Detroit Board of Police Commissioners

Last updated
Board of Police Commissioners
Board overview
Formed1974
Headquarters Detroit Public Safety Headquarters, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Board executives
  • QuanTez Pressley, Chair
  • Jim Holley, Vice-Chair
Parent Board Government of Detroit
Child Board
Website www.detroitmi.gov/Boards/BoardOfPoliceCommissioners

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]

Contents

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 Detroit-Council-District-Map.png
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. [5]

Current members

DistrictCommissioner [6] PositionIn office since
District 1Vacant
District 2Linda D. Bernard2020
District 3Cedric Banks2022
District 4Willie Bell2014
District 5Willie Burton2014
District 6Lisa Carter2014
District 7Ricardo Moore2022
At-Large, AppointedAnnie Holt2019
At-Large, AppointedJim HolleyVice-Chair2018
At-Large, AppointedJesus M. Hernandez2020
At-Large, AppointedQuanTez PressleyChair2022

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 alleged 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. [7]

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. [8]

On October 14, Detroit’s Office of the Inspector General found that the Board of Police Commissioners had abused its authority by delegating hiring power to its secretary, Gregory Hicks. [9] The Inspector General initiated the investigation after receiving a complaint on November 14 2019. [10] The investigation concluded that the commission abused its authority in 2016 by delegating its charter-mandated authority to Hicks, which the report said caused violations of the Michigan Open Meetings Act afterwards. [11] [12]

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. [13] [14] Carter said Burton was arrested for speaking out of turn, while Burton said it was an attempt to silence 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, 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 $1 million 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 American Civil Liberties Union 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 than the police department had originally asked for. [21] [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genesee County, Michigan</span> County in Michigan, United States

Genesee County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 406,211, making it the fifth-most populous county in Michigan. The county seat and population center is Flint. Genesee County is considered to be a part of the greater Mid Michigan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Blanc Township, Michigan</span> Charter township in Michigan, United States

Charter Township of Grand Blanc is a charter township of Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 39,846 at the 2020 census, a slight increase from 37,508 at the 2010 census. The city of Grand Blanc was formed out of part of the township's survey area. The Charter Township is the largest suburb of Flint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial recognition system</span> Technology capable of matching a face from an image against a database of faces

A facial recognition system is a technology potentially capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and works by pinpointing and measuring facial features from a given image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Wales Police</span> Welsh territorial police force

South Wales Police is one of the four territorial police forces in Wales. It is headquartered in Bridgend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of Detroit</span> Municipal government in Michigan, US

The government of Detroit, Michigan is run by a mayor, the nine-member Detroit City Council, the eleven-member Board of Police Commissioners, and a clerk. All of these officers are elected on a nonpartisan ballot, with the exception of four of the police commissioners, who are appointed by the mayor. Detroit has a "strong mayoral" system, with the mayor approving departmental appointments. The council approves budgets, but the mayor is not obligated to adhere to any earmarking. The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the maintenance of municipal records. City ordinances and substantially large contracts must be approved by the council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Hansen</span> American television journalist

Christopher Edward Hansen is an American television presenter, journalist and YouTube personality. He rose to mainstream recognition as a correspondent for Dateline NBC, hosting the short-lived segment To Catch a Predator (2004–2007), which revolved around catching potential Internet predators using a sting operation. Despite its cancellation, Hansen would become best known for his predator investigations and interviews, leading to him hosting similarly-formatted shows on other networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit Public Library</span> Library system in Detroit, Michigan (USA)

The Detroit Public Library is the second largest library system in the U.S. state of Michigan by volumes held and the 21st-largest library system in the United States. It is composed of the Main Library on Woodward Avenue, which houses the library's administration offices, and 23 branch locations across the city. The Main Library is part of Detroit's Cultural Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places adjacent to Wayne State University campus and across from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libertarian Party of Michigan</span> State affiliate of the Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party of Michigan is a Michigan state political party advocating a libertarian ideology and the state affiliate of the Libertarian Party of the United States. The party gained primary ballot access status in 2016 because of the vote total of presidential nominee Gary Johnson. The party lost their status since their 2018 gubernatorial nominee Bill Gelineau failed to reach that threshold in the general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit Police Department</span> Law enforcement agency in Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Police Department (DPD) is a municipal police force based in and responsible for the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1865, it has nearly 2,500 officers, making it the largest law enforcement organization in Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Boman</span> American politician

Scott Avery Boman is an American Libertarian politician from Michigan. He has consistently earned among the top votes of any third-party candidate in every Michigan election from 2000 through 2018. He was chair of the Libertarian Party of Michigan in 2006. Described by MIRS as a Libertarian Party standard-bearer, he has been a candidate in every state-wide partisan election since 1994, until successfully running for the Detroit office of Community Advisory Council in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Aiyana Jones</span> 2010 police shooting of a child in Detroit

Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones was a seven-year-old African-American girl from Detroit's East Side who was shot in the neck and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team. The Team was targeting a suspect in the apartment a floor above Jones' on May 16, 2010. Her death drew national media attention and led U.S. Representative John Conyers to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal investigation into the incident.

The death of Jane Bashara prompted a widely publicized investigation into the circumstances of her death. Bashara was a marketing executive and a resident of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. On January 24, 2012, she was found dead in the back seat of her abandoned Mercedes-Benz SUV in an alley in Detroit, Michigan. The cause of death was strangulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in China</span> Network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese government

Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad L. Mallett Jr.</span> American judge (born 1953)

Conrad L. Mallett Jr. is a Michigan jurist and businessman who currently serves as corporation counsel for the city of Detroit. Prior to being approved by Detroit City Council as corporation counsel, Mallett was deputy mayor of the city under Mayor Mike Duggan. He previously was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1990 to 1999 and served as chief justice in 1997 and 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Gaming Control Board</span>

The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) is a gaming control board in Michigan that provides oversight of the state's gaming industry, which was founded and authorized by statewide voting in November 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garlin Gilchrist</span> Lieutenant governor of Michigan

Garlin Gilchrist II is an American politician and activist serving as the 64th lieutenant governor of Michigan since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police surveillance in New York City</span>

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) actively monitors public activity in New York City, New York, United States. Historically, surveillance has been used by the NYPD for a range of purposes, including against crime, counter-terrorism, and also for nefarious or controversial subjects such as monitoring political demonstrations, activities, and protests, and even entire ethnic and religious groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Floyd protests in Michigan</span> Protests in Michigan caused by the murder of George Floyd

There have been a series of George Floyd protests in Michigan. Following the murder of George Floyd, protests spread from Minneapolis to other parts of the United States, including Michigan. Protests broke out in Detroit on the night of May 29 and spread to over 24 other cities over the following days.

DataWorks Plus LLC is a privately held biometrics systems integrator based in Greenville, South Carolina. The company started in 2000 and originally focused on mugshot management, adding facial recognition beginning in 2005. Brad Bylenga is the CEO, and Todd Pastorini is the EVP and GM. Usage of the technology by police departments has resulted in wrongful arrests.

Robert J. Bezotte is a Michigan politician. In the 2022 Michigan House of Representatives election, he was elected in District 50 due to redistricting.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Police Commissioners History". City of Detroit. Archived from the original on 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
  2. 1 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. ↑ detroitmi.gov
  6. ↑ "Board of Police Commissioners". City of Detroit. 6 July 2023.
  7. ↑ Brand-Williams, Oralandar (April 4, 2019). "Suit accuses Detroit police board of meeting in secret". detroitnews.com. The Detroit News. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "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.
  11. ↑ "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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ "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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.