Board of Police Commissioners Community Meeting
Speaker 100:38
You. Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me recording in progress? We're going to start the meeting. We don't have a quorum, so I just want to start by saying, Welcome to tonight's meeting. We have an invocation that will be given by Chaplain Peggy James, via zoom, if we could start with that, please. Thank you,
Unknown01:01
Chaplain, please unmute.
Unknown01:20
Hello, everyone, hello, hello, can you hear me? Yes,
Unknown01:27
we can. Not sure if I can be heard.
Speaker 101:38
Yes. Chaplain, please, if you could give the invocation,
Speaker 201:51
Chaplain James, you can go ahead and please give the invocation. Please.
Unknown02:02
Are we having technical difficulties?
Unknown02:09
Chaplain James, can you hear us in the room?
Speaker 102:22
Um, yes, could we please have Reverend Warfield give the implication,
Speaker 302:28
let us, let us pray, Father, we come this afternoon and we thank you for all of your Bountiful Blessings and your abilities that you give us. As we come here tonight for this meeting of community and public safety, we ask, Lord, that You would grace us with your presence, that you will order our discussions and our talks, and that you would anoint and adjoin our agenda so that it represents heavens justice, heavens mercy. We ask that you will bless the men and women of the Detroit Police Department as well as the men and women of the Detroit board of police commissioners and our staff bless us in a great way, we thank you for all of your blessings. In Christ's name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 103:10
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Reverend. Before we go to public comment, I just want to thank the New Providence Baptist Church for hosting us this evening. It's a beautiful place. We have a very nice crowd here tonight, and thank you so much for providing us with this space.
Unknown03:35
Okay, if Can we go to public comment? Please,
Unknown03:37
Yes, Madam Chair,
Speaker 203:41
our first speaker will be former Commissioner William Davis, after Commissioner Davis will go to
Unknown03:51
miss Victoria Camille,
Speaker 203:54
oh, I'm sorry I got him out of order and Reverend Lucius Conway, you please.
Unknown04:04
Hello, everyone.
Unknown04:07
As usual,
Speaker 404:09
have concerns. One of my concerns is the fact that most recently, I've noticed like say, I'm the vice president Bart McFarland Neighborhood Association, and I've just noticed recently that we've had a lot of kids, I say kids because I'm a senior, but you know, people in their teens and their 20s riding mini bikes going up and down and through traffic with no lights on at nighttime, almost, cause I just seen an accident, almost an accident, close to it. Could people have to stand on their brakes, these people cutting in and out, running around running red lights. And separately, I have a concern about people still running red lights. It's only going to get worse as it gets hotter. Hopefully we could step up enforcement on people running red lights. Hopefully we could step up enforcement about some people pull up to a red light. They might pull up in the turn, single turn lane, and they they go around in front of the people that's in the proper line, and just run the red lights, you know. So that's even worse, I think, you know. So we have a whole lot more we need to be doing. We need to make the city a whole lot safer. Then as a poor city, Detroit retired, perhaps my insurance rates would go down if we truly had a reduction in, you know, vehicle problems. So that's all I have to say for today, other than Happy Birthday, young lady,
Speaker 105:34
thank you kindly. Yesterday. Thank you Next.
Speaker 505:43
Good evening commissioners, good evening, evening and happy birthday, Madam Chair. Um, okay, so my name is Victoria Camille, district seven, and couple things that I wanted to mention today. So first of all, I just want to commend the board for adopting the resolution. Um, pushing back on DPD cooperation with ice. So thank you for doing that. I also would like to urge the board to make sure to follow through on the items in the resolution and make sure that that task force is formed to monitor whatever federal activity is going on and handle it accordingly. You have in your possession an article that talks about the fact that DPD not cooperating with ice is not a crime. It is not illegal, and we need to make sure that we move forward on that, as the residents of Detroit have requested, in addition to that, I'd like to bring back up Sherman Lee Butler. You also have, and everyone in the room as well has a QR code and a short URL to look at a video that talks about what actually happened in this young man's death just about a year ago now, and at that time, when Sherman was killed, he was tased by DPD officers and then shot to death by the bailiff, there was a lot of narrative in the media about the bailiff being a hero, and the bailiff and the officers doing everything they could to de escalate the situation. And over time. And thankfully, that video was finally released in December, and it was very obvious that DPD policy was not followed, which resulted in Sherman being killed. In addition to that, there was not very much commentary about that, so I appreciate the Office of Chief Investigator for handling the information that I submitted as a complaint, and that complaint is now complete an investigation. The investigative report has been released by FOIA that is talked about in this video that you have access to here. I encourage everyone to take a look at it, as well as on that page, there's a copy of the actual investigative report. My concern is transparency, because we don't expect officers to be perfect. They are humans. They make mistakes, and certainly they are impacted by the culture that they work within. However, when we don't get the story right with the public, we have to come back and make it right with the public, and I don't understand why the board and the department have not yet come forward to the public to say, look, we got it wrong. Here's what we're going to do to make it right with the family, and here's what we're going to do to make sure that this never happens again, and that's what transparency and accountability is about. So I would urge that the board and the department certainly take those steps so that we can start to build trust back up with the community. Thank you.
Speaker 608:46
Thank you. Quick question, excuse me, Victoria, do you have an article in river wise? Is that why I have it?
Speaker 508:54
I don't have an article in that. I just, just in case you didn't get one, just left you with one that's all,
Unknown09:03
thank you through,
Speaker 709:04
through the chair. I would like to say that that we did order policy review on that, on the Sherman Lee Butler situation, and it was through our directive to the chief investigator to get that done and do a policy review that it also remains an ongoing investigation with the Detroit Police Department, and they'll be finalizing their things very, very soon, and all of that is open and transparent. We've been very, very consistently engaged in the department on this, and I'm very, very happy that Chief Patterson responded in a forthright and integral way to be able to get the stuff done in a decently and orderly way. I don't know if the chief want to say, say anything on that or not, in terms of timeline of the investigation or not,
Speaker 810:13
Mr. Vice Chair, I'll have to check the status of it. But you really summed it up well, and we're always looking for continuous improvement and learning. And it was another agency as well. And so when it comes to working with the bailiffs, ensuring too, that recommendations are made to that entity. As far as training for their personnel, you can never get enough training.
Unknown10:49
Thank you, Chief. Next speaker, please. Good
Speaker 910:53
evening. My name is Reverend Lucius Conway. I'm a candidate for District Two for this honorable body. I stand not simply,
Speaker 611:02
sir, excuse me, I didn't understand what you had said.
Speaker 911:05
I said, my name is Reverend Lucius Conway. I'm a candidate for district two of this honorable body. Thank you. I stand not simply to critique but to construct. Today I submit what I call the civilian command directive, a formal resolution asking this board to expand its current presumption of misconduct policy from a narrow trigger to a governing principle. You've already acknowledged that when there's no body cam footage, misconduct may be presumed. I'm saying, Let's go further. Let's codify that principle across the full spectrum of civil rights complaints, force unlawful stops and discrimination, so civilians no longer face an uphill climb just to be believed attached. I have a protocol, manual and operational framework to guide the Office of the Chief Investigator in applying this standard fairly quickly and transparently. If civilian oversight is real, then it must have rules. If justice is to be equal, then so must be the burden of proof. And if this body truly stands with and for the people, then let's make this presumption not the exception, but the rule. And I will provide this to the secretary for dissemination among the commissioners. Thank you.
Unknown12:35
Next speaker, please.
Unknown12:37
Our next speaker will be Miss Bernice Smith,
Speaker 212:42
Minister Eric blunt and Miss Williams, then we'll go into zoom unless there's some others who want to speak.
Speaker 212:58
Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here as usual, and definitely a pleasure to see my chief because I'm looking at him on TV most of the time, because he's busy young man, that's for sure. With all the crime going on here in our city, I am very, very upset about it, because I look at the news at 11 O'clock 1111, o'clock in the morning on channel two, so I get to see most of what's going on in our city now. My main thing is what is going on with these youngsters, everyone. Most of the crime that's being committed that I see and listen listen to is under 30 years old. I am very upset about that, because being a mother of five and grandmother of five, I know what it is to take care of your children, but what are the parents doing? That's what my concern is. I know if they live at home, then you should know what your children are doing, and this is my main concern now, with all the crime that's being committed within the last several weeks, and it's tiring to see that the youngsters are hijacking, they're shooting, they're going into the gas stations, and they're shooting in the gas station. It's horrible to sit and look at it. I'm not working, so that's all I got to do is watch the news and see what my chief is doing and what my police is doing, and they doing a hell of a good job. I do admire them. They're out there every day doing the job that we expect them to do. Now I have one thing that I want to let you know about. My son lives at Well, I'm not going to give his address, but I go over there every Sunday. Chief knows I call him up when I'm at dinner over there. They told me this past Sunday, when I was over there at dinner, they said, Mama, can you do some? No, they didn't say, Can you do some? Can you have an idea what we have to do about the what is the drag racing? They're drag racing on West Grand Boulevard, there at Beaubien at buchannon. And I said, Are you serious? And he said, Time up. Oh my god. Anyway, can we have the police survey over there at Beaubien? Because they were drag racing around, going around and everything, and we didn't have the police, I told him, why didn't you call the police they would have came, so please check most of these areas where they're doing the drag racing on Saturdays and Sunday nights. I thank you so much for your
Unknown15:29
time. Thank you,
Speaker 115:32
Chief. I wonder if you could respond to the youth violence that we're experiencing, especially the shootings, because I know you had a press conference about some changes that we're going to be making.
Speaker 815:46
Um, thank you, Madam Chair, during my report, that's going to be the first thing that I touch on.
Unknown15:53
We may not have it because we don't have a quorum. Oh,
Speaker 815:55
well, thank you. Well, it well, it is definitely my pleasure to be here. And so the Fourth of July weekend was definitely a rough weekend. And so had the opportunity to be on TV and not want it to be but I just want to put some things in perspective as well when we talk about the number and as far as crime in the city of Detroit compared to last year. In the year before that, in the year before that, it is down in every category of violent crime. But like I said during the news interviews, when we have a four year old shot, and then a couple days later, I have a two year old shot that right there with the community response and how it really affects all of us. It brings us all together. You know, we in the city do not and will not tolerate that, and it started out with the shooting at the fireworks, you know, at the right beginning of the summer, as it got hot, and that kind of really shook us. We hadn't seen that in a while. As a result, like I said, we will be relentless in holding individuals responsible. I have a great team when it comes to being fully staffed, I got some of the best trained officers, detectives. I have technology. It's cameras everywhere, and so it's very easy to identify. Now street crime as to who done it. The board has approved license plate readers, and so I have a whole host of things to be able to get the right folks. And so with the gentleman, and I want to thank the community with firework shooting, because once we posted his picture out there, both of their pictures, the community responded ASAP. Matter of fact, somebody from the community actually sent me the young man's cell phone number and say chief, say chief, you can call him and and it was various individuals trying to conceal his identity and trying to help him leave the state. And, you know, I advised them definitely not to do that. Well, needless to say, couple days ago, well last week, matter of fact, on Wednesday of last week, I announced that we had that we were very close and and I did do an announcement that we had arrested him, and as of today, he was charged, and the young Man from the fireworks and given a $500,000 cash bond, charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, amongst a host of other things, but it still ruined my fireworks, and it ruined a whole lot of other people. Fireworks that day now going on into what happened at the park with a four year old playing on a play skate, sliding down a slide, was hit by a stray bullet. And now I think most of you know, you know what it resulted over it resulted over teenagers having a dispute amongst one of the what they call a push heisty mask. And so we all don't know who she is, a rapper. And you see a lot of the young people wearing the mask over their face now. And so one of the young men was on a bus with his girlfriend. Somebody snatched his mask. Hurt his feelings really bad. And so he decided to go tell his friends. And as a result, they decided to arm themselves, get in a car and go around to the park and just let bullets fly, striking a little four year old, you know, right there with this, and another young man and another young man. So a 18 year old lost his life, and the four year old lost his life, and a 17 year old will recover and I will meet the hospital. Um, Commissioner Woods made the hospital with me as well. Tamara, I know Commissioner Liberty Smith made the hospital as well. And you know, if that wasn't bad enough, I got notified, um, the day after the fourth of July. So that would have been like the fifth. No, it was, yeah, it was the fifth, the fifth where little two year old was with his mother and, you know, some teenagers over at the village, the village Park about 100 and about 100 or so of them there, they got into a dispute with each other, past curfew hours and bullets with lying in the park. And as a result, a stray bullet went instructed our two year old, thank God he's going to survive. I'm going to actually be going to the hospital tomorrow to visit him alone with his mother, and I hear that he's recovering well, so what are we doing about it? Well, one of the things that we're looking at is the fact, with the uptick in teen violence, you know, either they're out getting shot, or they're shooting someone, we just arrested a 15 year old earlier this week. Matter of fact, on Monday, we arrested a 15 year old. That was Tuesday. I'm sorry, Tuesday, we arrested a 15 year old because he shot a 50 something year old man at a gas station at one o'clock in the morning. He shouldn't have been out shooting somebody at one o'clock in the morning. So on Monday, I announced, along with Mayor Duggan, that we were stepping up curfew enforcement. Stepping it up. You know, oftentimes you will hear the police department, the chief or whoever, when it's time for the fireworks will come out and we'll say, hey, we need a special curfew. Because we know that a lot of young people from all over, from Inkster, from River, rouge, from Detroit, from everywhere. Everybody's going to converge on to downtown Detroit. And we know that unsupervised young folks, without appropriate, responsible supervision, have a tendency to fight. And it's not just Detroit. I mean, we're seeing it in Novi. We're seeing it across the country. I don't know if you saw the video clips from what's happening in Philadelphia, but this is a conversation that we're having everywhere. So we asked for a special curfew. We asked for a curfew at 8pm but what about the rest of the city? What about your neighborhoods? What about the current curfew? So as a step to be able to from a preventative standpoint, we're enforcing, and I've directed that all my command officers push it down to their officers, and we're going to be enforcing this curfew city wide. And it's not from a punitive standpoint. We want to make sure that we get the attention of parents and that we hold parents responsible. Um, Mayor Duggan has also put in an amendment request to the current ordinance, because Mayor Coleman Young back in the 80s, when he was mayor, he established his curfew. Now the fee hasn't increased. It hasn't increased since the early 80s, and we know that everything goes up, and I just want to put a premium on the protection of our young people, and so it has to have some type of a deterrent effect. So that's the reason that we're requesting that the curfew, the parent responsibility fee, go from $75 for first offense to $250 up to $250 and for a second offense, it would be up to $500 one of the things with the with the older curfew, or things that it had in there is it had that, you know, it could possibly be some GL time, or something like that. I would tell you this, it is my, my intention, nor Mayor duggan's intention, nor nobody intention to put parents in jail. But we do want to have other things in there that when they go before the court, that the judge as a deterrent aspect or a negotiating aspect. Hey, if you can't pay the fee, go to parent boot camps, go somewhere. Because when I say responsible parents, I had to sit back and think, Well, some of them think they are responsible, and when we say it takes a village to raise a child, then it's going to take all of us to to get involved and ensure that, whether it's your sister, whether it's your auntie, whether whomever the uncle that we help them to be responsible. And so oftentimes you can't tell people what to do, but a judge can mandate that. A judge can mandate some things that they do, in regards to the drag racing and drifting,
Unknown25:01
just like we study them,
Speaker 825:05
and we have put things in place to disrupt and know where they go. And I'm talking about the people who engage in the donuts they love, doing it across the country. And so we got started early this year from a deterrent standpoint. And we have had people come from other cities to just want to do it in our city. And early, earlier in the spring, they started up, and we were able to identify and prevent, stop, impound cars, etc. But let's face it, they realized, and people have realized, that my drag racing drifting detail, they get off at three in the morning, and what happens then? They outweigh us. They're smart, so they get started going real good at about four or five in the morning. And so as a result, realizing we're going to make the appropriate adjustment, and Mayor Duggan has authorized overtime for me to extend the hours of my mobile field force, my drag racing drifting detail, and so therefore I'm going to have officers out up until six o'clock in the morning to be able to respond to that as well. So those are some of the things that we're doing. But that's not it, because folks will say, Well, chief Edison, that's not enough. I know it's not enough. I will be working to ensure that we create and I'm talking about working with the philanthropic community, working with you all working with city council to ensure that we create more opportunities for young people to do stuff to keep them busy during the summer months. And so I'm happy to be able to report that today I was with the police explorers with D rob from the 11th precinct. He had about 150 young people in an explorer camp on a college campus, and when I looked at the kids, I was very impressed, because I could tell they was our kids. Neighborhood police officer D Rob had kids from this community up there, and over the years, we've always done the Explorer camp, but things get better and better. He had them on a college campus, and they were engaged in and this is the test. How I know it's effective. Typically, when you see a group of young kids and you say, hey, it could be 50 of them, and I have did this, how many of y'all want to be a police officer? If I get one hand to go up. I'm lucky today, because they had been exposed by half the hands went up. Another thing, and I'll wrap up after this, but I just want to let the community and the audience know that it's always the end. You know, it's not one thing that caused crime. It's not one thing. So we have to attack it with a whole bunch of different layers so that we can continuously push it down on Monday, no Tuesday, the mayor and I, along with grow Detroit young talent staff, had the opportunity to have the kickoff. And so we have well over 1000 kids, Detroiters that have started with grow Detroit young talent, and that they're going to be employed for the summer learning soft skills, and they have opportunity to have money in their pocket. And about 500 of them are junior policing cadets, and so that's helping to bridge the gap, but it's also helping to ensure that our young people have things to do during the summer. And then lastly, our community violence intervention groups. They came to me because they work with the one to 2% of the kids that's really driving violence are young people and mediating it. And so guess what they said? Y'all they said. And we have been planning this. We actually started a summer basketball league for those individuals, and last Saturday they had their first game. And so these are groups that normally oppose and look at each other as opposition and would commit violence towards each other on site, but we actually had them playing basketball, and we got their parents involved, and it's mediating, and they're realizing that they're all the same. So I will tell you that we're just going to continue this Department will continue. We won't stop until we get the desired results that we need. Our young people deserve it. So. Commissioner Chair, thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you.
Speaker 129:58
Thank you, Chief, and I would appreciate if some of this information, since we don't have a quorum tonight, could be shared again next week. We will have a quorum next week. The problem, just so you know, is that it's July, and a lot of people are on vacation and they're traveling out of town, and we do have a couple of commissioners, commissioners that are traveling, but we would like to hear a lot of this again next week, if possible. Thank you so much for that update. Next speaker, Reverend,
Unknown30:30
oh, did you want? Did you have a question quickly?
Speaker 630:33
Commission, Steve, thank you very much for a great, great report regarding the curfew. And I thought of it at your press conference. What are we going to do about kids who are working, who work, maybe they don't get off from McDonald's until midnight or 11 o'clock, or certainly even the malls don't close until 10. So they could be, you know, at a bus stop or something like that. So how, what do you what do you suggest
Speaker 830:59
they actually in? I'll have PSAs put out as well, but if they have a work permit and they have their ID and can show that they were at work, they will not be penalized, nor their parents,
Speaker 131:11
or their parents, obviously, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Our next speaker, please.
Speaker 1031:19
Good evening board. I'm Minister Eric blunt from second heart Catholic church right here in Detroit.
Unknown31:25
The last 10 minutes of discussion has
Speaker 1031:29
done a lot to prove that there is structural corruption. The Chief said nothing about police officer misconduct, but that's why we're here. That's the major focus of why we're here. But no one said a word, and he let him do what he's going to do, we're going to talk about crime, because there's no other place in this community, in the city, to have this kind of forum on crime. So he uses it to the best of his ability, and if he can avoid police officer misconduct, all the better for his officers.
Unknown32:09
Chairperson,
Speaker 1032:13
I told you the last time we were here. Well, first of all, this is the second meeting where you've not had a quorum. The second community meeting, you've not had a quorum. And I've said before, you are captain of a sinking ship, and therefore something really important, really significant, has got to happen. Facial recognition technology is one of the issues on the mayoral debate, and yet, police department decides they're not even going to give you a report on facial recognition technology or Shot Spotter this week. Okay, nothing more to say, nothing more to do. Over a year ago, OCI Reverend Warfield almost beg this board to look into the fact that police officers are handcuffing citizens and not arresting them. Shouldn't that be a leading indicator that something is really going wrong, or if not, at least know it. It's got to be something that get grabs your attention this dashboard. Whoever came up with it is virtually useless and again, why not put something on there that shows some type of early warning intervention? Recent citizen complaints have revealed that an officer lied and stole $600 from a citizen, why not use that as an early warning indicator of what's going wrong with police officer misconduct. I do realize my time is up. Thank you
Speaker 133:55
through the chair. The chair, excuse me one second. Commissioner woods, Yep, thank you.
Speaker 734:02
I'm glad to say that I'm very, very proud of the chief response and that particular misconduct that that officer has been suspended, and I know that that suspension without pay would be before us. And when you talk about structural corruption. You know that's, you know, those some harsh words Minister, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that the chief reports dealing with this community in terms of the pain and the suffering of four year olds, seeing, hearing mothers scream,
Unknown34:43
scream,
Speaker 734:46
you know, families in the hospital screaming, the community terrorized by violence, children being shot in parks and stuff. That is a community interest, you know, and we, 100% would need this community here those things, to see what they can do to be able to help, you know, be able to help and get the resources that they need to be able to help this community. And then they have, he has a obligation to inform this community in terms of any type of policy changes so that citizens can cannot be caught off guard, you know? And so I'm very, very pleased with the chief report, and I'll say, keep on spreading the word throughout this entire community in terms of what are the rules of engagement, so that citizens will not get caught in a trick bag.
Speaker 135:44
Thank you, Commissioner. One second. I just want to also respond to the fact that we do get reports weekly on Shot Spotter activity and also fake facial recognition activity, so we are getting those reports just for your information. Thank you.
Speaker 236:03
Okay, I like this. It's not on. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. I want to make sure very clearly you all can hear this. I've been complaining about officers. I like the chief. CS, you all can see everything. So you should be able to see these officers getting off these busses, going to all these priests that live in shelters, taking up bed spaces from the homeless. Now it's a difference when you cannot afford to pay rent, but when you can't afford to pay rent, you need to get out here, then you getting a 30% voucher after you leave from the shelter. That's not acceptable, and I'm talking about old school. Sheryl Hall, Lashonda, Houston, okay, this is not acceptable. We talking about accountability. All my complaints. What's going on with that? It tell me how, how officers are able. That's not even US citizens. That's on the Detroit Police Department, excuse me, or has been locked up, was able to pass fingerprints and then get they license. It's an issue with that too. So we talking about corruption to the highest level accountability, transparency. You all make so many excuses up, and my heart go out to all these parents that lose their children, but we need to held these officers accountable for all this illegal corruption that they're doing every day. They use some props as tethers. I'm on the bus, I see all of this. So why is it so many bikes at these 12 precincts, and motors, scooters, whatever they using. So you can't tell me you are not aware of this situation, because you all are part of the problem because you apparently don't want to do your job correctly. This board is for the oversight the corruption, illegal, illegal corruption of the Detroit Police Department. And I've been speaking about this over a year, about officers in this these shelters now, like internal internal affairs, I haven't got a call from nobody. I can pick every last one of them out, especially the ones who was at 3426 May. So why haven't I got a call to say, well, Miss Williams, you want to come in and pick out these officers, or even contacted the FBI, if you all are not capable of doing your job correctly. Thank you very much.
Unknown38:24
Thank you. Next speaker,
Unknown38:29
Mr. Arthur edge, and then we'll go on to zoom applause.
Unknown38:48
Right on, right on,
Speaker 938:51
show you're right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. This board, good evening, Chief. How you doing? Todd, sir, I'm sitting back there and I've been listening to people coming up here complaining about Detroit police officers. How many of them are actually involved with their precinct? How many are actually doing things, building relationship with their police department? I work with the sixth precinct, and I worked with all over the city, even when Todd was before he was chief. I'm sorry, Chief, before you were Chief.
Unknown39:33
Thank you. We got a good relationship.
Speaker 939:38
This community over in the sixth precinct on the 15th are going to be feeding our officers, showing how much we love them. We're going to be feeding them breakfast, lunch, dinner and the midnight shift. So what these people in Detroit now? Let's turn around and look a
Unknown40:00
handful of people here.
Speaker 940:04
Why aren't they here? Why aren't they not here to support their officers? It takes a community and relationship with the police department to make a difference. They can't do it all by themselves in any job organization or whatever. Yes, there are some few people bad apples, but we need to praise the ones that are doing a great job. And I want to thank you all for being here today and allowing me to speak. Thank
Unknown40:37
you. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 240:41
Next speaker. Next we'll go into zoom. Our first speaker will be Miss Howell. After Miss Howell, it will be Mr. Jadonte Smith, and that will be the end.
Speaker 640:59
Thank you. My name is Shay Howell, and I'm a member of District Two, where I've lived for over almost 50 years now. I want to thank the board for their actions to take a stand for controlling federal intervention into our city. I think it's an example of courageous and thoughtful actions, and I want to encourage you to make those resolutions and its intent real by establishing a task force. And I also want to encourage you to recognize that the kinds of tragedies we are experiencing in our city require more than catching people who did something wrong, as the gentleman before me just suggested we can show our appreciation to people by feeding them, by supporting them, and by acknowledging what people are Doing that is good and valuable. We shouldn't only do that for our police officers. We should be doing that for our young people. And I encourage the board of police commissioners to think not only about how we can create programs that catch people who do something horrible, but how do we help young people find things to do that are enjoyable productive, and help them become better adults? So I want to ask us to begin to really rethink the kind of leadership that this board can give, not only to how we look at the kind of tragedies being directed by our federal government today, but at the tragedies that are emerging in our community, I think we can do it if we think about new kinds of questions. How do we stop gun violence? How do we support young people? Let's think about new ways of acting together
Unknown43:04
through the chair, yes. Commissioner,
Speaker 743:06
yes. That's Thank you. Miss Hollowell for your perspective on that. You're spot on. Hello. Thank you very, very much for that, and thank you for your leadership too. That is exactly what the chief is talking about that's out in this community and record numbers like at say Detroit, his partnership with say Detroit, with Mitch album, hundreds and hundreds of children are in summer camp getting the resources that they need. Him and I went to a house that was given away to a family over there in the 11th precinct
Unknown43:50
that was rebuilt
Speaker 743:53
by Mitch and his team. And the resources given to that family is is second to none, you know, and often in this community on a daily basis, getting resources. He in every particular neighborhood, talking to you, going inside the schools. His teams are in almost droves of schools right now, talking to those drivers, those challenge, those young people that are have a lot of challenges, and so we are willing to join any and everybody to be able to help our children, to help save the lives of our children. You call us, we going to respond, and I can speak for this entire board, then, you know, I don't even want to even tout the chairwoman's mission in terms of helping young people throughout this entire city, the programs and all of the opportunities she has created, and we also will be given $1,000 scholarship to someone in our Youth Advisory Council. We have implemented that in there because we want to help our children be empowered with education. So we're not just sitting here, not doing anything. We are very, very proactive, trying to prevent stuff from happening, and loving on our community, loving our folks. And again, Commissioner Moore, when was in lab precinct, he fed the whole community out his own pocket, out his own dime. This whole board is this, this doing the work throughout this entire city, you know. So thank you for asking or bringing that up, but that's exactly what we're doing. But if you need us to join us in any place at any time, we are there.
Speaker 145:36
Thank you, Commissioner. Any other comments? If not next speaker. Mr. Smith,
Unknown45:46
good afternoon. Might be hurt. Yes Sir, hello. I just
Speaker 1145:52
want 
to say I'm kind of sick and tired of the Vice Chair. I'm glad he's not chair anymore. Stop grandstanding. Your job is to be a commissioner and not to kiss up. You kiss up when you're not a commissioner. Your position was selected by the mayor, and you do a very, very bad disservice. I said I've been saying a quote to you, can't beat them. Join them. Definitely can beat you. But I want to say this board is also for police officer misconduct. That's why a lot of people are coming to complain Mr. Edge, because this is for police officer misconduct. I'm in the seventh precinct. I've had a lot of problems with seven precinct seventh precinct. I've tried to work with the precinct. I get shut down every single time, and I know the chief. I shouldn't have to go to the chief in order to work with the seven precinct. They're terrible. My thing is, when the community tries to work with the with the police department, we are stonewalled, we are stopped and we have a hard time. So that's why a lot of times we don't work with the police. They try to criminalize people who are trying to help and do the right work. To help and do the right work. I'm in a mayoral forum and maybe lob my background, but my thing is, there are a lot of officers to do a good job, but the officers do a bad job make everyone else look bad. This. This is the purpose of this forum, is to make sure that we can talk talk about the officers who are doing a bad job right and we have a lot of people who are running for this board who are probably told by whoever to run, who don't show up to these meetings, who don't understand the importance of police commission, who don't understand the importance of Officer misconduct being thoroughly investigated. We have so many officers who are doing a good job. We have so many officers who are not upholding their oath or not upholding their badge, and they're in positions of leadership, and I hate to say it like I'm gonna keep bringing him up. Brandon Cole still got the same position as a lieutenant, still over mobile field force, and he's he's an a hole, to say the least. But he's also talking about political things, saying racist comments to people at protests, things like that, aggravating people creating creating unnecessary distractions. And for him to be at a protest and not even have a body worn camera on is that's crazy, like that's the simplest precaution and protocol you can have. And I'm glad the officer who just stole the $600 was caught, because that type of behavior is unacceptable for officer under oath to be robbing people during traffic stops or arrests, whatever it may be, even if you're a criminal, you deserve the right to due process, not to be robbed by officers who you trust to protect you, even if they are arresting you. So we definitely need this board. We definitely need to have people thoroughly investigated. And I want to work the seven precincts, and I look forward to that Chief, please connect me to Commander Johnson. He will not work with me through the chair, Yes,
+1
to say I'm kind of sick and tired of the Vice Chair. I'm glad he's not chair anymore. Stop grandstanding. Your job is to be a commissioner and not to kiss up. You kiss up when you're not a commissioner. Your position was selected by the mayor, and you do a very, very bad disservice. I said I've been saying a quote to you, can't beat them. Join them. Definitely can beat you. But I want to say this board is also for police officer misconduct. That's why a lot of people are coming to complain Mr. Edge, because this is for police officer misconduct. I'm in the seventh precinct. I've had a lot of problems with seven precinct seventh precinct. I've tried to work with the precinct. I get shut down every single time, and I know the chief. I shouldn't have to go to the chief in order to work with the seven precinct. They're terrible. My thing is, when the community tries to work with the with the police department, we are stonewalled, we are stopped and we have a hard time. So that's why a lot of times we don't work with the police. They try to criminalize people who are trying to help and do the right work. To help and do the right work. I'm in a mayoral forum and maybe lob my background, but my thing is, there are a lot of officers to do a good job, but the officers do a bad job make everyone else look bad. This. This is the purpose of this forum, is to make sure that we can talk talk about the officers who are doing a bad job right and we have a lot of people who are running for this board who are probably told by whoever to run, who don't show up to these meetings, who don't understand the importance of police commission, who don't understand the importance of Officer misconduct being thoroughly investigated. We have so many officers who are doing a good job. We have so many officers who are not upholding their oath or not upholding their badge, and they're in positions of leadership, and I hate to say it like I'm gonna keep bringing him up. Brandon Cole still got the same position as a lieutenant, still over mobile field force, and he's he's an a hole, to say the least. But he's also talking about political things, saying racist comments to people at protests, things like that, aggravating people creating creating unnecessary distractions. And for him to be at a protest and not even have a body worn camera on is that's crazy, like that's the simplest precaution and protocol you can have. And I'm glad the officer who just stole the $600 was caught, because that type of behavior is unacceptable for officer under oath to be robbing people during traffic stops or arrests, whatever it may be, even if you're a criminal, you deserve the right to due process, not to be robbed by officers who you trust to protect you, even if they are arresting you. So we definitely need this board. We definitely need to have people thoroughly investigated. And I want to work the seven precincts, and I look forward to that Chief, please connect me to Commander Johnson. He will not work with me through the chair, Yes, Unknown48:22
Commissioner, I'm
Speaker 748:23
a grandstand a little bit more, you know. You know, somebody need to be on the grandstand to help save our children. You know, all this rhetoric that's we're hearing, you know, be a part of the solution. Call us. Call me. I gave my number at the end, and it's me. Call me. I'm coming. Call you. Any of these commissioners, we're coming. This ain't a grandstand. This is not games that we're playing with the citizens of the city of Detroit. These are precious lies. And then when you talking about citizen complaints, you know, we have an operation for that those been addressed, and people have constitutional rights that we can't get out and discuss individual cases. Specifically, when Miss canal sent us a citizen complaint and we responded to it. We want to go and be out there in the public talking about it, but she got a response, and everybody get their response. That's what we do. That's what the operation do. And you were here, the Chair will give the chief investigator opportunity to speak tonight, that that's what we do, but we can't violate people rights. You know, people have due process. We don't want to be sued for violating people's due process. So let's not get off the grandstand and get a part of the solution. We're not going to play plot of tricks. This Ain't we are commissioners who are sitting in these seats right now. We ain't concerned about who's running out there or who doing what and who's not doing what. That's their business. We're not going to play politics in here.
Unknown50:12
Any other speakers,
Unknown50:14
that's the last speaker. Madam Chair.
Unknown50:17
Madam Chair, Yes, chief. Go ahead.
Speaker 850:20
Yeah, speaking about rights, my police officers have rights also, right, there you go. And they have the right to due process too. And so we all do, you know they have a very, very tough job, and I know that you all realize that. And to Mr. Blunt, the officer that stole I don't think it's one Detroit police officer that will come to his defense. He tarnished the badge. When I was briefed about it, I directed my folks to do what they're supposed to do, and they did it. They arrested him. They arrested him at work. When he came to work, they arrested him. And so you can count on that we are not going to protect individuals that do that also we, you know, we hire from the community, and when individuals don't do the right thing, we will, and we do hold them accountable. I think that, you know, and I don't like talking about it. It doesn't give me pleasure, but I got a tough job, and so I do what I need to do also it wasn't, it wasn't fun talking about the officer who stole the gym shoes. He stole it from us. That was that was police on police crime in a precinct, and we put that out there, and it was officers who told and so we got officers who are doing the right thing in upholding it. So I just want to lift up the 99% of my officers who doing it the right way, but I'm not going to tell you that all of them doing it the right way.
Unknown52:16
But thank you all. Thank
Speaker 152:17
you Chief, and I just want to make a comment as well. I know that I'm a lifelong resident. I was born and raised in Detroit. This is my city too, and I was interested in knowing what was happening with the shootings of the children. It's It's tragic, and I know that most of you here would want that information, which is why I asked the chief to respond. Normally, we just hear comment. We don't always respond, but I wanted him to have that opportunity to talk about what is happening with our children. And so yes, we're going to be here to listen to complaints against officers, but we're also here. I'm a Detroit resident, and I want to know what our police are doing in the community to help alleviate or find the solutions to deal with this crime that we're experiencing. So that's a part of these meetings as well. And now I'd like to ask if chief Warfield would like to give a brief overview. We can give staff reports. We can't give our regular reports, since we don't have a quorum. But if you could give a few words on OCI activity,
Speaker 353:38
thank you, Madam Chair. And through the chair. Let me say this on behalf of all of the men and women who work at the office of the chief investigator, we certainly want to thank you for your patience. We have been in a technology transition mode for the last probably for this No, for the last eight months, we've been transitioning from our old, antiquated database system to our new case management tracking system, and we know that we have not been able to provide the updates as frequently as we could, because there are a lot of when you're transferring over more than 72,000 cases from one system to another, along with all the reports that are contained in that in that case, then it takes, unfortunately, long time. Want to thank the City of Detroit's technology team, who's just been doing a yeoman's job in making sure that we are where we are. But because we've been in this transition, we have not slowed down in our work, we've actually increased our pace in our investigations and our closings. So I want to report out to you that through the end of June of 2025 the office of the chief investigator has investigated and closed 1347 cases. Now to some that might not, thank you. And to put that in proper perspective, all of 2024
Unknown55:15
we close 947
Speaker 355:19
cases. To put that even in better perspective, we're still at a record pace as relates to the number of cases that are coming into our office this year. We're planning, we are tracking to receive about 2000 citizen complaints. So the work is still continuing to come in. We're grateful for the work that's coming in, but we also want to thank this board for the technology that allows us to be more proficient and efficient and what we do, but also in the policy change that happened last earlier this year, that allow us to make our way through our investigations in a thorough and complete way. Also want to say that last year, at this time, we had 15 investigators that were in our rotation. In other words, every time a case comes in, it gets sent to one of our investigators in rotation. Now today, we have 21 so we are six more investigators strong, and we're fully we had full staff, but our staff is working extremely hard, and so we are. We are very thankful for that. We had a training just a few weeks ago on our system and updated training on our new case management system. And we are scheduled, just so you all know, we are scheduled to close, to investigate and close over 2300 cases in 2025
Unknown56:52
and what that would do for us,
Speaker 356:56
being on that pace and being on that schedule, then we would have been able to investigate all of our 2021 2223 and just about all of our 2024 cases. So what we carry over into 2026 because we're still investigating 2025 cases, as we're doing all of this, we're carrying over a few cases into 2026 from 2025 I want to give you the heads up that that's going to happen, because, again, we're still getting a number of cases that are coming into our office, but our from our administrative staff personnel to our investigators, to our supervisors to our senior investigators, everybody is overwhelmed, but we show up every day to get the job done, because we know that the citizens of the city of Detroit count on us and we thank you so continue to come to our office, to call our office, to go to the precincts to make those reports in order that we may be the accounting arm that you are expecting us to be. Thank you so much.
Unknown57:58
Thank you. Thank you, Chief Warfield,
Unknown58:02
Commissioner Smith, you wanted to say so yes
Speaker 1258:05
through the chair. Excuse me, I wanted to talk about the children once again to piggyback off of what the chief said. And I don't know if we all understand the severity of what's going on in our community. We are dealing with 15 and 16 year old children who are murderers, carjackers, shooters, killers. They are not your average children. We must engage an engaged community is a safer community, and the officer who was shot last week, was shot by a 16 year old who was, in return, fatally injured. This is not a game. This is something like none of us have ever seen. It may be the same conversation, or it may be, oh, the kids are bad, but these are not the same children. I have a job that I'm on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Out here in the community, we have now joined in, what is it? The curfew detail, where we're out every night up until three and four o'clock in the morning when the crime is starting, get engaged. I know this is an older crowd, and it may not be you, it may not be your children, but definitely somebody knows someone. If you just even pick a phone up to ask, where are your children? Do you know where your children are? Remember that when I was a kid, that was a slogan, do you know where your kids are? Do you really know where they are? You know, as we sit here, and I don't know if any of you all know what we do outside of being commissioners, but most of us are tired. We're at work and we're fighting and serving and engaging in a community. I've been doing it for years. I won't stop until I see the change that I want to see. But please be engaged. Your children are not the children that you once knew these children are something different. So as I sit here today to get prepared for my nightly patrol, just know what you're dealing with. Check on your kids. Be safe,
Unknown01:00:14
stay engaged
Unknown01:00:17
and look out for your neighbor.
Speaker 101:00:19
Thank you. Thank you for that, commissioner, Commissioner Bernard, just very,
Speaker 601:00:23
very quickly, and I want to piggyback, piggyback on, on what you said. Tamara, unfortunately, last Friday night, when I was leaving police headquarters, I was walking toward and an officer was coming toward me. He was running real fast. I said, you know what's going on? He said, an officer has been shot. I said, Okay, where? And so he told me, and then I went to the scene of the shooting. You would be so proud, ladies and gentlemen, of not only the chief, but his staff. Every deputy chief was there, everyone. This is Friday night. At close to midnight, they had stuff to do, as Chief of Staff was there and everything. They had cordoned off the road. It was unbelievable. The and the community was totally standing back, totally standing down. I think they were all waiting until chief Bettison got there. He came, and as I just told him a few minutes ago, when I walked in the door, I said, I've never seen you like that before, because everybody quote, loves Bettison in the city, because he's such a nice person. But he was like steel. It was like a person I'd never seen before. He was totally focused on what had happened there. And all of them came up there running to him, immediately telling him what happened, and this happened. And do you hear he didn't even open his mouth? I mean, it was amazing. They they were just giving reports, you know, staccato. And so he was really serious about what had happened. And everyone was, and certainly, certainly I was. And then I listened to him for a little while, and then I decided to go to the hospital to see the officer. You talk, you talked about children, Tamara, the Office of my mother and my father. The officer laying in the bed had to be about 18 or 19 years old, but he looked like he was 12, with just a little bit of a shadow of a small fellow,
Unknown01:02:22
maybe 115 pounds.
Speaker 601:02:26
He had been shot in the hand. He was at St John's, but to our credit, there were, as I told, chief knows he came over there too. Ultimately, there were like 30 officers in the hallway. It's amazing how our officers stand for their stand for each other. They, I mean, they didn't leave. It was amazing, and it was hot, and, you know, and everything, and, but, but, but they, they stayed. They were still there. When I left, I talked to the young man and his and his wife, and the chief went in and talk to them as well. So it was really interesting. But the children are on both sides of this issue. There are youth on both sides of this issue. And one of course is in blue, and one of course is not. And I don't clearly, I mean, I know that poverty has an opportunity have a lot to do with what's happening in the minds of of young people, your your children, didn't have that mother, Bernice, because you had them on a different path, obviously, but, but, but, but the kids are, you know, you know, shoot, I have clients that are 30 years old, that are grandmothers. So it's a different it's a different time right now. And I don't know what all of the answers are, but I do know that what you said, Tamara is important, and that is that we hold them close, that we make do whatever we can, talk to as many young people as we can, get them engaged, get them involved, and try to keep them on the right track, not just the rich kids.
Speaker 101:03:57
Thank you. Thank you for that message, very, very kind message. And you know, a chief, please let the officer know that we're praying for him. And I know that he was injured in the hand, but still, you know we're praying, yep, okay. And
Speaker 801:04:16
I'll just say this, you know, went, went to the hospital, and of course, saw him, and I can give the report, it looks like it was a through and through, because he had a big hole in his hand. It's like I could see through it and as he was laying there, but I've been told that it didn't hit any nerves or any damage, and he could still move his hand. So definitely prayers do work. Thank you all for that. And I think Commissioner Bernard, because she was, I got to the scene, and she was at the scene before I was and I was thinking, even though I didn't say anything, Commissioner like, how does that happen? And then when I got to the hospital, she was in the room with the officer, and I said, Well, I said, How does that happen? So Commissioner, this board of police commissioners, I thank you. You hold us accountable, but you support us as well. And so I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 101:05:14
Thank you so much. Are there any other comments? Move to adjourn? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 201:05:24
Dinner, double ACP, dinner, yeah, I was invited at a table, and he was at another table with his guest. There was only myself at the table. What is losing everybody? And I felt so bad. And then all of a sudden, when I did go over there to go eat, I was sitting there by myself. And then I saw my ponies standing up there. They were watching and going guard and everything was about four of them. What did yours truly do? I got on my phone and call the chief. He's sitting at the diocese yellow, I think was the yellow you were. I called him up and said, Chief, I got my five tables empty here. I said, can the police? Because when I asked them, they said, No, ma'am, we can't, because we're on duty. But what I did, I called on my phone and I said, Chief, this mother, Bernice, got by five seats here, and do you mind if the police come in? Uh, they said they're on duty. But is it alright if they sit down and eat? What did my chief say to me yesterday? They were so grateful. And then two more came. I had, but you know, it's what 12 at the table. I had my police sitting at the table with
Unknown01:06:53
me. Alright, yeah, and they sat down too. So
Speaker 201:06:56
I had a table and I thank your dog.
Speaker 701:07:09
And I see you have other folks in it's going to be a pleasure to chair, but the the community person, the person that represent this community, I believe you own that black hair wrap. That's what Commissioner Moore indicated. President McGee, the president of this community. So she's Yeah, so you come to the podium and give the update through through the chair.
Unknown01:07:42
I love you too.
Unknown01:07:46
Good afternoon.
Unknown01:07:50
Yes and welcome, chief.
Speaker 1301:07:55
The only words I have for you is you're doing excellent. Like my grandmother said, you like that piece of pie. You don't consume it all at once. You take one slice at a time and you're almost done with it. Thank you for the great job that you're doing, and keep going. My name is Mary McGee, and I'm your president of the sixth precinct community relations. I have a relationship, a low relationship, with my six, with our six precinct, and to us every day is officers appreciation, not just one day. So we have decided Tuesday to show our officers how we love them. We're going to start with breakfast, I don't mean continental breakfast at 830 and it will end approximately what time Mr. Edge,
Speaker 1301:08:57
it's breakfast will be served from 830 to approximately 930 at that point, Mr. Edge and his crew will be getting lunch together, and when I say lunch, it's we're feeding them food, not finger food. Lunch will be from 1130 until and we're going to come back and serve them dinner until 12 midnight. And if anyone would like to volunteer to help us serve, we appreciate it. But I every day we appreciate all of our offices, because in my opinion, and I have seen a lot from different states and whatever, we all have issues, but I'm proud to say that our police department has taken the bull by the horn, and we're doing something and we are dealing with children, because you know they're going to come after us, so please continue doing what you're doing. We love you, and you're doing a great job. Thank you.
Unknown01:10:01
Thank you. You
Unknown01:10:03
move to adjourn, Madam Chair.
Speaker 101:10:07
It's been moved and supported. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye.
Unknown01:10:13
Meeting, sir.