No More Rubber Stamps
On the last day of August, the Board of Police Commissioners met to discuss the promotion of 60 officers. By the authority of the city Charter, the BOPC has the final word on such decisions. The meeting took place within the context of growing public scrutiny about the functioning of the Board. Last month investigative reports revealed that two staff members on administrative leave were being paid, even though their positions had been filled by others. The board is under multiple investigations, and one of the commissioners has requested intervention by the federal Department of Justice, alleging corruption.
The news rarely covers what seems mundane and often dysfunctional meetings. The only story to emerge on the last meeting focused on comments by the Chief on an ongoing murder investigation. The promotions were considered unworthy of interest.
At least two of the commissioners took up their responsibility to provide oversight. Repeatedly Commission Banks raised questions about the record of individuals and Commissioner Burton abstained from voting, pointing to a flawed process. Mr. Burton noted that the Board had never been asked to consider so many people in such a short time. He said it was impossible to be responsible, given the process they were following.
Mr. Burton is not alone in this concern. The Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability had requested that the promotions be tabled until a process for public review was established. In a memorandum to the Commissioners, CPTA said:
We are compelled to question the functioning of the BOPC in providing meaningful civilian oversight to the policies and practices of the Detroit Police Department. We are especially concerned with your responsibilities to endorse the promotion of individuals without a clear, comprehensive accounting of their records…
We are not confident that the BOPC has been given all of the information required to make an informed decision about these promotions. Nor do we think that there is adequate space on a crowded agenda for you to seriously consider issues that may impact your decision for promotion of each specific officer.
Over the last few years, local media coverage has documented the failures of commissioners to exercise appropriate oversight with regard to promotions recommended by DPD.
In March of this year. commissioners were embarrassed by the promotion of Lemuel Sims to the rank of Sargent, when it was revealed that he had been repeatedly accused of domestic violence. Further Sims had 33 citizen complaints and was disciplined 17 times.
This case, and several others, have led to an ongoing series of reports by WXYZ entitled Conduct Unbecoming: Detroit’s Troubled Cops. A brief review of these reports reveals a consistent pattern of misconduct being overlooked or hidden from public view.
Prior to this series of reports, in 2019 we had the notorious case of Stephen Kue who was promoted after being recommended for termination and after it was known he had 88 citizen complaints of his behavior as an officer.
Your failure to exercise your legal authority to oversee promotions within the DPD was a major concern in a Free Press editorial entitled “Board of Police Commissioners is Failing Detroiters.” Central to this assessment was the lack of oversight on promotions and the ability to follow through on questions of disciplinary actions.
We request that you table the promotion of all officers until you can provide to the public a summary of the records of everyone. Citizens deserve to know both the positive and negative records of those whose actions are being endorsed by the DPD via promotions.
We are especially concerned that the number of citizen complaints, internal investigations, disciplinary actions, and questions of the use of force that an officer has experienced be made available.
The history of promotions within the DPD gives us no confidence that misconduct toward citizens is taken seriously. It is your responsibility to ensure that officers who have violated citizens’ trust and who have abused their authority are held accountable for their behaviors. You cannot possibly exercise that responsibility as your current agenda is structured and as you have been functioning previously…
Instead of taking this responsibility seriously, Commissioner Holley objected to the charge that the board was a rubber stamp. He said, “We have faith in our Chief. This is the Chief’s recommendation. He has a right to choose the people who he wants to work with him.”
This is the problem. The Chief had put forward 60 people for consideration to promotion without giving any thought to what serious public discussion of every individual should be. The Commission was formed, to provide Citizen oversight of the judgment and decisions within a police force given to hiding information and excusing dangerous behavior.
We encourage people to attend the weekly meetings of the BOPC to help them to fulfill their responsibilities to all of us.