Board of Police Commissioners - Evening Community Meeting
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Criminal Justice
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Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team
Live reporting by
Carole Hawke-Diop
BOPC meeting long on praise, short on oversight.
Hello, Detroit Documenters! I will be live-tweeting for the weekly meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners for DETdocumenters @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @MichiganRadio @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit.
05:12 PM Dec 14, 2023 CST
“The Board of Police of Commissioners was created in 1974 by City Charter, which was adopted by the vote of the people. The Charter vests broad supervisory authority over the Police Department in the eleven-member civilian Board of Police Commissioners.”
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detroit.documenters.org/reporting/?age…
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Vice chair Jim Holley calling meeting to order. Chair QuanTez Pressley not in attendance because not feeling well.
Commissioners present are Holley, Smith, Barnard, Banks, Bell, Gamble. with Pressley having an excused absence. Not in attendance are Burton, Carter, Moore, and Hernandez.
Others in attendance include representatives from DPD and from elected officials' offices (offices of State Rep. Tyrone Carter and City Councilman Fred Durhall III).
Meeting is being held at Little Rock Family Life Center. A rep from the center welcomed BOPC and described all the ways the center serves the community.
Discussion about which 2024 BOPC calendar should be approved. Unanimous approval of Option B.
Reading of resolution honoring Dr. Willie White for his work with youth in our schools.
Reading of resolution honoring Ayanna Henderson, who works with Dr. White at Frederick Douglass Academy.
Moving on to community impact report. Jerome Warfield, chief investigator, reporting. Warfield going over mission statement, which entails ensuring citizen confidence in DPD through transparency.
Have 1,436 open cases. Of these 1,012 are more than 90 days old and 424 are less than 90 days.
In November, had old 12 investigators and 3 supervisors. Still able to close or submit 78 cases. A submitted case is one which has been written up and submitted to quality review for correction. All cases go to Warfield's desk before being sent to BOPC.
Have hired 4 additional investigators who will start on January 8 and are posting to hire more.
November had a lower closure rate because the investigators were in Chicago for a weeklong conference.
November saw 149 citizen complaints and 357 allegations. Uptick related to language and how officers speak to citizens.
Trend toward more allegations being sustained because they relate to officers' body-worn cameras. Problems with officers turning off their body-worn cameras before end of incident.
Comment from Commissioner Bernard: There needs to be a sanction for an officer who turns off their camera before the conclusion of an incident. The board has passed a resolution that any time this happens the allegation is automatically sustained.
Holley asked how complaints from citizens go to the police department. Also asked what is being done to bring these complaints down.
Franklin Hayes is the deputy chief representing DPD. Hayes reporting: One member disabled and recovering at home from an on-duty incident. He was shot in the leg in line of duty in August. Has had surgery and is recovering.
Crime data for 2023 from Franklin Hayes: 237 homicides, 18% decrease from last year. 777 fatal shootings, 15% decrease from last year. This is 188 fewer victims of gun violence in 2023 versus 2022.
Pursuing partnerships with agencies which serve those with mental health needs. Stats for mental health (non-violent, violent, violent non-armed, suicide attempt in progress, suicide threats). There were 14,179 total mental health calls in 2022 and 15,298 in 2023.
Update on Samantha Woll investigation. On December 9, suspect arrested and questioned. On Dec 12, warrant submitted, and today arraigned for felony murder, home invasion, lying to an officer.
Update on fatal shooting of 5 year old child. Victim along with 5 other children were left alone in apartment with unsecured handgun. Parents were outside fixing car. Parents arrested On Dec 12, parents arraigned and charged with homicide, manslaughter, child abuse, felony arms.
Deputy Chief Hayes gave info about holiday programs, including sponsoring families for Christmas gifts.
Question from commissioner regarding whether the weapon involved in the fatal shooting of the 5 year old was illegally obtained. Deputy Chief not certain but assumes it was based on the charges.
Commissioner Bell offering thanks to the hard work of the homicide division.
Captains Jevon Johnson and Lawrence Purifoy promoted to Commander. Reasons for these promotions read by Deputy Chief Hayes. BOPC unanimously approved these and offered thanks for hard work of Johnson and Purifoy.
Bernard sharing that Nathan Duda is Ukranian with dual US-Canadian citizenship and has lost family members in the Ukraine war. She highlights that Jim Holley made a trip to Poland with lots of supplies for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. Wants photo of Holley with Duda.
Comment #3 objecting to the end of the recorder’s court– rolling it into the county court was a racial injustice. (1997)
Commenter #4 spent 36 years in prison. Transformed self, thinking while in prison. Stopping of violence must come from neighborhoods.
Commander #5 reminding that we need more investigators because the main job of BOPC is to investigate complaints. Also objecting to earlier description of George Floyd protests as ‘riots’-- in Detroit, they were mostly peaceful. Detroiters don’t destroy their own city.
Commenter #7 - Ray Baker of ACLU. Addressing mobile fingerprint technology obtained in Oct 2023. There was no specification report to accompany DPD’s request. This is an error of procurement procedure.
(Baker cont.) Conducted a FOIA. ACLU determined that a specification is required for city council to approve the contract. Urging board to conduct inquiry, pause procurement.
(Info about this was provided to the BOPC in their packets for this meeting.)
Commenter #8 - Former commissioner William Davis. Looking forward to Holley’s replacement who will be a unique addition to the board. Need adequate police in communities. Also need good investigation of complaints. This is job of BOPC.
Presentation from Leslie Malcolmson, 3rd Precinct Police Community Relations Council. Highlighted unique things about precinct 3.
Presentation is getting lengthy and is a list of amenities in the precinct and activities the council undertakes.
Using a lot of time at BOPC meetings for presentations like this and for resolutions takes up time which is not related to police oversight.
Commissioner asked if Malcolmson could have more time, but Holley said, "I gave her 8 minutes more than she was supposed to have!"
DPD rep for 3rd precinct also spoke. Year to date, homicides down 35%, sexual assaults down 16%, fatal shootings down by almost 50%, carjackings down almost 50%. Larcenies up 20% from last year.
Discussed tactics for dealing with different types of crimes. Precinct's victims advocate works with domestic violence victims to get personal protection orders.
Holley expressed concern about how police department will deal with all the development in this area. How will the force manage this with current personnel? Answer: will be bringing in more police officers to the precinct.
Included in binder for BOPC commissioners are memoranda about ACLU's concerns (stated earlier) and about something else-- I didn't catch what.
Next BOPC meeting is 12/21/23 at 3, and next community meeting is 1/11/24 at 6:30 at Northwest Activities Center.
Candidate Akari Jenkins did not accept board's appointment to analyst position. Mary Barber selected as candidate to offer position if Jenkins declined. Motion to make contingent offer for analyst position with salary of $72,694 to Mary Barber pending background check.
Commissioner Cedric Banks going over what he had talked about last week regarding $35,000 embezzlement case. Individual was supposed to get $3,500 every two weeks. But she was getting $14,000, $8,000.
Vice chair Holley asked Banks to bring this up again next week when Chair Pressley is back. Banks said that he would. Holley does not want to overstep.
Commissioner Rory Gamble read something-- I'm not sure what! But I can summarize what was in it.
There was report of a police-community summit. According to report, this is a step in the right direction. The board will get updates on future workshops.
Said that Warfield’s focus on body-worn camera is having good effect on officer compliance. Warfield has training scheduled for investigators regarding body-worn cameras so they will better understand the complaints which come in.
Banks moved to approve Citizens Complaint Committee recommended process for Formal Resolution Process of OCI Citizen Complaints Appeal Standard Operating Procedures.
Warfield was asked to clarify. Warfield explained that if a citizen is not pleased with the outcome of an investigation, they can appeal it back to BOPC and BOPC will be final decision-maker.
Bell motions to remove Victoria Shah from her position due to poor performance. Seconded. Holley said that he does not feel comfortable with this without Pressley present.
Banks said that Shah hasn't even been here for a year. Let's let her have a year. She's been working hard.
Holley asked Burton to have a substitution motion to table this, in accordance with parliamentary procedure.
Gamble expressed that this is a major decision, and it needs to be held off until the chairman and the parliamentarian are present.
Holley said he will call the roll rather than calling for a 5 minute recess. Clarification is that a 'yes' will be a call to terminate Shah and a 'no' will be to put this off to a future week or not discuss it at all.
Shah pointed the BOPC commissioners to language in their binder regarding how to dismiss an employee. This exact language should be used to clarify the motion.
Commissioner Bell wants to persist with removal of Victoria Shah. He has a hard time finding the exact wording in his binder, so Shah explains to him where to find it in the binder. She offers to take the copy out of her binder and pass it down.
Roll call: Holley -N Smith -N Banks - N Bell - Y Burton - N Carter - Y Hernandez - N Gamble - N
This was my coverage of the Board of Police Commissioners meeting for December 14th, which was free of interpersonal drama, until it wasn't.
Once again, if you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, email documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" subject line.
For more information, including transcripts of the meeting, go to detroit.documenters.org/reporting/
detroit.documenters.org/reporting/
Attachments
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Agency Information
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
The Board of Police Commissioners has supervisory control and oversight of the Police Department, including plenary authority over citizen complaints and the power to appoint fact finders, subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony, and require the production of evidence. The Board also appoints a civilian as Director of Police Personnel and approves all promotions made by the Chief. The 11 member board is comprised of 7 elected members from each city council district and 4 members appointed by the Mayor. https://detroitmi.gov/government/boards/board-police-commissioners
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