Best of Reforms
A healthy skepticism of policing has long been part of the identity of Detroit. The emergence of Black political power was directly related to challenging police abuse. It is widely understood that the election of Coleman Young in 1973 was motivated by his courage and clarity in challenging police abuse, especially around STRESS. A month after taking office, Mayor Young abolished the STRESS unit, which was responsible for aggressive tactics and killings of citizens, especially young, Black men. Young also initiated a series of reforms intended to both fight street crime and to eliminate police corruption.
One of the key elements in Young’s efforts was a newly re-constituted Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC). The Board was reformed to embody the idea of citizen oversight regarding policy, procedures, budgets, and complaints about misconduct. Today, in many cities and towns, the idea of independent, citizen oversight is often advocated by reform minded activists as a key element in solving police abuse of powers.
Detroit, then, offers a cautionary tale. We are living with the limits of reform. Recently, three Detroit Police Commissioners have been compelled to file complaints with several government agencies, accusing the current Chair, Willie Bell, of abuse of power, neglect of duty, and violations of parliamentary procedures. The aim of Commissioners Willie Burton, William Davis and Darryl Brown is to remove Bell as Chair.
Over the last two years I have attended a number of Board of Police Commission hearings and strongly agree with the three Commissioners challenging the way the majority of the Board operates.
I witnessed the hearing in July 2019 where Commissioner Willie Burton was handcuffed and escorted out of the meeting by police. I have attended hundreds of public hearings and never saw anything like it. Commission Burton had repeatedly tried to raise questions with the newly sworn in chair, Lisa Carter, about how she saw her role as different from that of previous chair, Willie Bell. Carter refused to allow Burton to speak, talking over him, ruling him out of order, and moving forward with the agenda. Ultimately, because Burton kept objecting, Carter asked police officers to remove him. Officers surrounded Burton, scuffled with him, pulled him out of his seat, and put him in handcuffs, marching him out of the hall.
Burton is a strong critic of the previous, and now current chair, Willie Bell. Burton has also been a champion of the efforts to eliminate the use of facial recognition software by the Detroit Police. Overall, Burton has been responsive to community concerns and challenged the BOPC as having become little more than a rubber stamp for police decisions. Burton has since filed a separate law suit in federal court for “emotional and psychological harm, indignity, anxiety, mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation…and physical injuries.”
I also witnessed what I thought was an abuse of power and blatant misuse of parliamentary procedure months later when activists attempted to bring specific concerns about the use of facial recognition by the Detroit police to the BOPC. At the urging of the community, Commissioners Davis and Burton attempted to invite Robert Williams to speak about his experience. Williams had been wrongfully identified by police facial recognition software, was wrongfully arrested and held without charges, and his wife and children were traumatized by police behavior. Bell repeatedly ruled the offering of this testimony to the Commission, out of order.
To now read that Bell dismisses the concerns raised by his fellow commissioners as those of people who “do not understand how the process works” and as people he has “tried to educate” is outrageous.
The sorry state of the Board of Police Commissioners is an important lesson on the limits of “reforming the police.” It is one of the best arguments for why we need to rethink and reimagine public safety that relies on connection and community. Power has a way of protecting itself. Change requires much more of us now. It is clear, the best of “reforms” does not work.