places, it's not good for people's mental health. It's not like for example, I've come to this body repeatedly asking for an investigation into the mistreatment of me at the Detroit detention center, I was told to call the OCI. I did, and there's been no follow up. So that's very bad. And the that I was falsely arrested, you know, dragged through the mud. The cases went on I would because the case was dragging. I was denied an opportunity to work for the Census yo Espanol, so the city of Detroit missed out, because I could have got a lot more responses. So I urge this body to, as I've urged, the Office of Disability affairs director, to make sure that people at the city have training about trauma and PTSD, because a lot of the things they do downtown, frankly, makes the job of the police officers a lot harder, especially with all this gentrification that they are encouraging, approving, etcetera. I mean, I'm just, I don't want to see it, but I would not be surprised if we have another 1967 now, and there are some very nice officers, but unfortunately, there are some ones that are not so good. I also, and that makes it difficult for others. Also, somebody cut down a tree that I owned in part, and there is an MCL criminal statute on it, and the police keep telling me
that was our time. All right. Next speaker, final speaker, what's the name? Uh, Miss Cynthia. Miss Clark you may be heard. Hello, yes, you may be heard. Okay,
I just want to address jurisdiction politically, because if we address the jurisdiction politically with the the pastor who's representing the priesthood, it would eliminate a lot of what the chief said of transparency, that's not really transparent, and also a lot of this confusion, if we just followed a supreme law of the land. And I'm talking to you, Pastor, because you represent the Jesuit order that runs this land, you need to present people with the true constitution, because everybody sitting on the body of government is politically confused, including the people now they're calling out for political justice. However, you leave these meetings with these prayers, but you introduce hell throughout if somebody's going to be on the record, you have to give them greater than two minutes to speak, because it's we, the people. Our rights have been converted into benefits and privileges, and you guys are receiving in our rights and our liberties. So as the pastor, I'm addressing you, and also you need to address every captain of the ship, that means the lieutenant, all high ranking officers, because they have these officers out here, these policemen and women out here on the land that don't know the order of law that's on the land. So the jurisdiction politically need to be addressed, because we are under what's called a democracy, which is a contrary to the Republic form of government. And this meeting need to be re adjourned. The Constitution need to be brought back to the record, and it needs to be readdressed, because the people clearly does not understand the what jurisdiction mean. Because if you clearly understood jurisdiction, you wouldn't be going back and forth with a body of people who have no political authority in the first place. So understand jurisdiction. It covers territories. So Pastor, I need for you, the next time that we come to any any meeting, you need to bring the truth, because you are black, late, blind, leading these people, hold the prayer and bring the truth and stand in honor.
Chair, yes, who was she talking about? Because she had two pastors on the board me, and
if she's talking to, yeah, if we want, we caution citizens not that it's not allowed to talk to any citizen across the mic like that, you know. So we don't know, you know, but you know, let's go to
orphans, board, Secretary,
board, secretary or Secretary Report.
The, excuse me, the incoming information is included in your binders as listed for the two police officers, section A, section B, Section C is OCI. Is weekly inventory report for the dates 921, through 927, the announcements are as follows. The next community meeting is next Thursday, October 10, at 6:30pm and it will be in the third preset at Goodwill Industries Career Center located 2777, East Grand Boulevard, Detroit, 48211,
the following
board meeting schedule to be held here at public safety headquarters are as follows, Thursday october 17, Thursday, October 24 and Thursday, October 31 all at 3pm the monthly committee meetings scheduled for the remainder of the month of October, is the policy committee meeting, which is now scheduled for Tuesday, October 29 2024 5pm here at public safety headquarters. And that ends the report, sir.
Okay, new business. We have the citizen complaints committee memorandum.
Thank you. Through the Chair again, in your package, you should find a memorandum from the citizens complaint committee meeting that was held on October the first 2024 there are no action items to be voted on on this memorandum, and so I won't read it for to delay the time. But again, I'm excited that we're able to continue the work that the former chair Commissioner banks started, and again, to refocus our energies on our citizen complaint reports. And so Mr. Chair, with that, I thank you for your time.
Thank you Policy Committee, Mr. Chairman, yes, you
have to ask if the board has any questions about that. Okay, thank
you. Any questions. There have been no questions. We go to the policy committee report. I
The Policy Committee met on october 1 this week, and the attendees, the board attendees, were myself, Commissioner dawash and Commissioner woods. There were a number of community attendees, including the board secretary and or staff people. The board secretary, Ms Garner. Ms Taylor, administrative assistant, Mary Barber, civilian oversight analyst, Felicia Tyson, our new policy manager, who's just started this week. Molly morning, was there? Attorney Molly morning, she's a postgraduate Fellow at the law school. Captain Tanya Leonard participated from the Office of workplace and community resiliency. Commander Ryan Connor also participated from organized crime. Lieutenant James Johnson, general from the general assignment Bureau, and Victoria Camille from district seven Grand River community block club, and also she also represents the Coalition for police transparency and accountability. There was a request for approval of the seacog specification report for dumping cameras. There was an extensive discussion by that led by the officers in charge of that of that unit, it was discovered we have, we have 276 cameras that are actively used for monitoring dumping activities, alongside 250 decoy cameras that we just set up In the trees that make people think there's a camera. These cameras are distributed across 75 active care, active camera locations where there's been dumping in the past. The bottom line was that these department had requested to buy, think, 10 new cameras. I believe that's what costing about $10,000 and we have, we are recommending to the board, to this, to this board, that that purchase be authorized. Secondly, the there was a discussion about the bowler wrap, bolo wrap, the thing that wraps around a person that freezes them in place so they can't move again. Attorney Molly boing was very adored. I can't see. I'm sorry I'm having glasses. Was very adroit with respect to the policy. I did not know, for example, that the bolo wrap should only be deployed for this part of your body, the center of your body, never above your your chest or your head, because it can cause blindness. Uh, there are little things in it that attach itself and can can pierce the skin. I know obviously your your garments. In any event, she did a very good job preparing a proposed policy for us and discussing the matter. The final policy will be prepared for the next meeting, and we will be bringing it back to this board for approval and action. Finally, incidentally, they're like, only two or three cities in the country that use this, so there's not a lot of information on them. Finally, she also did well. It's about the bullet wrap policy. I think I already said, already discussed that, Mr. Chairman, I don't need to go back over it. So the next meeting is scheduled for October 29 The only thing that we I would want the board's approval on and answer, in response to our parliamentarian, is that the Board approve their purchase, the department's purchase of the additional cameras that only to be used for dumping purposes. Motion
would be on behalf of the policy committee to authorize the expenditure of $10,000 to purchase additional cameras, which would then only be used for and state that, but it's important that you say by direction of the policy committee, because this is not your personal motion. It is the committee's motion, and that distinction is important, and as I have trained you, when a motion is being brought by a committee of more than one person, no second is required, right? Betraying us well, motion coming from the policy committee. By direction the policy committee here, can we have a discussion before the you gotta have a motion first? Okay,
yes, ma'am. The
motion is that the is that the policy committee would like the board to approve the purchase of the 20 of the 10 additional cameras at a cost of $10,000
madam Commissioner, I would urge you, because you stated it that would be used for you said, specific purposes. Okay, that's an important part of that motion. It can't be divided because it's an indivisible issue, but it can be subject to seriatim, which means you can take one section and then the other section. I'm not sure I'm being clear. No, I understand. Board can vote on the issue of authorizing the money, and the board can vote on the discussion of whether or not the purposes for which the money is being authorized. Those are two separate things. They're in one motion. You can't divide them, but you can take them. Seriat, thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify, Madam Chair, it was 20 cameras, according to the report, okay, just that's the only thing. Thank you. All right, thank you now,
Mr. Chairman, you need to state the motion before it can be open for debate. Okay,
the there was a motion made by the policy committee to let me go there to prove the expenditure of $10,000 10,000 for 20 cameras to use for only for the purpose, for dumping. There you go. Any discussion, any objections? All those in favor, say, aye, anyone opposed,
I'm gonna vote no on this one. Okay? Motion carried. Motion is carried. Thank you. Yep,
thank you. So we will go into closed session. We,
oh, we still into new business, right? That's, that's
the next. It's on the agenda. We're,
we're in new business.
We're still in, we operate in new business, yeah, Mister Chairman, yeah.
I'll make a motion that we go into closed session pursuant to section eight, eight of the Open Meetings, act MCL 15.268, a request for the board to consider an employee evaluation
motion made by Commissioner Hernandez support. Second by Commissioner Presley. All in favor, any discussion. I All in favor, say, aye. Anyone opposed the motion is carried
to call for recess election.
This would be a three minute recess. Or should I make it five? Or Y'all good? Anybody gotta relieve themselves? Alright? Three minute recess. Enjoy the cake. It's really asking the public please leave the room. Yeah.
Sometimes I look at this agenda and I'll be like,
Oh, this is bad. It just never anticipate what's gonna make
nobody problem I saw the question, yeah,
so I
Okay, are these the truckers or These? No, these are residents, The residents And Yeah, I
