Every Life
The Detroit Police Department killed two people in less than one month. Last week community protests were held to draw attention to the killings of Porter Burke and Kiaza Miller. Both were in the midst of mental health crises. Both were shot to death by police who had been called by family members for help.
There is a persistent pattern of police killings in response to mental health crises. It was the killing of Errol Shaw in 2000, and the community protest over police violence that spurred then Mayor Dennis Archer to request the Department of Justice investigate the police department. Mr. Shaw, 39, was armed with a rake and he did not respond to officer commands to put it down. He was deaf and mute. He was shot in front of his parents who were sitting on the porch and his son. The officer who pulled the trigger was found not guilty.
The investigation by the Department of Justice ( DOJ) documented that from 1995 to 2000 40 people were killed by police. In a consent decree in 2003 the DOJ found “a pattern of excessive force, civil rights abuses and a culture of covering up misconduct.”
It took 13 years for the DPD to be released from Federal oversight. Over the course of that time the DPD did improve. The number of fatal shoots was markedly decreased as were the number of police shootings. Police stopped detaining witnesses without a warrant and lawsuits against the city declined.
But these changes have not produced a police department that is safe to call for help.
Soon it will be seven years that the DPD has functioned without federal oversight. During this time it has also functioned without effective civilian oversight. It has been led by a politically ambitious, gun loving Chief and supported by a Mayor who refuses to look critically at police practices that courts have held violate citizen constitutional rights, endanger the public and persist in the use of violence.
This summer, the Board of Police Commissioners acknowledged a backlog of 850 citizen complaints. Investigator positions were vacant. Concerns for a toxic environment in the investigative unit have been ignored.
News reports documented that some officers have been sued dozens of times, charged with using excessive force or abusive language. Officers with multiple complaints get promoted, not fired. One sergeant had 93 complaints and 12 lawsuits filed against him. The new Chief James White identified 128 individuals who are “high risk” for using force. Yet their names are not released, we have no idea what responsibilities they hold within the department, nor how they are affecting the overall culture in the use of force.
What we do know is this history does not lead us to think the DPD can respond in humane, caring ways to people in crisis. Their attempts to establish non-lethal responses are not working.
We need a community-based response to caring for each other.
The DPD, Mayor and City Council are willing to spend millions of dollars on technologies that everyone knows don’t reduce crime, don’t make us safe, and likely increase the chances of armed conflicts, misidentification and community trauma.
As we approach the holiday season and the turning of the year, stress and mental health crises will accelerate. Already the number of calls to police for help is more than they can handle.
Across the country communities have established non-police programs that work. Eugene, Oregon and Denver, Colorado both have programs based on care and concern, not guns. Detroit needs to follow the lead of these cities and the activists who are demanding we shift rapidly toward stronger systems of community safety based on the recognition that every life is valuable.