Detroit Board of Police Commissioners

The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is the civilian oversight organization of the Detroit Police Department. The current 11-member board has broad supervisory authority over the department.[1]

Board of Police Commissioners
Board overview
Formed1974
HeadquartersDetroit Public Safety Headquarters, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Board executives
  • Lisa Carter, Acting Chairman
  • Eva Garza Dewaelsche, Vice-Chairman
Parent BoardGovernment of Detroit
Child Board
Websitewww.detroitmi.gov/Boards/BoardOfPoliceCommissioners

History

The Detroit City Charter was enacted in 1865, the Michigan Legislature allowed for a commission of four members to be appointed by the Governor to oversee the Detroit Police Department for eight-year terms.[1] Since 1974, the Detroit Police Commission has been charged with police department oversight regarding policy and rules, budget approval, officer discipline and citizen complaints.[2]

Detroit Electoral Districts Map

The current charter was enacted in 2012 by a vote of Detroit residents.[3][1] The body lost its power when the city became bankrupt in 2013, when Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr executed Executive Order 11.[4] This authority was restored by a vote of the Detroit City Council in September 2015.[2]

Composition and authority

Board of Police Commissioners has 11 members, seven are elected from each Police Commission District and four are appointed by the Mayor.[1]

Current members
District Commissioner[5] Position In office since
District 1 Darryl Brown
District 2 Evette Griffie
District 3 Shirley A. Burch
District 4 Willie Bell
District 5 Willie Burton
District 6 Lisa Carter Chair
District 7 William M. Davis
At-large Eva Garza Dewaelsche Vice Chair
At-large Jim Holley
At-large Annie Holt
At-large Elizabeth Brooks

Districts

Police Commissioner districts have identical boundaries to the City Council districts. Each commissioner serves a four-year term.

Controversy

Open Meetings Act

Members and non-members have criticized the Commission for violations of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. On April 4 2019 Robert Davis brought suit against the Board alleging that they had been meeting privately with upper-tier members of the Detroit Police Department regarding personnel and business contracts. In response Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Hathaway ordered then Chairman Willie Bell to a show cause hearing because the Judge was considering a temporary restraining order against the Board.[6]

At the April 11 2019 Board meeting Fifth District Commissioner Willie Burton moved to open all committee meetings to the public. This was the third meeting at which he had made the motion and it failed to be seconded. [7]

On October 14 Detroit’s office of the Inspector General found that the Board of Police Commissioners abused its authority by delegating hiring power to its secretary, Gregory Hicks.[8] The Inspector General initiated the investigation after receiving a complaint on November 14 2019.[9] The investigation concluded that the Commission abused its authority in 2016 BOPC by delegating its Charter-mandated authority to Hicks, which the report said caused violations of the Michigan Open Meetings Act afterwards.[10][11]

Facial Recognition Technology Debate

The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners received global notoriety after the newly appointed Chair Lisa Carter had Police arrest Commissioner Willie Burton during a meeting.[12][13][14] Carter said Burton was arrested for speaking out of turn, while Burton said it was an attempt to silece citizen voices.[15] Many community members had shown up to the meeting to express their disapproval of facial recognition technology.[16] Some of them wore masks in protest.[17]

Facial recognition technology became a matter of local public interest on June 13 of 2019 when The Board held a meeting to defend a proposed policy on the technology, and to hear public comments. They had scheduled a vote on the technology for June 27. The meeting came a year after Detroit agreed to pay surveillance vendor a million dollars in order to stream live video to locations where they could monitor it. The Detroit Police had been using the technology for two years at the time of the meeting.[18]

Following the July 11 arrest Detroit became divided over the technology.[19] At later meetings the ACLU and other community organizations expressed opposition to use of the technology by law enforcement.[20]

The Board approved a facial recognition technology policy on September 19 2019 with more restrictions then the Police Department originally asked for.[21][22]

gollark: Crabs are approximately orange, see.
gollark: Is this related to carcinization?
gollark: Well, you know what they say; "OH BEES THEY ARE COMING FOR ME ÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆ [stream lost]".
gollark: Oh, well, all is to be colorized anyway.
gollark: Yes, ALL is to be colorized?

See also
  • Government of Detroit, Michigan
  • List of mayors of Detroit, Michigan

References
  1. "Police Commissioners History". City of Detroit. Archived from the original on 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
  2. "City Council restores Detroit Police Commission power stripped by EM". MLive. Booth Newspapers.
  3. "Detroit, Michigan city council elections, 2013". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  4. "Powers restored to Detroit police civilian review board". The Detroit News. December 20, 2015.
  5. "Board of Police Commissioners". City of Detroit.
  6. Brand-Williams, Oralandar (April 4, 2019). "Suit accuses Detroit police board of meeting in secret". detroitnews.com. The Detroit News. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  7. Hunter, George (April 12, 2019). "Police board member wants open committee meetings". The Detroit News. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  8. Hunter, George; Ferretti, Christine (October 14, 2019). "Report blasts police board for improper hiring, open meetings violations". The Detroit News. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  9. "Report finds Detroit police staff abused its authority, manipulated hiring practices and lied". Local 4 WDIV. Detroit. October 14, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  10. "Detroit Police Board Blasted For Manipulated Hiring". Deadline Detroit. Detroit. October 15, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  11. Catolico, Eleanore (October 23, 2019). "Detroit Police Oversight Board Confronts Abuse of Authority Report". WDET 101.9 FM. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-10-28. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  12. "Detroit is quietly using facial recognition to make arrests". South China Morning Post. Detroit. August 19, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  13. Perkins, Tom (August 22, 2019). "Detroit is quietly using facial recognition to make arrests". Taipei Times. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  14. "Detroit cops arrest their own police commissioner at heated meeting over facial recognition (VIDEO)". RT News. Detroit. July 13, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  15. Schanz, Jenn (July 12, 2019). "'Yesterday this happened to me. Today this could happen to you,' Detroit Police Commissioner responds after his arrest at meeting". wxyz.com. WXYZ Action News. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  16. Dupnack, Jessica (July 11, 2019). "Detroit police board commissioner member arrested at meeting". FOX 2 Detroit. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  17. Hunter, George (July 12, 2019). "Detroit police commissioner removed from raucous meeting in handcuffs". detroitnews.com. The Detroit News. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  18. Campbell, Alan (June 27, 2019). "Detroit police defend facial recognition technology amid criticism". wxyz.com. WXYZ Action News. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  19. Einhorn, Erin (August 22, 2019). "A fight over facial recognition is dividing Detroit — with high stakes for police and privacy". NBC News. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  20. Hunter, George (September 18, 2019). "ACLU urges Detroit police board to vote no on facial recognition technology". The Detroit News. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  21. Neavling, Steve (September 20, 2019). "Facial recognition technology approved in Detroit despite mounting opposition". Detroit Metro Times. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  22. Einhorn, Erin (September 19, 2019). "Detroit police can keep using facial recognition — with limits". NBC News. Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
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