Board of Police Commissioners
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Criminal Justice
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
3:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m. EST
Remote
Join meeting on Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81981390642
Check the source website for additional information
Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team
Note-taking by
Tarrah Nelson
Commissioners and public commenters question the reasoning for DPD's takeover of policing the DDOT bus system from the transit police. CFO Nevrus Nazarko presented the police department's budget request for FY 2025, which was approved by the board.
Live reporting by
Nathaniel Eichenhorn
Commissioners and public commenters question the reasoning for DPD's takeover of policing the DDOT bus system from the transit police. CFO Nevrus Nazarko presented the police department's budget request for FY 2025, which was approved by the board.
Nachum Eichenhorn
@NachumDetroit
Hello!, I’ll be live-tweeting today's Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting for #DETdocumenters!
@DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @Michigan_Public @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
@DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @Michigan_Public @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
01:39 PM Feb 22, 2024 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."
The meeting has been called to order at 3pm. Rev. Angela Stallworth it's giving the invocation.
Since the board doesn't presently have a quorum, they are going to move on to agenda items that do not require one.
Chairman Pressley is going to go to Publix comment right by away.
A local minister is discussing what he describes as rampant police corruption.
He mentioned a recent case where Wayne Co had to pay $10 million to a man because police had concealed material evidence on his case.
There seems to be a quorum. The roll is as follows:
Bell: present
Smith: present
Bernard: present
Bernard: present
Banks: present
Burton: present
Carter: absent
Gamble: absent
Woods: present.
Bell: present
Smith: present
Bernard: present
Bernard: present
Banks: present
Burton: present
Carter: absent
Gamble: absent
Woods: present.
A quorum being present, the chair has moved to approve the minutes, agenda, and closed sessions minutes from last week. All are approved in succession at 3:07pm.
Comm'r Brown moved that public comment be moved to after the department presentations, he got no seconds so the agenda stays as it is.
Now Commissioner Bell is reading a proposal to recognize Lt. Rodney Cox of the DPD
Chairman Pressley is making clear that these recognitions should remain relevant to police matters. He worries the profusion of recognitions is diluting the impact of the awards.
The report is detailing calls that require help from the public. 4 shootings of young people in the City. One of which was a Shotspotter alert which led to the discovery of a deceased gunshot victim.
Comm'r Burton asks how effective Shotspotter has been considering it's significant costs. He asks if the DPD has numbers.
Mr. Burton mentioned that Chicago is cancelling its Shotspotter program. He asks about lawsuits.
A judge in New York has ruled that Shotspotter is unreliable, and a man was just exonerated in Chicago. Off. Fitzgerald replied that those cases are not in Detroit and Detroit is a unique city with unique needs.
Comm'r Bernard criticizes Fitzgerald for not having answers to very basic questions. Adds that it is perfectly reasonable to look at other places and their success.
it's clear Shotspotter remains controversial even amongst the board.
A sentiment echoed amongst the board is disappointment at the DPD lack of relevant information prepared for the meeting.
Each week the Comm'rs have asked for more numbers and information from the report. Each week they ask about the same things and each week the Department says they have info, but never with them at that moment. And then the same is true the following meeting.
Mr. Burton has sharply criticized, to paraphrase, the idea of installing electronic surveillance in one of the poorest, Blackest cities in America
First comment is very upset! She finds the DPD is unfairly criticized. Says Chicago is a mess, and Detroit is doing much better.
The president of the 2nd precinct is speaking publicly to encourage enrichment programs in Elem. schools and asks that the DPD encourage more interactions with schoolchildren to decrease fear of the police.
Moving to Zoom callers, our fist caller is concerned about police presence on public transportation, and thinks officers need training to better interact with the public, and help remediate bad incidents.
Note: DPD is taking over the responsibilities of DDOT as transit police.
Comm'r Bernard joins in question why exactly DPD felt the need to take over transit policing at all? Fitzgerald responds that DPD is the premier organization in the country and he constantly gets glowing reports.
Burton reiterates that her question is WHY this is taking place. Fitzgerald responds that people love the DPD and states again they have been asked to take over. Burton again asks WHY this is so.
Chair Pressley suggests, after Burton's "why" is again unanswered, that perhaps the question could be presented formally in writing and moves on to the next public comment.
The next commenter claims that DPD is freely sharing Shotpsotter data with other cities, and has no publicly stated policy with regard to Shotspotter use.
Former Commissioner calls in to add his voice to the criticism of DPD for taking over transit policing from DDOT.
The report is being delivered by CFO Nevrus P. Nazarko. The full report can be read here:
detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm…
Nazarky predicts DPD will be unable to fund its proposed capital expenditures this year. he does not know which specific projects might experience a funding shortfall.
Comm'r Burton comments that he doesn't really understand why Detroit is in the towing business and asks if the City is making a profit.
Nazarky promises that the City is not losing any money on towing. He reports that towing is supported by a separate fund that is funded by the towing fines themselves. And from time to time a surplus has been allocated from the fund the the DPD generally.
BTW: Just for clarity, the City of Detroit has been doing its own towing since 2018.
I'm sorry I see now I wrote "Nazarky" and that was a typo. As I said before, the CFO's name is Nevrus Nazarko.
Comm'r Burton is criticizing Shotspotter again and asking if the $400,000 allocated for the program could be reinvested somewhere else (it's more of a comment than a question, and Chair Pressley says Nazarko doesn't need to answer it.)
Fitzgerald is now speaking again and is giving positive Shotspotter statistics. Fitzgerald is raising his voice and pointing his finger. He says "I don't know how you could NOT fund it!"
Comm'r Bernard asked about a seeming discrepancy in Shotspotter numbers. Nazarko clarifies.
Bernard and Pressley had a heated exchange about Bernard's questions, and Burton and Fitzgerald quickly had an exchange with a similarly brusque tone.
Now Burton is speaking to Nazarko. Burton just referred to police equipment as "their toys"
Comm'r Burton would like to know exactly how much money, how much equipment. and precisely what equipment has been acquired by DPD from two separate DoD programs to provide military-grade equipment/weaponry to local PDs
There are a couple more public comments that came in a bit late and the Board will now hear from them.
The present Zoom commenter is concerned about city expenditures and oversight. And urges the DPD to take missing persons cases more seriously.
Now the Board is moving on to new business starting with the Policy Committee Report by Comm'r Bernard
The Policy Committee Report is a report on the previous meeting of the Policy Committee and the PPT from that committee can be found on their website.
Issues discussed included the issue of eyewitness identification in criminal cases. More exonerations are due to witness ID issues than due to any other single cause.
The Board voted to go into closed session regarding a police officer. The session was closed at 4:51. I'll let everyone know when they reconvene!
Comm'r Bernard has a question in which she inadvertently revealed information that was privileged
She mentioned a felony was involved, and said that the officer in question has not been convicted, and that there must be some desk job the officer can be stuck in so he can keep getting paid.
Carter introduced an amendment to honor all former board members for the past 50 years.
Carter's motion re: recognizing former board members through resolutions is being discussed. Topics include appropriate times and dates for such recognitions, and what has already been done to recognize former Board members.
The amendment to write resolutions for all comm'r in the last 50 yrs is called
Roll is:
pressley no
bell no
smith no
bernard yes
Banks yes
Burton yes
Carter no
Woods no
Roll is:
pressley no
bell no
smith no
bernard yes
Banks yes
Burton yes
Carter no
Woods no
The motion to recognize Holt and Holly passes with a voice vote
Roll call to accept the Chief's recommendation regarding suspending the officer w/o pay has already been taken:
Pressley: yes
Bell: yes
Smith: yes
Bernard: no
Banks: yes
Burton: yes
Carter: yes
Woods: yes
Pressley: yes
Bell: yes
Smith: yes
Bernard: no
Banks: yes
Burton: yes
Carter: yes
Woods: yes
Pressley, Burton and Bernard are heatedly discussing the budget and the budget report.
Burton is attempting to postpone voting to adopt the budget, and Chairman Pressley is declaring those attempts out of order.
Burton is saying the report is delivered too late, is too vague and the Board's questions are not being answered.
Roll call is being called for the budget
pressley yes
bell yes
smith yes
bernard no
banks yes
burton no
carter no
woods yes
aye
pressley yes
bell yes
smith yes
bernard no
banks yes
burton no
carter no
woods yes
aye
The meeting was just adjourned at 5:55. It got very heated just at the end. There were accusations of rubber-stamping, there were invocations of shame. Real quick vote, lots of objections.
Well folks, this closes my coverage of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting for February 22, 2024. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings at
documenters.org
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.
Attachments
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
Documents
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
2/22/2024
More from this agency
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024
3:00 p.m. EDT
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024
5:00 p.m. EDT
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024
3:00 p.m. EDT
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024
3:00 p.m. EDT
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024
6:30 p.m. EDT