Good evening. It is now 6:30pm and so we want progress this session to of the Detroit board of police commissioners meeting to order I count my colleagues, we are short one commissioner to have a quorum, but that does not prevent us from beginning the meeting with the word of invocation, and so we will have that word of invocation by
by Pastor Ellis. You.
And as he comes, come on, let's put our hands together for this most generous host of providing us this space. Thank you, sir. We celebrate you. And then after your invocation, you can provide words of welcome and
and not be broken. Help us, God. Because we just want to be a blessing to our city. Want to be a blessing to our community, be a blessing to all around us. We thank you. We ask that you would just bless each person here that's present, even those that's not here, even those that's yet to come. We give your name the honor, the praise and the glory. We know all things will be well, because you never do anything wrong. You never make a mistake. So we put everything in your hands, and we thank you in advance. In Jesus name, we pray amen, amen, amen. God bless everybody. We just welcome you all to the Citadel of praise. I am Pastor Spencer Ellis pastor here to sit at the praise, and I am grateful to be here. I have a great appreciation for what you all do. My late dad, the late Bishop David Ellis, was a Amen Commissioner. Border was on the board of police commission way back in the day Amen appointed by the late honorable Coleman Young. And I watched his dedication, and him served for many years on this great board. So I commend you all. I know the stress to go with it. I know the politics that go with it. I know the criticism that go with it. Amen. But I know you are called to do what you all do, to do, and I know you all will continue to do a great job and welcome everybody. I don't want to start calling names from the from the from the deputy mayor on down, all the community leaders. God bless y'all. Make yourself at home. Just don't break nothing, and we are right. God bless you.
Thank you so very much. See that Commissioner Hernandez has joined us, and so with his addition, we do now have a quorum. And so with that, we will move forward with our official agenda, which calls for introduction of commissioners by acting secretary, brown, good afternoon. Mr Chair, good afternoon.
Chairperson, Presley, here. Person elect Darrell woods, Vice Chairperson, Smith, Present. Mr Bill asks for a commission. Bill asks for an excused absent. Mister Burton, Commissioner Carter asked for excused. Abs,
Mr Moore, President, representing the mighty district center,
Commissioner Hernandez, Commissioner. I mean, I'm sorry, Commissioner, Hernandez, present, Commissioner banks, is walking in.
Okay with that we
do indeed have a quorum, and so now we'll move on to the approval of the july 11, 2024, agenda. So move, is there a second again? Proper? Moving second in discussion. Hearing no discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. All those opposed. No, the ayes, have it. The agenda is approved. Now we want Yes. Excuse
me, I forgot to call Oh, Commissioner Bernard.
Oh, we're so sorry for that. We definitely know that her presence is here. We're so grateful to have you. Let the record reflect that Commissioner Bernard is indeed in attendance.
Attorney Leonard Bernard, District Two present. And
so with that, we'll now move on to the approval of the minutes for June 27 2024 is there any objection to the approval of these minutes? Hearing no objection. The minutes are approved. And now we will have an introduction to bl, PC staff, chief police, elected officials, representatives and community leaders for today's meeting.
Good afternoon. Mr Chair current, we have with us. Chief Investigator Warfield, Miss Johnny Underwood, Miss Theresa blossom, Miss Jasmine Taylor, Miss Atisha Joshua, Miss Candace Hayes, supervisor, investigator, lasonia, Sloan ASL, interpreter, Mister Carter and Doctor Stephanie Beatty Don hendyside is doing a court reporting. Media Service is doing the video, and Sergeant Allen Quinn is doing the audio setting in for the chief is DC Pritch, elected official, Miss Ramil Maria overall state representative, Tyrone Carter's office. Miss Frida Butler. Second, precinct Community Relations President mister Don Davis, Office of council member Fred du Harley. Third, Miss Andrea Vaughn, officer, State Representative Santana and former Commissioner William Davis and former commissioner Reginald Crawford,
alright, and so the room is packed tonight with some amazing dignitaries. And again, in my estimation, we all are very important people, and so I'm grateful that you are here, and it's my hope that will add to the productivity of today's meeting. Uh, today's meeting is a very special meeting for numbers of reasons. One, this meeting actually kicks off the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of the board of police commissioners, and so we'll be celebrating throughout the year, but it's especially a wonderful day for me, because I get to hand off the leadership of this board to a well, capable and able leader. And so we're so grateful to now have the investor of installation that will be offered by Honorable Judge Sean B Perkins from the 36 District Court of both our chair elect as well as our vice chair judge Perkins, both can stand. Follow his instruction. Yeah, you can go there. Yes. All
right, first, I'd like to thank Mr Wood, Ms Smith, for giving me the opportunity and the privilege of being able to swear you in today, I mimic pastor Ellis' words. This is a very honorable and difficult job to do, and we know that you guys are very well capable, and I just appreciate having this honor.
All right.
Sorry, that's it. Okay. Mr Wood, can you state your name for the record please? Darryl woods, all right. Can you raise your right hand, please and follow repeat after me. I I, Daryl woods, do solemnly swear or affirm.
I solemnly swear or affirm that I
will support the Constitution of the United
States, and I will support the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution and laws of the state of Michigan and the Constitution and laws of the state of Michigan and the charter of the city of Detroit and the charter of the city of Detroit, and that I will faithfully and impartially perform and discharge the duties of the office as chairperson, and I will faithfully and impartially and impartially perform the and discharge the duties
and discharge the duties
of the office as chairperson of Detroit board of police commissioners,
of chairperson of the board of police commission
according to the law and the best of my ability, according to the law and the best of my ability, very well. Congratulations. Thank you. Will
so you all have to forgive me. This is the first time I've sworn somebody in to a position like this. I swear people in the court tell the truth every day, but if not this, are you state your name for the record,
please. Alright. Can you raise your right hand? I Tamara Liberty Smith, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution and laws of the state of Michigan, state of Michigan, and the charter of the city of Detroit, and That I will faithfully and impartially perform and discharge the duties of the office as Vice President of the Board of police commissioners,
Vice Chairperson, I'm sorry, of The Board of police commissioners according to the laws And at the best of my ability, congratulations. You.
I want to thank the honorable chairman, our past chairman, and the honorable quantez Presley for his great leadership, being able to take on such a task during such a trying time. Absolutely, let's, let's, I think we should give him a standing ovation for all the sacrifices that he had to make. I
i Let it be absolutely clear that this man sacrificed his time, his resources and all of his efforts to be able to serve the citizens of the city of Detroit, under his great leadership, we has been we've been able to good fully staff and and OIG that was vitally important to be able to deal with the backlog that this community and the citizens of Detroit is very, very concerned about. This is not a rubber stamp committee. This is a committee that is very, very serious about serving the citizens of the city of Detroit. We took an oath to the be able to serve the citizens of the city of Detroit. We didn't take an oath to serve any leader. We didn't take an oath to do anything for personal gain. And I assure you that I'm not here because I have aspirations to go anywhere else. I'm here because I was willing to sacrifice my time and my efforts and my resources and my talent to be able to do everything that we possibly can, to be able to get rid ourselves of the backlog, to be able to bring dignity and respect and integrity to this office, and so you have my promise and my dedication that I would do everything possible to work with all of my fellow Commissioners in a civil way and a respectful, respectful way and an honorable way, to be able to do everything we can to reduce that backlog that is a number one priority for us as a commission. And you also have my promise that I would never, ever, ever, ever turn my back on the people of the city of Detroit. I would not sell us out. I would do everything within my spirit and in my mind with all the fiber of my being, to be able to serve in a loving way, in a compassionate way, and so and I know that many of my fellow, fellow commissioners share that spirit, and it's time to continue to roll our sleeves up. We are fully staffed, and we have some more innovation to do on this commission. We ask you to just be a little patient with us, and please know that we will report back to this community, and we will be continue to stay open and transparent, and I think that you will be very, very happy with some of the initiatives that we have in mind to be able to show the citizens of the Detroit, City of Detroit that we mean business. And having said that, I want to thank all of the commissioners, the ones who voted for me, the ones who did not vote for me and for all the ones who didn't vote. And I would say this, it's time for us to show up for the citizens, citizens of the city of Detroit. We need to be present at every meeting. We need to dedicate ourselves and make sure that we're rolling up our sleeves because you didn't take an oath to nobody else. You did it in the name of God, to the citizens of the city of Detroit, and it is they deserve for us to have a quorum at every meeting. They deserve for us to work hard and work very diligently to be able to serve this community. And so, having said that, I would allow my whether I can't do that on my own. I gotta, you know, say it imma go by the agenda. And I'm sure that my vice chairman, our Vice Chairman, and because I am your chairman, but I'm also your fellow commission, I don't go by labels. There's no big eyes and little U's here. I want to listen to everyone. I want to hear from everyone. I want to listen to the citizens. I want to listen to the ones who oppose me, the ones who run into the Detroit News and all these presses on me. I love you. You know. I support you. I pray for you, and I don't have a ill will in my heart and in my spirit against anyone. And so my pastor is here, the Honorable Bishop, Charles Haywood. Ellis, the third if you stand, he's a very honorable leader in this community. And the First Lady, the Honorable pastor, Spencer T Ellis, someone who is here, a dear friend of mine, if you would stand one more time, but this is the 50th This is the 50th anniversary in which we celebrate the board of police commission. And one of those commissioners inspired me for decades, and it's the reason why I'm sitting in this seat. It is their father who touched my heart and touched my mind and ministered to me when I was in a weak place, in a downtrodden place, and was able to advocate and and pray for me and love on me. And his sons had did the same thing since his their father been gone since 1996 but is, is his inspiration who sat in this seat as a board of police commissioner? You know that I am inspired by, you know, I'm inspired by the honorable Coleman, Alexander young, the brother who was wrote the book, hard stuff. And you want to know about all of this stuff. Read his book, his autobiography, from cover to cover. I read it three times, and you'll get some real inspiration. And my good friend, the Honorable Mayor, Todd Bettis, Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison, a brother,
a brother
who served this community, slave for this community, and so I thank him for being here. And I have so many friends and brothers and sisters that's in this room today, the director of the conviction integrity unit, the one who fight fight against injustices in reverse, wrongful convictions. The Honorable Valerie Newton is back there. Give her a hand. Let's stand up, Valerie, you know so many. And my grandson is here. There you go. And my daughter is right there. My father, my brothers are in the room. My brothers is in the room, my cousins. So y'all can't mess with me today. Y'all better be real good to me, you know. And so all of my family and friends, would you please stand as I give you recognize you, because I can't call everybody by name. You all stand
absolutely and again, finally, I'll say to my friend who I was, I'm glad I was able to baptize you judge and get you to be I'm your first, you know, and this is a first for me and and I'm definitely sacrificed a lot here and got a lot on the line, but you are a dear friend, a special brother, a person who means business in the courtroom, but you do it with integrity and love and compassion. And so I thank you for being here to swear my fellow colleague in as well as myself. So much love and respect to you, and God bless you. Now let's get to the business. So we did the agenda and in the minutes, did? We did the minutes? Yup, so we good. Okay, and so we finished it. That would be the chairperson. I'll give you one thing as the chairperson report. Please understand that we, and I think we all, should, at this moment, take another moment of silence for those who have been victimized, for the 21 people who were shot on the east side of Detroit, I think we should take a moment of silence for those families and for that community. I was there on yesterday we had where many of us have been going over there and but let's take a moment of silence for them.
Thank you. And so please know that any and everything that need to be investigated in that situation will be investigated, and if, if there's some issues with anything in that area, we as a commission my brothers and sisters and my colleagues, we are committed to being able to give the community the answers that they deserve, and we will be very, very open and transparent and what what comes out of that, and also, for those We've been looking at far as the monitors from Legal Aid and my colleagues, she would speak to that, and I will speak after her on that, because I'm not going to upstage on that. But please, we know that we hear you, and we will not ignore any of your voices. And so these are very, very serious issues. These are very trying times, and it's a time for us to turn to each other and not on each other. And so let's go to
we did the introductions.
Let's go to the resolution. Brother Moore, you are recognized, Commissioner Moore, thank
you, Mr Chairman. To begin, I want to thank the staff of the board of police commissioners. Miss johnya Underwood is on vacation, and she came in today to be here for you the community. So I think that deserves a round of applause, as well as MS Teresa blossom, thank you so much for putting these certificates together. Is Miss Betty Verner in the house. All right, that's the boss.
Please
take your Time. You
see you.
Commissioner Moore, if you could start reading resolution, yes, Mr
Chairman, resolution honoring Betty Varner, whereas Benny varter is a life long resident of the city of Detroit, and has lived in her neighborhood for over 50 years, observing many changes in the neighborhood, some good and some bad. She dedicated to become a part of the resolution, I'm sorry, the solution in her community. Ms Verner joined the block club and was elected president in 2015 and whereas president of the DeSoto Ellsworth block Association, a nonprofit organization established by senior citizens residing in the community, the goal is to improve the overall quality of living in the neighborhood by beautifying and maintaining the vacant lots vacant homes and alleys of the community, Baba has purchased five vacant lots on the corner of Ellsworth and Monica for the sole purpose of building a landscape pocket park and flower garden. And whereas Miss Verner has been successful in bringing several programs to the neighborhood, the free minor home repair program and a program to have vacant houses boarded up, the lawn Academy snow removal and other resources for residents. Ms Vern is presently working with the city of Detroit to revitalize the Finkle corridor from liver noise to Wyoming. She worked closely with her late vice president Gwendolyn Lanier to create a community park to give the children in the neighborhood a safe place to play, a place for seniors and residents to congregate that provides tranquility, a place to interact with others and a place for community events. And whereas in 23rd 20 whereas in 2023 Ms Varner advocated to the Detroit City Council to allocate monies from the budget to have seniors and people with disabilities houses made handicapped accessible. The council allocated $2 million from the budget for the new program named seniors accessibility home repair fund. She spoke every day that the council had a meeting advocating for monies to be budgeted for the program. And whereas ms Verner served as an at large member of the 10th precinct Community Relations organization executive board, she attended and completed training for the Detroit citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, therefore be it resolved that the Detroit board of police commissioners, speaking on behalf of the residents of Detroit and the Detroit Police Department acknowledge the dedicated support of MS Betty Varner, her commitment and devotion to supporting the community of the 10th precinct and the citizens throughout the city of Detroit merits our highest regards. We thank and congratulate you. Miss. Betty Varner, you
I entertain a motion to accept their resolution in archives, so moved second by Commissioner Hernandez, any discussion, no discussion. The motion is those, all those in favor,
aye,
All those opposed. The motion is carried.
Good evening, everyone. First of all, I want to say, thank God for giving me the health and the strength, because I have health challenges to be able to continue to do the work that I love, for my community that I love. I was born and raised. I don't do this work alone. Some of the members I hear, please stand the Vice President and our members there in the house. They are the one who helped me to achieve the goals. And MS Ladon Davis, when we first started out, I got to give her kudos. She is the one was my mentor to lead and guide me, and so I just thank you all for this time. Thank you and I appreciate. Julie Commissioner Moore, I can't forget about you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Appreciate your support. Thank you.
So we, Commissioner Moore is going to read a number of people that was going to get received certificates. We want to be able to do this in a efficient manner. And so Commissioner Moore, so when you hear your name calls Paul, we ask you to be able to kind of move expeditiously, so that we would not prolong this process.
And this is an alphabetical order, so if you hear me call the first name, which is Allen, you know the bees are right behind so just Come on up front. Mr Alex Allen, the third you.
Mr Alex Allen the fourth i Okay.
Mr Dwayne Ballard Warren Dale community organization. You
mr, T, C, Bennett, TC, Bennett, Sergeant, Lee Brown, you,
Mr Kevin Bryant, everybody's favorite, Mr lever himself. You
mr Tommy Clemens. Mr Clemens in the house, Police Officer James Corsi,
Mr Brian Kirsten i Mr Arthur Barry, white edge, applause,
Pastor Spencer T Ellis, you,
Mr Armand Fisher, Mr Brian flag, Pastor Gregory Foster, Mr Charles grant, Mr Joseph Haskins. And y'all recommended these folks they hear where they have y'all recommended a way y'all are
pastor Everett N Jennings, Chaplain Anthony Johnson, you
Mr Ali Johnson, police Officer Javon Jones. I
Dr Pastor, Lester B Jordan, you
Mr Allen, Forgive me for butchering your Name. Gilbert, you
Mr William Lazenby you,
Mr Joe mackney. Joe could fix anything I
Mr Frankie mcnuckle chaplain, Stanley Mobley, you
Mr Walter Moore, the commander Vernell Newsome, You
Mr Kevin Nolan, Mr George Purdue, you
Sergeant Brandon pierce you,
Oh, Mr William Rankin, you,
Mr Gary ringer,
Mr Brett Robinson, I
Mr Ronald Rowland, you
Mr Tom, Scott you
Mr Tommy Sewell, you
Reverend Larry Simmons, you
Say he got grandchildren here from New Jersey, So he gotta go. Mr Larry Slappy, you
Mr Aaron slaughter.
His granddaughter is accepting on his behalf,
Mr Steve Smith, Mr
you welcome,
Mr Jerry springs, you
Police Officer Charles staples, the yes, he protecting the station. I don't think he here tonight. Mr Paul Stark,
Mr Steven Strickland, You
mr Eric Strickland, we got two stricklands in the house. Family.
Right right now, put this right here. You know, think I can walk a little bit now. Thank
you for your study. You thank
you for your quick
something else, Bishop, Kenneth, Tate you,
Mr Ishmael, Terry, you
all for one You
mr Carlos top not and last but not least, Pastor, Gregory Foster. Hey, thank you for your patience, family. We really do appreciate on behalf of the Board of police commissioners,
thank you. Applause.
Thank you for your patience, and we promise we're going to streamline that process as we move forward. And I want to recognize school board member, uh, Sherry gay de nogo. Let's give her a hand.
Um, I think we go to the chief of police report.
Good afternoon, everyone. Chief white couldn't be here. He's currently over at the prayer vigil in District Three, with Commissioner, I'm sorry, with Councilman Benson. So the update on the injured officers Currently, there's one member of the department who was disabled and recovering at home to an on duty accident injury. So the crime data as of 710, 2024 a homicides, we're down 17% or 23 homicides, a non fatal shootings, we're down 82 or 19% our robberies, we're down 174 or 24% and our carjackings are down. I'm sorry, 33 or 38% and currently, our Part One violent crimes is down 11% or 740 individual incidents for the direct racing enforcement for the weekend of seven, four through seven through July, 4 through July, 7, there were 85 people investigated. There between two traffic stops, there were 31 vehicles investigated. Four were in pound and six were stolen. And they were recovered. And the officers made seven felony arrests. They also recovered seven weapons, and they also attended 13 Block Party responses. So the significant incidents for past week, on July 4, at 3:53pm officers were dispatched to Southfield and Pembroke to investigate a fatal shooting. Once they arrived, they observed the victim lying on the grass suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body. Many 24 arriving, conveyed him to local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. On arrival, Witnesses report driving north on Southfield service drive and seeing the body landing the grass. This incident is still under investigation. Detectives are asking anyone additional information regarding this incident to contact Crime Stoppers at one 800 speak up or rewards TV, rewards.tv the second incident is another fatal shooting on July 5, a 12:50am officers were dispatched the 14,000 block of cherry line to investigate a fatal shooting. Once they arrived, they observed the victim at the location with the gunshot wound to the head. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased. Detectives determined the victim was at a block party on Cherry line when several unknown individuals start shooting. This incident also is under investigation. Detectives are asking anyone with additional information regarding this incident to contact Crime Stoppers at one 800 speak up or Detroit rewards.tv. The third incident, the homicide investigation where there were two, two fatal and 19 nine fatal shooting victims. So on Sunday, July 7, at 2:23am, officers were dispatched at 13,000 block of rock scene in ninth precinct to investigate a shooting in progress and a Shot Spotter alert. Officers arrived and they were flagged down by medics. Stated they had two victims from the from the Ross Sydney scene suffering from gunshot wounds, and were transporting them to a local hospital. Officers continue to investigate and observe another victim lying in the street. They also were noted by dp dispatch, the various members victims were arriving on local hospitals, and the victims fleeing from the scene, who were at multiple locations nearby, suffering from gunshot wounds, all the victims were eventually transported to local hospitals and seen by emergency staff. Two victims were pronounced deceased, and 19 victims were listed in stable, temporary and critical condition of the 19 non fatal shooting victims, 11 have been treated and discharged, and eight are expected to be discharged in the coming days. At this point, evidence continues to suggest that this was not a random shooting. This incident is also under still an investigation. Detectives are asking anyone additional information regarding this incident to contact Crime Stoppers at one 800 speak up or Detroit rewards TV. And finally, incident four was an arson and a homicide that happened on Tuesday, July 9, at 10:50pm officers were dispatched to Gladstone the third to investigate the vehicle fire, once unseen, they extinguish a white Jeep Compass that was on fire. The deceased body of an unknown individual was discovered in the truck, in the trunk, I'm sorry, with the gunshot wound to the head. Anyone this is this case is still an investigation, so anyone with any information, please contact Crime Stoppers or one 800 speak up or Detroit rewards.tv so the positive notes, I know that was somewhat depressing, but on Monday, we announced a new four point strategy to address illegal block parties in Detroit and some of those things, we are non classifying all block parties from priority Two and threes to priority one to get a faster police response, we will continue to enforce noise complaints, parking complaints, disorderly conduct and an underage drinking and what we're requiring now is that for a permit to be approved, the block party hosts must get 75% of a resident's signature agreeing to the Black Party to take place, and it must be over about it must be over at 10 o'clock. So chop it up Tuesday. Two days ago, we held another chop it up Tuesday, of the men of DPD chop it up Tuesday is a round table bar, barbershop style, conversation about specific experiences that impact male officers, professionally and personally, with leaders, health professionals, counselors and life coaches. And tomorrow, Friday, July 19, we will hold our DPD recruit class. 2020 4e graduation at second Ebenezer church. 26 students, police officers are graduating. So that is it for the chief report.
Thank you very kindly, fellow commissions. Commission Moore,
thank you, Mr Chairman, Deputy Chief, you mentioned about 80 officers being deployed to illegal block parties. Where are these officers coming from? Through the Chair
Commissioner Moore, what we're doing is that some of the job assignments have been rearranged in summer. Hours of operations have been changed to in order to get that number. So we will have 40 officers on the east side and 40 on the west side, beginning Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from from starting this week until the end of the summer surge.
Are they trained in mobile field force? Yes, they
are. The majority of mobile field force is a component of the 40 officers. What we're doing now, we are increasing our mobile field force, and they are are scheduled to have training next week, and we will increase that number, but mobile field force is only a component of the 40 officers that would be assigned to the east side as well as the west
side. How many will work together through the chair with through
the chair Commissioner Moore, there will be 40 officers, and they will have various working throughout the West Side precincts and the East Side precincts. I'm not sure how they would be deployed. How many will go east, or how many will go west? But they the special operations that assigned to each precinct will be in their prospective precincts, doing spotting and block party enforcement.
And just to close out, I'm just really concerned. I mean, we're like, at the towards the beginning of the summer, and because, like I told the 10th precinct on Zoom last night, I might not be good in French and Germany history, but when it comes to the history of the city of Detroit and Detroit Police Department, I do know a little something. So it just takes me back to June of, I'm sorry, July of 1967 with the rebellion that took place in the 10th precinct, and a lot of the conditions which existed then exist now. So that's just a concern of mine that I have, and I know that you're doing what you can do to make the city safe. That's ultimately what the purpose is. That's just a concern of mine. Thank you, Deputy Chief. I'm
through the Chair, if I might respond to that. You know, I believe that there's work to be done, but I do believe that we have grown as a city from 1967 I believe that the oversight the board is doing for police department are keeping us doing what we need to do. Like I said, we can't celebrate that we are down 21 fatal homicides that still family members have lost someone, and I still believe that we have work to do. We're not celebrating anyone that was shot, but we are doing what we can to keep this city safe. And I know myself, as well as other deputy chief and chief White is definitely engaged in his heart aches when we get phone calls to someone being shot, and that mass shooting affected everyone, and everyone this room should be outraged. It should not be. It's not acceptable, and we're doing what we can to get those responsible arrested and charged and hopefully convicted. So I do think that we have far further than 1967
Thank you, Commissioner Bernard, thank
you, Mr Chairman. Just quickly we've touched upon, obviously, the problem with the block clubs and so forth, and of course, the incident that occurred over the July 4 weekend. Have there been any arrests as a result of what happened during the July 4 weekend
through the chair? Currently, there have not been any arrests made, but the investigation is ongoing. Tips are coming in. We have a video to review, but I am confident that what we have thus far in the investigation, those that are assigned to this particular task will bring resolution to the family bears about getting those responsible in custody
and just a quick follow up. How many shell casings Have you recovered at that scene,
through the chairs? My understanding that there was over 101 spent shell casings recovered from that scene.
Thank you,
Commissioner Hernandez,
thank you so much. Through the Chair, just to ask a sort of a follow up question to what Commissioner Moore was inquiring, and I'm curious if the Four Point Plan also includes activation in in the city parks. So from Connor to Rouge to Riverside and southwest, even parks that are a lot more local, like St Hedwig, you're seeing an uptick in gatherings in those spaces, whether they might have permitting or not, whether they might end up having alcohol on site and kids and so forth. Does that Four Point Plan include parks, or is it specific to just block parties that should be licensed through the city?
Through the Chair, the 40 member response team on each side will also ensure that the parks you know are not under age drinking, loud disorderly conduct as well as large gatherings and backyard barbecues and things of that nature. Okay, thank you.
Anyone else
right here? Right here, mister
Commissioner, banks
through the chair,
um, we down a commissioner. We've been down a commissioner since Rory gamble left about four five months ago, can you give an update on when we will be getting that new commissioner in?
Is this not germane to this issue right now? A farce, police chief, the chief of police report. So
what you gotta wait to new business?
Yeah, yep,
Madam commission,
okay, that's fine. That's fine.
Excuse me, were you done?
I'm saying Go ahead. Alright. Thank
you. Thank
you, sir. Through the Chair and concerning the shooting or Rossini, is this at all gang related?
Currently, that was a because it's not a random shooting. We believe that the perpetrators were, are, were known to some of the victims, so I don't know the if, the, if it was the so called gang shooting, or just it wasn't random. No one just pulled up and started shooting. That's what I can say. The investigation is still ongoing.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Thank you through the chair. You know, obviously there is a huge concern about the level of violence that we're seeing in our community, particularly that is victimizing our children. Oftentimes, the victims are under the age of 20 years old, which is drastically heartbreaking, while there are measures being put in place from DPD. I mean, it can't be understated that the issue is we got too many guns in our neighborhood, and whatever mechanism that they're using in the the switches, uh, on these weapons that allows over 100 shells to be found outside. Are there any, uh, harsher penalties for those who are found to be utilizing these illegal mechanisms, or does that fall under the same kind of penalty of just using a illegal firearm through the chair
us? Attorney Don Isom has committed to DPD that anyone that has been found to be in possession of a weapon with a Glock switch or have been found to have used it in the commission of any crime, will be charged federally. So the penalty will be a little would be higher,
great, and so secondarily to that, would be, how are we communicating this to the community? And I mean, I guess my concern is, is that it doesn't necessarily get to the audience that needs to hear it. So what is the DPD strategy, or enlist in the city to ensure that our community, and particularly young people in our community, are aware of one safety measures that they can put in place to protect themselves, but then also consequences for those who might be bad actors through
the chair. We are currently with our CBI groups. Now. CBI groups are out there paving the pound. They are paving the pounding the pavement each and every day, and they are spreading that message also. The NPO should be out in the community meetings, letting everyone know it should be it's not DPD. We can arrest our way out of anything, and we need the community's help to spread the word that these Glock switches are taking lives and that these young people should not be carrying guns. And also, I put a lot of responsibility on parents. You have 15 year old females out at block parties it took like in the morning. Where is the preventive responsibility? So it's a it's a circle. So we need to get with the community, get with these parents, train these parents up as well. So I believe the parents become more accountable and more responsible for their child. Their children wouldn't be out three o'clock in the morning, fighting, getting shot.
Yeah, and I obviously recognize and appreciate the fact that DPD is already overloaded with so many issues to deal with. And so I don't know if this is something that you might be able to include the city of Detroit communications department in, but again, I think it's like some social media posts, something that can go viral, something that they see on their timelines. Again, making sure that it gets to the audience who is actually being victimized by these crimes, I think, is going to be extremely important. So if anything I can do to assist in trying to make sure that young people are aware. I'm more than willing, but hopefully there's some resources that can be brought to bear to ensure that they are hearing this message, yeah, through
the chair, we have our Media Relations Department, and I will take that back to them, to the director, and ensure that I'm sure there are things out there that they post on Instagram, Twitter, as well as our Facebook Live the the consequences of using firearms. You know, we talk all the time regarding gun safety in the home. These babies are getting guns shooting themselves. So those are public safety announcement that go out on our Facebook Live page. And I know they are posting things to Twitter and to Instagram, but I would ensure that those messages that you spoke of, which are very, very important, everyone needs to hear it, because the young people, not in here, they're on Instagram and home on their phones, and they need to, need to see and hear this message as well.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr Chair,
thank you. And to your point,
we are working
with Teresa blossom to and we've worked with her last couple days to get a mock up of placard, or card, postcard, largest stock size, to put a powerful message in terms of to go out to every resident to this in the city of Detroit, you know. So we are very, very focused of making sure that it's very appealing, and we will be, once we finish the mock up, we'll make sure that all commissioners give some input on that, and maybe get some of the young people in the community, some of the influencers in the community, to take a look at it, but we had determined that every citizen in the city of Detroit need to get a message. Get the message about how dangerous this is. I was there yesterday. I was there day before yesterday. I met with the families and community people. My family was impacted by it. One of my, you know, nieces, her her sister was shot in the neck. The bullet came on her shoulder, you know. And so this is something very, very serious, and I'm very appreciative of meeting with a number of the legislatures, in particular. Legislator, Representative Donovan McKinney, who is our has put together a bill already to be able to ban the bump stops as well as switches in the state of Michigan, because we know that the United States Supreme Court knocked that down. And so let let us all, can you stay vigilant on this particular issue? Uh, had I not been here, I would been at that vigil. And I thank everybody who's rolling up their sleeve to love on that community. And if you have time, go over there and love on that community, bless them and wrap your arms around them, because they very much need it. And Madam Deputy Chief, what I want to ask is that we have had serious concerns about and people coming to us in the meetings, and it's in the media. I want us to put it out and open it as it relates to these 911 calls was three received, four received, if that is, that information getting updated so that we can share with the public. As it relates to how many 911 calls was made free shooting
through the Chair. I'm not sure how many 911, calls were made prior to the shooting occurring. So I can't answer that question now, but I'm sure if the calls came in, they should have been updated that there were shots fired, as if someone called and said there's a block party, and then they call back and said there are shots fired. It definitely goes from a priority three to a priority one. So what Chief White has done, not any call for a block party is a priority. One,
absolutely. And I get that aspect. But you know, the community want to know how many 911, calls were made prior to the shooting and and so those who have been victimized over there, some of the families, this is what they crying out about, and it's all in the media now. And I think that we need to be very, very transparent with this community and see how many 911, calls were made prior to the shooting
through the chair. I will get the information to you. I'm going to send a text out now, hopefully I have before the meeting's over. If not, you would get the first thing tomorrow morning. Thank
you, very kindly,
Mr Chairman. One more very, very brief comment this dispute that happened at the block party principally engaged girls. This is new in Detroit and shocking, probably to many of the females in this audience, that girls are packing, girls are shooting, and girls obviously can't have the ability, obviously, to take someone's life. So I really think that we need an initiative in the city targeted for females in order to address criminal issues. As you know, most of the emphasis is on males, as it should be, because of the plethora of crimes that involve males. But I think that we as sisters and as black women in this community can reach out and do something with this. And I'm really looking at you too, Sherry out there, because this is serious, this. I've never heard of this in my life, anywhere in the country. And this is, I mean, beyond the impact of the block party being a huge, you know, embarrassment to the city, the fact that it's females that is black girls, and we've been taught that Black Girls Rock is particularly disturbing. So we need to do something specifically targeted toward girls in middle school and high school. And
let me remind my colleagues this, we still under the chief of police report and so Commissioner Moore, thank you, Mr Chair, Madam Vice
Chair, one last question, Deputy Chief, will the MPOs be involved in this 80 person mobilization through
the Chair? Yes, they will. The MPOs will be working during the neighborhood response every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, evening into the early morning,
my Madam Vice Chair, then we go to the 6% report.
Okay, thank you. Through the Chair, I'm concerned with a follow up, basically behind Commissioner woods, prior to us coming into this meeting today, audio was released for the 911, recordings dispatching officers out to the scene and basically saying that they couldn't go because they were tied up in another scene. And the operator stated that we have a victim with a gunshot wound to the head and a multiple victim shot, and he clearly stated me and my team can't go. And that was just released at five o'clock, as I was leaving out of the door, coming to the meeting. Okay, that's going to be a huge concern. Who
the chair should be, like you said, happened at five o'clock? I didn't hear it, but I would definitely, I'm sure chief White is all over it, knowing how he is and knowing how I engage, and how passionate he is about keeping everyone this city safe. I'm sure he is going to demand answers, and I'm sure I would get those that responds back to you as well
through the chair. What it sounds as if the team was at another block party. So it sounds that they're like overwhelmed with so many parties going on at the same time, and maybe just in the defense of a massacre was prevented at another block party that could have been the same as Rossini, but they were over there trying to dispatch offices there, get that crowd under control while the other shooting was going on at the next one. However, it was just recorded and placed out to the community, and
I'm sure that has to be peeled back, and all those things need to be investigated. And they need to be very, very transparent. We need to be very, very transparent to the community. With the chair this,
this this agency, this department, under Chief White's leadership, is very transparent. Chief white, once he finds it out what is good, better and different, absolutely, he brings it out. So if, if this did occur, I'm sure chief White will peel back all layers to find out what happened. That's one of the reasons, because the black parties are occurring all over the city. There are multiple ones through throughout each precinct, and that's the reason for the new Response Team. And the numbers have been increased to 40 per per east side and 40 per west side, so we can have a bigger gage and a bigger opportunity to go there and tackle more than one block party at a time.
Thank you. Very kindly. Six precinct
through the Chair. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am vernelle Newsome, the commander of the sixth precinct, and if I could, sir, introduce my staff. With me tonight is CAPTAIN SHANNON Hampton, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Charles Gregory, in charge of my detective unit, Sergeant Lee Brown, my MPO sergeant and my staff sergeant Brandon Pierce, just to give you a little background of the service area that we're responsible for in the sixth precinct. Currently, we cover 16 schools in the precinct, one high school, Cody High School. We cover approximately 14.2 square miles, which is encompass inside of 12 Scout car areas and approximately 80,000 residents and citizens. We are a very aggressive in our and our commitment to the community, and we have a strategy and a plan in place that we believe that will provide resources and also exchange in the community. And as I break the numbers down and talk about that, we'll cover that as well. First off, just to give you a report card for the bi annual numbers here, but the sixth precinct, year to date, that will cover the homicides. We've had four homicides for this year. Last year we had 16, which represents 75% decrease. In sex crimes. There were 19 sex crimes this year, 41 last year, representing 53.7% we're down in robberies this year as well with 58 last year at 70 which is a 17.4% decrease aggravated assaults. We are down, and we're currently at 56 561 I'm sorry, last year there were 682 representing 17.7% the total reduction in part one violent crime for year to date is 21.8% representing we are currently at 648, part one violent crimes moving on to property, some of our pain in the back, if you will, burglaries, larceny both down 17% and 18% at burglaries at 195 year to date, last year was 235 larcenies, which include a lot of our porch pirates, if you Will. At 430 last year was 527 reduction of 18.4% motor vehicle theft. I've been a I work Commercial Auto Theft for 18 years, and Imma tell you, I've never seen numbers like these. Currently for motor vehicle theft, six precinct is down 21.8% representing 340 theft this year compared to last year. At 435 I was doing a time when auto theft was 31,000 theft in the city of Detroit. Oh, that is definitely an accomplishment for us. And overall for part one, property crimes, we have a reduction of 20.5% in non fatal shootings. We're looking pretty good there as well, with 48% reduction for the year, at 26 versus 50 last year, and we have a 35% closure rate with the rest this year. So we're looking very well there, our carjackings are at 50% reduction compared to last year, where this year we're at six. Last year we're at 12. Currently, there are no trends to report. However, we are taking measures to combat the block parties and drag racing, as the deputy chief indicated, and the sixth precinct also has a contingency in the park areas. Knowing that River Rouge is one of our one of the largest parks in the city of Detroit, we are staffing that and doing a great job at it is I can say thank you. At the beginning of the year, there were two cameras, portable cameras, that were deployed in River Rouge is kind of helping us and supporting us in what we're calling virtual patrol. So there have been no incidents in river roads. To date, that's the beginning of the summer, moving right along, going right into the strategy for the sixth precinct. We have a five point strategy first, it involves community engagement that's at all levels. We engage the community at each level so that we can get the bang for our buck and get the bang give that bang right back. That includes our community groups, block clubs, our CB patrol way to go, warrendale. We have also commitment from our stakeholders and just a number of collaborations in the community helping us to reach the areas where we just haven't made contact yet. And some of those entities would include our CVI groups, Detroit, 304th Detroit, also the chaplain Corps, and I must say that Chaplain Mobley the left, but Chaplain mo Mobley and his team are instrumental in helping us when we respond to scenes that are critical, scenes and and people need just more than the police assistance. They come out and they help with prayer and and counseling. Second piece for our strategy is going to be target enforcement. We do a great job with that, and just to give you some results from that, our strategy, target enforcement, had netted us this year, 245 guns taken off the street this year. That's 245 the men and women in blue are busy in the sixth precinct, another constant complaint that I received as commander in the precinct, and actually been commander at several different precinct, precincts on the west side, one of the biggest complaints that I received is traffic. So far this year, we've written 10,694 tickets in the sixth precinct. So I'd like to give kudos to the men and women in blue there at the sixth precinct, we've made 1110 arrests, felony arrests. So we are busy. We are engaged also. Now I can't go without saying our community involvement. I'm proud to say that because of our community abroad involvement, we just started yesterday, three new community groups, community block clubs, and two of them are here tonight. Pardon brown can speak to that, but we have two that that are in attendance tonight. Moving along, we have partnerships with Michigan Department of Corrections, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, who assist us with Park enforcement and with our prostitution stings. We also share and collaborate with Michigan DNR also to help us in the parks. And again, our CVI groups are constantly out there. They're constantly engaged. We had a barber shop meeting, if you will, where the community was invited, and the CVI for Detroit, they were there. They were instrumental in the communication. And it was a success for that. We also, at the sixth precinct share a unique relationship with West Side command teams,
a boss,
any commander on the west side, if I'm there immediately. 10th precinct, second precinct, Fourth Precinct, 12th pre saint, we do it together. So if we have a problem, thank you. If we have a problem in the sixth precinct, we have a problem on the west side and vice versa, moving right along for the third and fourth part of our strategy, investigative. So we've seen where we from the pandemic. There were a lot of aggravated assaults taking place, a lot of domestic violence, if you will. And so we developed a plan, and it's a command accountability, actually, in house, where we actually have a meeting every Tuesday and we talk about each all that's taking place in the precinct that's had that's led up by my detective, Lieutenant, uh, Lieutenant Gregory. And we ensure that we go through each case to ensure that we gave the appropriate response. And so we're doing that, and we are promised and committed to continue to do that. And I spoke about our partners again, the strategies we did a great job with that year to date, and moving right into our program, community programs. We have upcoming community events. We have coming we've started the yoga in the park on Sundays. So that's going to be every Sunday through September, seniors and university Ruth's heart bus tour. That's Thursday, July 18, Detroit United lacrosse that's going to be offered for youth and individuals interested in the game of lacrosse at the body of Christ International in the praise in the park that's going to be July 20. We also have continually senior bingo, and we started our movie night with various community groups. So we'll take a turn and having a movie night kind of take the place of the old drive in environment, if you will. And lastly, just our commitment is just outstanding from our stakeholders. Like to mention a few of them who contribute and assisted us, Detroit Manufacturing Company who manufactures the chairs and wheels in our police cars, they've been very instrumental in the community. A Sherwood food distribution, another ally in our efforts to impact the quality of life in the sixth precinct. And lastly, want to talk about some training that we I thought this would be unique, just for because of where we are in the meeting tonight, we just concluded our first stage of Diversity Equity and Inclusion training, including our second phase of emotional intelligence training for Our officers. We're committed to reduce to eliminate demeanor complaints and hopefully put reduce the backlog. So we're doing we're putting forth our efforts and and committed to the battle.
Thank Thank you, Commander. Come on.
Great report. Commissioner Moore, thank you,
Mr Chairman. I just want to say thank you for your leadership. Between you and Deputy Chief Pritchard, the citizens of the sixth precinct have very little to worry about, because you have what I call battle experience. You've been through the fire. I've seen both of you. When I was a police officer at number 11, I remember seeing snapper, the deputy chief over there, working hard, extremely hard. So 22 of you, your leadership go a long way. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else have something?
Thank you to the chair, Commander Newsome, you spoke about the training, particularly around emotional intelligence to drive down demeanor. I got the two part question. One, what is the size of the precinct in in comparison to other precincts?
Through the Chair the manpower speaking? Or, yeah, okay, here we go. Okay, so we are just under 150 police officers at and detectives and civilians at the sixth precinct?
Yeah, I asked that question because I think we were at the eighth our chief investigator provides us a monthly report of citizen complaints. Yes, sir. And I believe the eighth precinct had the highest and they still do when the response I got back was that is the largest precinct in the city. Well, right under that is the sixth precinct. So I'm, I was trying to get us gage on the size of the precinct and seeing whether or not that might have aided to the sixth precinct being the second number of CCR allegations that we've received in the month of June.
That's, well, we constantly look at that. I know certainly that my team and I, we look at each complaint that comes through as a matter of fact, I get a copy of it. So that's something that we saw in forehand that we needed to immediately get ahead of. And that too, we have one thing that we seen, the disparity in communications because of the different areas that we service, ethnicities, if you will, and a lot of time the communication. We think that in demeanor that is the communication isn't always clear, but to understand another individual's language, their religion, and also, certainly the point that we need to understand as police officers, with citizens just like everybody else. So we just had, we I'm holding them to a higher standard. You know,
I was just grateful that it was a part of your presentation that it's something that you are focused on to try to mitigate, to help us with the backlog, but obviously to help the citizens have a quality police department that doesn't deal with any issues of misconduct, and you don't have this. And so I'm not doing this like they got you, but only to suggest that out of the numbers that we have for June, there are 30 CCR allegations. And I want to be clear the allegations so that that just because they've been filed doesn't suggest that they've been sustained, but 30 of them have come and only five of them were demeanor complaints, the majority of them were procedure complaints. And so I'm sure that we can make sure that you get that information, so that as you all are preparing your strategy around how to assist us, you you'll have these numbers in front of you, yes,
sir, through the chair, my grandfather used to always tell me, always reach for the low hanging fruit. So I know that's something I can control, wise man.
Thank you. Chair,
thank you. Anything further or communications,
mister? Chair, you have 11 speakers. I'll call those in the sanctuary first, and then go into zoom. The first three speakers will be members of our youth advisory panel, a Mulan Rasmus, most
let's, let's give him a hand. I
and could Alexis escato and Angelica Williams line up as well?
They might not be here. Oh, no, sorry, okay, sorry, come on there. Good evening everybody. Good evening commissioners, verbal officials and community members. My name is Rasmus. I am a co lead of the youth advisory panel which serves right directly under this this board, it's immense privilege to join all of you this evening. I'm joined by here by two of our panel members. I'll let them introduce themselves as well. Please
Good evening, everyone. My name is Angelica Williams. I joined the Youth Advisory Panel in its inaugural cohort in 2022 and I've been here since
Hello. My name is Alexis Escoto, also one of the founding members of the inaro group. Back in 2022
it is an immense privilege to join you all tonight, but I do want to take a moment to recognize that we as a panel set our condolences. The community is impacted by this weekend's event. It's tragic to hear that, particularly as we as a panel are focused on how to better engage youth and how to better advance public safety. From a youth perspective, it's really tragic to hear this occurring and but I am hopeful that through collaboration, while we're sitting together, we can continue to advance it and to try to reduce incidents like this. I'll continue with my prepared remarks. The Youth Advisory Panel now in its second year, is tasked with assessing relevant public policy policies, providing recommendations to this board. The Youth Advisory Panel is an innovative example of the bopcs commitment to advancing public safety and civilian oversight. We are here this evening because we want to celebrate 50 years since the inaugural meeting in July, 1974 during this year's term. the Youth Advisory Panel has reviewed, numerous policies. We have engaged in wide ranging, discussions, as a panel, taking insight from all of our lived experiences and backgrounds, while also highlighting the experiences of youth with public safety. Last month, Youth Advisory Panel. A successful forum, particularly focused on summer safety. And it's, you know, the timing was tragic to hear what what occurred and but however, we received positive feedback from other event and I think these weeks, incidents are just more events. We need to continue engaging youth and continue to drive the message that we are all part of the social public safety as we conclude our term this year, I want to thank you all commissioners for your unwavering support of Youth Advisory Panel and your dedication to multi stakeholder engagement, our work would also not be possible without the direction and leadership of Miss Theresa blossom run class for please. She leads us tirelessly and is actively engaged with us. My personal service and Youth Advisory Panel has been an immense privilege. It's enriched my understanding of public safety and bolstered my commitment to the city that we all call home. And as I said earlier, I think collaboration and proximity, I'm convinced that all of us can advance both the safety and prosperity of this great city we call home, and I thank you for your leadership in this critical role. Thank you. Wow, yeah,
if you want to run, man, I fund your campaign, and I got some friends in here. Put some money behind it as well. Give him another hand that whole team y'all, you guys are amazing. Next,
Next will be Robert Daniel and former commissioner Reginald Crawford and Mr jadante Smith.
Is it evening afternoon? I've been here for a minute. Good evening, afternoon and good night. How about that? Want to honor everybody that's here in public service, and also the clergy, Pastor Spencer, haven't met you. I'm a brother, your brother, but God bless you. I want to acknowledge you. Um, Daryl woods, senior, this brother, uh, I'm here. My name Robert, Daniel, too, but I'm here because that's my brother, and I'm inspired by him, but I wanted to come and acknowledge you, man. Because in spite of everything that's going on, I want to kind of like give you your flowers, if you will. I know you, you had, you got plenty work to do, but you come a long way. And for those who don't know his testimony, he's really the definition of what God all things are possible. And if you know it, you know if you don't, you don't, but you need to know it. And I just want to, um, pray and impart God's wisdom and grace and wherewithal to do what you need to do, because I believe in you, man, you got people looking that you don't even know this, looking, and they look at the least of these, right? They're looking at you, man, they can see what God done brought you from what he's doing, and they trust you. And so I just want to encourage you, man, to say, stay focused and be rooting for you. Gonna be working with you hand to hand. I'm part of the public, you know, saying, but I'm willing to get out in the dirt, which so you know you call on me, bro, but you know what it is. God bless everybody. Thanks. Thank you.
Yeah. Good evening commissioners. Good evening chief. My name is Reggie Crawford, a resident of district three, not live not far from the worst mass shooting in the history of Michigan. Let me say that again, 21 shot two dead off of my condolences, family and everyone who was impacted by that. I'm here because what was pathetic, what I observed, and I call it pathetic leadership, when y'all's mayor and y'all stood at a press conference, all of it, who stood at the press conference and police headquarters a safe place, didn't come to the scene virtually every mass Shooting I've seen in America, the mayor elected officials, police chief, they come to the scene. Those people were impacted by that. I kind of suspect why you didn't come to the scene is because of the phone calls that were made two hours prior to the police calling for police. Three questions here, how many phone calls were made, what time they were made and how many police officers were available in that precinct, the ninth precinct, the dispatch, pathetic leadership. Black folk, I'm talking about black pathetic leadership. The reason why because Dr King once said he often talked about black excellence. Y'all the black excellence. He's talked about, y'all ain't representing eight years ago, I was a commissioner, sat on the board as chief Hollywood. Craig about the priority one calls. He stated, it's in the record priority one calls are the green light project property over people, black lives matter in the city of Detroit. Black lives matter in the city of Detroit. So now we come eight years later, and in that scenario, I said, Well, if there's a fight in front of my house and there's a fight in the green light, Okay, which one y'all go to? And that's what he said, Thank you.
Hold on a minute. Madam Vice Chair,
through the Chair. Mr Crawford, previous Commissioner, wherever you are, I'm not sure where you are. Okay? I'm sorry, sir. I don't know about anyone else, but I myself, along with my team, knock doors in 95 degrees the day of the shooting and talk to every single resident within a three block radius to offer any type of resources services and just to get any type of information and basically to console them. That's what I do. Outside of this board, I knocked doors and spoke with the residents, because I'm extremely concerned about what happened that day. This is my concern is, is that this is a massacre that is underrated. This should be on national news, the the children of Oxford receive attention for over two years. We heard about Ethan crumbly. And I'm not not trying to diminish any other community, but I represent the community that I serve and live in, and I represent the people that look like me. And I think that this should have be, this should have been talked about. More should be talked about as what happened, and it should be a national news so I'm in total agreeance with you, sir.
Okay, alright. Thank you. Yes, sir.
My name is Jordan Tay Smith. I would like to say that you know, because y'all going to hate me. Imma come here every time I got something to say. So there's a sergeant dowdy on Homicide. I have, I'm very, very disappointed in Sergeant dowdy. I have three mothers that have that represent other mothers called Mothers keeping boots on the ground. They're complaining about him. So these two victims of this homicide that just happened, they're going to be dealing with homicide detectives, and if Sergeant Dottie is racist and disrespectful to the victims of homicide, we need to do something about that. I also want to say Coleman Young will be rolling over in his grave. The way this board is reacted. What the way this board acts? You guys are green stamping things. I want to speak to that specifically. There's only a few members on this board who actually fight so Willie Burton. Want to give him a major shout out for what he said in the interview. This this board definitely green stamps of myself. I'm so surprised that Lieutenant Cole got suspended without pay, and I feel like if we didn't have a a major video, it would never have been it would never have came today. That man told me I was protesting NAACP. He told me out all the battles I picked. This is the one I picked. He told me I was standing with suburbanites that man. I've been organizing the city for 10 years at church in the Messiah, where force Detroit came out of, where mission liberation came out of Pastor Barry Randolph, who taught me how to do this work 10 years ago. I've been doing it for 10 years. I've been doing this longer than some of you on this board have been doing this work, maybe. And I'm young, but the same time for a white officer to tell me something like that and see like Detroit is ridiculous. Also, I want to say the pastors in this room in this entire city should be ashamed of themselves. The violence in the city is due to the community not stepping up and raising the kids. It takes a village to raise a child, but if the village is retarded, maybe the kid is going to be retarded because nobody is stepping up. It's not about a block party. I don't know where you at. Excuse My French. I know. I understand the church. This is a mega church. I hate to say it. This church I just said this church standing in the community balloon. Story short, if the churches were doing their job, we would have less violence. Alright, that's
your time. Next will be Minister Eric blunt,
Mister Secretary, would you please take time? Let me know when the two minutes
is up. Next will be Minister Eric blunt, Mr James Ford and former Commissioner William Davis. Good
afternoon board. I'm Minister Eric blunt from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and I have to agree with the previous commenter, religious leaders of this community have let us down, and so somebody's gotta stand in the gap and say, Not on my watch. But one of the things I want to make very clear is that poverty generates crime. It is not the other way around. You show me poverty and I'll show you crime. So don't you dare sit there and say that black men are the problem, or black women are the problem. No, poverty is the problem, and until it goes away, you will have these problems persisting. One of the other things I want to say is that I am glad to know that at least one area of DPD is under federal court order supervision, and that is facial recognition technology. Robert Williams, $300,000 court ordered judgment against the Detroit Police Department included this court ordered supervision. You want to know where the police officers are, all you have to look at is facial recognition and technology. There are over 100 police officers and officers of the police department sitting there looking at cameras and video screens of what you're doing and when you're doing it. Surveillance is not safety. Uh, thirdly, uh, OCI chief Warfield sounded the alarm two months ago about a growing trend of citizens being handcuffed without being arrested. I think each and every one of you commissioners should be alarmed as well, but we still haven't heard anything. As far as these resolutions go, sir, everybody deserves one, but not here as we address police officer misconduct.
Thank you. Applause.
The next one. Former commissioner, William Davis, Marvin cotton, Victoria Camille, Mr Ford is coming now. I see him now, Mr Ford, please.
We will you say next?
Mister Ford.
Mister Ford, thank you.
Peace. I just want to say this. We need 1000 people in Lansing, September 18 to talk about red light running and drag racing. It is terrible in this city. It is hard to go tell a child that his brother's not coming home. It's hard to tell a mother that her son is not coming home. It's hard to tell a wife that her husband is not coming home. Either you going to stand up September 18 in Lansing. Are you going to live in agony forever? You have to make decisions all your life. You make a decision to what school you going to go to, you make a decision to what neighborhood you going to live in, you make a decision to who you going to marry, and you make a decision if you go give them a good night kiss. But September 18, we're going to Lansing. We need 1000 people two have the legislators try to enact new laws and enforce the ones that we have on the book. We are sick and tired of this ignorance. There was a cartoon character named Popeye that said, I can't stand it and I can't stand no more, but we just gonna say we can't stand it and we're not gonna stand no more. Some of you people cannot go to Lansing because of your jobs, but those that can go, if you can't stand up for your babies, who can you stand up for? God bless everybody in here. I hope to see you in Lansing, September 18. I love everybody in here, and we gonna try to get something done. We gonna make national attention and let them know we can't take it and we're not gonna have it anymore. God bless everybody. Thank you. Mr cotton
wife told me, Don't talk slow. So dear community members. In light of recent slanderous remarks concerning Dora Woods seniors appointment to the Detroit Police Board of Commissioners and his new role as chairman, it is imperative that we address these unfounded criticisms with a collective voice of support. We often proclaim that we live in a society of redemption, yet when the moment arises to truly prove it, many fall silent. This is not one of those times. Durrell Woods senior is a man whose life work speaks volumes, tirelessly helping others to get back on their feet, literally saving lives, mentoring and building better human beings and advocating for those who haven't found their own voice yet are just a few of the many contributions his work ethics and ethical values have permitted his rise in our society, And the beauty of His heart is undeniable. Who has the audacity to put a ceiling on one of God's creatures, if God Himself forgives and redeems, who are we to place limits on others that we don't measure ourselves with after being directly impacted by poverty, broken homes, surviving disenfranchised communities and prison Dural Woods senior has emerged as a beacon of hope and change. Now there are those who wish to survive. Wish him to survive the stigma and low expectations imposed by a society that often fails to practice what it preaches. Consider this, if we have placed limits on Nelson Mandela, the world would be void of one of the greatest rises from prison to presidency. Does not Dora woods, life have value too. What if Martin Luther King's life work stopped after his mug shot was snapped, this country would never have seen a righteous revolution. Does not Dural woods. Life has value too. If Martin Luther King was caged into the idea that teaching morals and values was not possible at a prison bid, what would the second chances actually look like? Does not Dural woods, life has value too. I got more and I printed it back out to everybody in there. I
it next.
Good evening board for the record, Victoria Camille, district seven, several community members are trying to locate meeting recordings, and they're not published on the website you want to look into. Also on the at the June 27 meeting, Chief white and indicated that he has a strong policy in place regarding legal observers during public comments, I kindly asked the board to provide the public with the directive number of that policy. Commissioner Presley, who was chair at the time, attempted to obtain that information by the end of the meeting, but it has not been received. Can the board kindly provide the direct number for the policy that Chief white indicated is currently in place. Also during the June 20 public comments, I asked the board about four outstanding issues. The first one, on December 21 the board voted to reiterate to the chief that the board wanted the 33 outstanding data and information requests fulfilled. Has the information been received, analyzed by the Board staff and presented to the board and the public. The second one on March. 7, the board voted to write a letter to the DOJ demanding an investigation into the police killing of 70 year old Darryl Vance. Has that letter been written, sent to the DOJ and may public. Number three on May, 23 The board voted to waive the FOIA fees for request number 824, dash 02888, submitted by the CPTA. Please provide a public status on the CPTA receiving those records. And number four, this last one I asked about, is making progress. So I would like to thank Policy Committee Chair Linda Bernard and the policy committee for taking a strong stance on the charges against legal observers by writing a letter to Chief white and Corporation Counsel. We look forward to that letter being sent. Thank you. Next,
former Commissioner William Davis, Deborah price, Jackie hunt and Miss Bernice Smith, then we'll go into zoom.
Hello everyone.
Hello.
Now I have a famous quote to Fannie Lou Hamer. I'm sick of tired of being sick and tired. We need to do some more improvements in our city. We need to do some more improvements in this board. We need to do some more improvement and the members of this board, as you know, I was a former commissioner. During the four years I was on the board, I never missed a meeting. I was never late. I always stayed for the whole meeting. That doesn't happen nowadays. In fact, nobody since I've been on the board has attended as well as mines was I think we need to make sure this board do a better job. I think we need to also make sure the fact that that incident last weekend, or July weekend, it made international news. I had people from your calling asking me about it. I am actively involved in a number of groups. And you know, you say you're going to have, you know, you're going to divide up in between East Side and West Side. There are 1000s more people live on the west side. You know, we need to make sure that it's fair and equitable. A lot of this stuff doesn't and I'm still concerned, as President Detroit chapter, National Action Network, about the way y'all treat legal observers. That's a problem. I think this board also is being the president of a city Detroit retiree group called Detroit active retirement Employees Association. I am concerned that there is not more improvements. There's going to be more lawsuits, you know. So y'all need to have firmer policies. Y'all need to be doing more public service announcements. As I've been saying for years, y'all need to be more proactive, you know. I know a couple of people say they in the community. I'm in the community every day. And more people need to be in the community. More people need to know what's going on. When I was on the board, I used to tell people all the time I go to community meetings if you see something, say something. And if you afraid to say this time, and if you're afraid to say something, tell me I say something. And more of us out here need to be saying stuff. We need to know who our neighbors is. Time you
Hi, next next,
she's walking. She's walking now. All right, you
Okay,
can we have your attention? Attention for you. The mic is yours.
My name is Mrs, Deborah price. I was shot in my driveway. August, 31 2022 nine millimeter, close range. Couldn't find out anything till I kept calling the 12th precinct, the lieutenant Moore, they will not remove her from my case, my doctor made them sign for the bullet that was giving me seizures and blackout. Now they tell me at the 12th precinct what bullet, so I gotta call my doctor and ask him tomorrow who signed for the bullet. It's a joke at the 12th precinct, you cannot get a face to face meeting with Captain rock read this either I'm a community activist. Also. Even though I couldn't walk, I had them wheel me to meetings. I'm an outreach person for healing springs, for people on drugs. I went to school for drug and alcohol counseling. I was born on 12th and Blaine, so I know what it does to the community. I'm an activist, also with the parents, standing up about the sun, shooting people, and in that neighborhood on Greg's Puritan PA and Vice Lords talk with the young man, you got the wrong house. Swatched, I said, you know, they killing people. Swatched. I said, you know, it's a blackout. Stretched. I said, Have you drunk high? Go get you something to eat from the Coney Island across from Mary Grove College. Nothing. I've been shot twice in my knee, twice in my thigh, twice in my back on the right one on the left. That was making me have seizures. That's the bullet they have. And nobody can tell me nothing. Police white. They said you can't see him unless you doing a news interview or a press conference. The mayor, same thing. But then so many months ago, what I told the lieutenant to tell police white, he gets on TV, word for word, saying what I said, Miss price. I'm real livid right now. I can't get no help.
Would you respond to that?
Deputy Chief, Deputy Chief
through the chair, Lieutenant Gregory. Could you give a miss price and take down her information? Give it all to me so I can make sure that she gets what she's entitled to.
And also, I want to let you know when detector more came to the hospital with blood all over me, sniggling, giggling. Okay, okay. Police Officers,
Lieutenant
What is she teaching?
Thank you. Miss price, yep, go ahead next.
Mr Hunt, Mr Jackie hunt,
hello and thank you for having this community meeting. We need them, and don't stop. And I think, and thankful for Coleman Young and those that started in the 70s. I'm here because of a complaint of an abandoned vehicle complaint, and it's my vehicle, and it was in front of the my house, and I went to the second precinct the same day that I got it, they kind of assured me, or tried to assure me, that you put the sticker visible so they can see it's a temporary sticker, and you won't, or you shouldn't, have any problems. This is the first one. Here's the second one that came on a Monday. This one came on a Friday. This one came on the Monday. For some reason, different people. And so I went downtown. They tell me it's the wrong place, and they sent me to Palmer Park. So I went out there, and I spoke with OCI, chief investigator, Office of chiefs, chief investigator. I spoke with an investigator. Her name is Hiller, and it seemed like she wasn't going to write a complaint. She seemed to judge it. She says that's not officer misconduct. I said, What to have to do? Tore my vehicle at $125 and then what? $15 a day, and I get maybe 500 $1,000 bill, then it might be misconduct when I tried to stop it at the beginning. So it seems like it's they just made excuses for how it happened. And why are you parking near a fire hydrant? Are you parked on the grass? Where are you parked? Is there anything in front? No, no, no. And then officer brought up a Google satellite picture from maybe 14 years ago. Thank you very much, but that I parked in front of the house at the curb, so I guess I'm waiting for my 90 days for it to be reviewed and assigned to an investigator, and I'm looking out my window night and day and mornings too. Thank you, sir. If my car is still there,
thank you. Yep, chief investigator, would you respond to that?
We will then through the chair. We're certainly on follow up investigator Hiller to get the details, and we'll, we'll give you an update to the case. Okay,
thank you. Through the Chair. DC Pritchett, is there anyone that he can talk to about the stickers being put on his vehicle
through the chair I'll have he's going to get him talk to him right now. I'm thinking number six,
Miss Smith, and then we'll go on to zoom.
Thank you. Good.
Good evening,
everyone.
Good evening.
I am proud to be in Spencer Ellis's church. I'm from Chicago, originally born and raised in New York, Daddy, how about that? I can tell you much, daddy, and when I got out of high school and everything. So we'll talk. Imma. Tell you I told your brother already years ago, but anyway, seriously speaking, you guys, I'm glad to be here because this event is so outrageous, it's a shame with the people that come and appear here. If you have a problem with the police, I know most of you go to the police and take care of it. This young man here and all hundreds of them, put that uniform on, and I said all the time, every day, to protect us. Us, not somebody outside of Detroit, us their lift. Lifting neck, my teeth is bad. They're risking their lives, and don't worry about it. But the fact is, these two agitators and the other one over there, every week they come. I'm dear speak to the chair. That's my son's friend, so I gotta be nice. He'll tell my son on me. But anyway, I just want to let you know I've been in politics since 73 that man up there put me on the Police Commission Board, and I'm still working and talking about the board. The fact is, if they do wrong, I will tell them about it. I'm the first one to tell them about it. They're not perfect. We have people that come every week and just agitate, agitate and talk. Why don't you have a solution? That's what I say, a solution that the board know what they're doing and have a solution for instead of complaining all the dog on time. But I just want to let you know. I want the public to know we got a hell of a good police department. I'm going to the convention next month in Chicago, and I'm
already fine. Anyway,
I love my police department. Thank you.
Next we on Zoom.
Our last speaker is election integrity rule. Go ahead
to the members in attendance, Commander pitcher, if you're still there, congratulations, Mr woods, on your swaying and appointment as the chairman of the Detroit board of police commissioners. I want to tell everybody within the sound of my voice, as a little lady, um, she was five years old at the time, and she asked me for help with her mother. Tanisha Coleman, DPD, case number two, zero, dash, 11112, right now there's a Michigan State Police Report. It's just say there's not enough evidence to deem determine that Kenisha was a suicide. There's physical evidence that doesn't exist, and there's not enough evidence to demon a homicide either, so technically it should be labeled correctly. Now I want to switch into election. Elections here in the United States of America, state of Michigan, especially Detroit, we got absentee ballot voter fraud, election fraud occurring at the Detroit Department of Elections case, federal case, two, colon, two, four. Dash, CV, dash, 11072, outlines that absentee ballot voter fraud. There were numerous cases. Now I'm going to tell everybody, y'all votes don't mean nothing. They all goes to lead directly to Department of Elections in the state of Michigan, Secretary of State's office for registering voters and the city of Detroit for casting ballots. They use Eric, which I call now the cheat code every elected position in the city of Detroit is now highly in question every elected position.
Okay, alright, thank you for those who gave public comments and everything, we would take it in and move as we can according to the charter. So let's go to the presentation of the boards. We got the six precinct Police Community Relations Council. Miss Mary McGee, you
you have 10 minutes.
10 minutes, if you could do it in two, that's good.
Good afternoon. Welcome all. My name is Mary McGee. I am the proud president of the sixth precinct community relation. Going to make this real brief. Six precinct Community Relations Council meeting will be held last Wednesday of every month. This will be our first meeting since the pandemic. It will be July the 31st at 7pm at 11, 450, Warwick, if you have any questions or concern, you can call area code, 313-593-5663,
and again. Welcome all.
Thank you so much. I'm buying you a steak dinner.
Absolutely, yes.
So let's go to I believe the Secretary
report. Yeah, Mr Chair Currently has four incoming correspondence, and I won't go through them because they're in your book as they are listed on the agenda and Mister Chair, with your permission, I go straight to announcement, yes. The next bopc meeting is July 18, 2024, 3pm it'll take place at Detroit Public Safety head headquarters that addresses 130, 1/3, street. The next community meeting would be Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 6:30pm with the fifth precinct hosting at WC three the Eastern campus. That address would be 5901, Connor Street, and Mr chair the monthly committee meetings scheduled for July 2024, the policy committee meeting would be meeting Tuesday, July 23 2024, at 5:30pm 5pm all the meeting can be is take its place Detroit Public Safety headquarters. And can also be viewed on Zoom and Mister Chair. Those are the announcement.
Thank you very much. And I want to just, you know, thank Pastor Alice again. You know, good to be here with him. And thank you for this community, 6% and thank you for Commissioner Moore for his leadership business precinct. Pastor Alice is a stellar guy. We have passed out. I've helped raise probably over 3000 book bags and supplies for the students over here. He have given over $100,000 worth of gas to the citizens here, and have fed them with 1000s and 1000s of pounds of food, and has been a stellar member of this community, this church has bought and paid for he he's there to sacrifice his time and his life, and so I want to thank him for his leadership, and I think we should give him a round of applause, even in the spirit of his father. Yup, any new business policy report,
quickly, I'm going to take a page from the book of our previous speaker. That's Ms McGuire. McGee, I apologize. Ms McGee, one minute report. Policy Committee met very distinguished committee professors of law. Everyone was involved, and we met about a letter that we received from Congresswoman Rashida Talib about the mistreatment of legal observers by the Detroit Police Department, or what they stated was the mistreatment of legal observers. Myself and board president Woods reviewed the video regarding what happened to the legal observers, and we concurred with the congresswoman Rasheed statements in her letter, pursuant to that you'll be able to see it. I'm not reading it. We don't have that kind of time. We sent a letter to the chief of police and to Conrad mallet Corporation Counsel, asking that those legal observers that received tickets for exercising their First Amendment rights as observers be dismissed. So we'll we report back to you when we get a response from the chief and from Conrad mallet, end of the report.
Thank you. Any questions? There have been any questions. Commissioner Hernandez,
thank you through the chair. We just want an update on the case
through the chair. In regards to you and the other Commissioner, Liberty Smith, question regarding how many calls of 911, there were a total of 47 calls. Three calls were made prior to the shooting, and 44 calls were made during and after the shooting.
Thank you. That's it, alright.
What's your pleasure? I move it, we are here. Second, support. Yes, motion made by Commissioner Presley. Second, by Commissioner, Bernard, all the favorite show, by raising the hand. Anyone opposed. The motion carries. Meeting adjourning. Yes.