Waiting for New Leadership
James White assumes command of the Detroit Police Department on June 2. Chief James Craig has decided to retire. He is embracing the openly racist, white supremist, anti-democracy republican political party as his new home. This tells us much about what is wrong with policing in Detroit and why we need a shift in leadership. This change is an opportunity for us to rethink policing. So far, incoming interim Chief White is a disappointment.
He has said that he will not “try to be James Craig.” That is a welcome sentiment, but there are key areas of Craig’s legacy that are linked to White.
First, Interim Chief White was intimately involved in some of the worst decisions made by Craig and the DPD. In spite of massive community criticism, limited data demonstrating effectiveness, and strong data indicating racial bias, Chief Craig backed and supported Project Green Light, combining real time digital feeds to police and using facial recognition software. The man who implemented these programs, while in the DPD was James White. Detroit is still dealing with the egregious arrest and detention of Robert Williams, who was violently taken into custody by police in front of his wife and children when he returned home and pulled into his own driveway.
In a lawsuit filed in April by the ACLU on his behalf, three of the four counts focus on the lack of probable cause for the arrest, while one focuses on the racial disparities in the impact of facial recognition. “By employing technology that is empirically proven to misidentify Black people at rates far higher than other groups of people,” it states, ”the DPD denied Mr. Williams the full and equal enjoyment of the Detroit Police Department’s services, privileges, and advantages because of his race or color.”
Second, White has indicated that his most important priority will be traffic violations as a way to “get crime under control.” “The way we've been driving in this city has to stop."
This is a dangerous and all too likely deadly decision. Earlier this month the Detroit Free Press described the aggravation, humiliation and trauma that many African American residents suffer when driving. "While we are all attracted to and captivated by and focused on the George Floyds of the world, ... every single day there are hundreds of thousands of people who come into contact with police officers who may leave those encounters without even receiving a ticket but whose lives have been turned upside down just by the terror of having had that encounter," said Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan. Study after study has documented the racial bias and dangers of these encounters with police.
In other cities, Police Chiefs have recognized the dangers inherent in creating policies that increase these kinds of potentially explosive situations. In Lansing, Police Chief Daryl Green has told his officers to stop using “defective equipment violations” as a reason for stopping people. In Fayetteville North Carolina a similar policy resulted in a 50% drop in encounters for non-speeding or other moving violations. The new prosecutor of Washtenaw County has named these “pretext tops,” “inextricably intertwined with racial profiling” and will not authorize charges for contraband offenses, such as possession of drugs or weapons, that arise from pretext stops.” The directive states that pretext stops are "humiliating, traumatizing, and can lead to broad distrust of law enforcement in communities of color."
James White says his decisions will be driven data. He said, “analyzing crime data and crime statistics, and really coming up with ways of enforcing crime differently."
We have more than enough data to tell us that policing as we now it cannot be reformed. We know its history; its intent, and its daily practices are all in support of a settler colonial system that requires the use of force and violence to continue. James White has an opportunity to create a completely different kind of community safety, rooted in compassion, care, and strengthening the bonds of community. We are waiting to see if he is willing to step forward and give some real leadership.