ReportWire

Tag: Detroit police

  • Critics blast Detroit police video ordinance as weak and full of exemptions – Detroit Metro Times

    [ad_1]

    A coalition of Detroit activists is denouncing a proposed city ordinance that would require some police footage to be made public, saying the measure would still protect officers who engage in misconduct. 

    A divided Detroit Public Health and Safety Committee held a public hearing Monday on an ordinance that would set rules for how the Detroit Police Department releases video involving serious use of force, including when officers fire their weapons or cause “great bodily harm.” If approved by the full Detroit City Council, police would have up to 30 days to release video on a publicly accessible website. 

    But activists said the ordinance is riddled with exemptions that would give police plenty of opportunities to deny a video’s release. For example, the footage can be withheld if it involves a joint task force, violates the police union contract, or if city lawyers decide it could hurt Detroit in a civil lawsuit. The proposal also excludes any video shielded under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act and permits redactions, giving city officials broad discretion to decide what the public gets to see, activists argued at the meeting. 

    Jacob Smith, a member of the Detroit Alliance Against Racial and Political Repression, urged council members to strengthen the ordinance. 

    “It’s not even a good ordinance,” Smith said. “It has more holes than a fishing net.”

    He added, “Let me be clear: We do not trust you [the police] so you need to send this ordinance back to the drawing board and come up with something that allows for less loopholes.”

    Other critics said the ordinance should include alleged incidents of stop-and-frisk, racism, and sexual harassment or assault that causes less than “great bodily harm.”

    Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway, who drafted the video requirement, said she’s satisfied with the measure but acknowledged it may need to be amended. 

    “Everyone is not going to be happy with all of the ordinances we pass in the city of Detroit,” Calloway said. “I get it. But we have to start somewhere. It’s not a perfect document. Our Constitution was written in 1787 and has been amended 27 times. This is one of those documents that I do believe is ripe for amendment.”

    Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero said she doesn’t support the ordinance as it’s written and believes more public input is needed. 

    In a letter to Calloway, the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability said Calloway’s version is written to protect police and city officials, not the public’s right to know. The coalition points to the numerous exemptions in the ordinance. 

    “These stipulations make the release of imagery pointless,” the coalition wrote. “We further object to the exclusion of CPTA from any discussions in crafting this ordinance. We shared with you a well-researched, comprehensive ordinance that would have provided greater transparency in policing. Nothing of the ordinance we provided is reflected in your version.”

    Calloway, who has often cast herself as a reform-minded councilmember critical of police secrecy, claimed some of the critics aren’t happy with any changes. 

    “We just have regular, habitual complainers,” Calloway said. “I’m used to it.”

    During the public hearing, former Detroit Police Commissioner William Davis said the ordinance “can and should be stronger,” noting that police released body-cam footage of a shooting to commissioners “in less than six hours” about five years ago. Davis also worries about the editing process before the video is released.

    “When they do these edits, someone impartial needs to be in the room,” Davis said. “This still makes it easier for them to cover up and hide stuff. We could do a better job.”

    Victoria Camille, who is running for a seat on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, said Detroit residents are entitled to unedited footage. 

    “Police video footage belongs to Detroiters as taxpayers, and the police department should not get a privileged seat to shape a narrative in advance of the public getting a full view of the unedited video,” Camille said. “It’s one thing to blur the faces of witnesses, but chopping up timelines and/or reducing the frame that it shows is unacceptable.”

    She added, “We’ve had three people shot by DPD in the last month. This is extremely important.”

    On Sunday, Detroit police shot a woman who refused to comply after a traffic stop. It was the third police-involved shooting in five weeks. 

    Deputy Police Chief Michael Parish responded to critics, saying the videos would only be edited to redact the faces of victims or witnesses.   

    Community activist Tahira Ahmad said 30 days is too long for the release of a video. She is also worried that more Black residents will be targeted as the police department hires more white suburban officers. 

    “We’ve seen the police department get whiter and whiter,” Ahmad said. “The people who are white are having a racial problem with Black people. If our police departments are getting more and more undiverse, then we are going to have problems, and we want you to release it faster than 30 days.”

    The CPTA’s version of the ordinance would require the city to publicly release all unedited video, audio, and police reports related to any use of force or pursuit that causes or could cause injury within seven days. The city also could delay for up to 30 days, but only if prosecutors or investigators give a written public explanation citing specific legal reasons. The footage would remain permanently accessible on a website managed by the Board of Police Commissioners, not the police department. 

    In addition, the coalition’s proposal would require notifying families and allowing them to view the footage before it’s released to the public. 

    “The people of the City have an undeniable, and in some cases paramount, interest in being informed, in a timely fashion based on the most accurate information possible, about how their police department conducts its business, especially where the use of force by the police results in death of, or bodily harm to, a civilian,” the coalition wrote. 

    [ad_2] Steve Neavling
    Source link

  • Court of Appeals sides with ShotSpotter critics in Detroit, finding city ‘repeatedly’ violated transparency law – Detroit Metro Times

    [ad_1]

    A state appeals court handed a partial victory to critics of Detroit’s controversial ShotSpotter surveillance system, ruling that city officials violated a transparency ordinance when they approved contracts for the gunshot detection technology without properly notifying the public.

    In a published decision released Thursday, a divided Michigan Court of Appeals panel found that the Detroit Police Department failed to comply with the city’s Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance, which requires the public release of a detailed report on surveillance technology at least 14 days before it is discussed by the City Council. The court reversed part of a lower court ruling that had dismissed the case and sent it back for further proceedings.

    “The City of Detroit uses surveillance technology to identify the location of gunshots in certain precincts,” Judge Brock Swartzle wrote for the majority. “Given the inherent invasiveness of surveillance technology, the City adopted specific procedural requirements that must be met when procuring such technology. These requirements were not met here.”

    Critics argue ShotSpotter, which relies on a network of sensors to detect gunshots, is unproven, invasive, and racially discriminatory. The city counters that it saves lives and helps police find suspects more quickly.

    The ruling means the Wayne County Circuit Court must revisit whether the city’s ShotSpotter contracts are valid and whether the plaintiffs — five Detroiters and the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership — are entitled to any relief.

    The appeals court found that the Detroit Police Department did not post the legally required Surveillance Technology Specification Report (STSR) until September 28, 2022 after several key council committee meetings had already taken place and just one day after the council voted to renew an existing $1.5 million contract with ShotSpotter. The council later approved a $7 million expansion two weeks later.

    “Thus, the record confirms that defendants repeatedly violated the requirement under § 17-5-452(c) that the STSR ‘be made available on the City’s website at least 14 days prior to holding any of the hearings or meetings,’” the court wrote. “The trial court erred in concluding otherwise when it granted summary disposition in favor of defendants.”

    The panel also rejected the city’s argument that it was exempt from the ordinance because ShotSpotter had already been in use before the law took effect in 2021. The court ruled that the so-called “grandfather clause” only applies to surveillance technology that was previously approved under the ordinance, and the ShotSpotter system was not.

    The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by the Detroit Justice Center, Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, and attorney Jack Schulz. They argued that the city violated its own ordinance by failing to be transparent and involve the community in approving the technology.

    “Much congrats to each of our clients for standing up in this case on behalf of all residents of the city,” John Philo, executive and legal director for Sugar Law Center, said. “While more limited in scope than hoped for, the court’s decision is an important recognition that citizens’ oversight and input ordinances matter and cannot simply be ignored by government officials.”

    ShotSpotter operates through a network of microphones that detect loud noises and notify police of suspected gunfire. Detroit police have praised it as a tool that helps officers respond to shootings faster.

    “ShotSpotter has been an invaluable investigative tool that is helping to make our city safer,” Detroit Police Department Assistant Chief Franklin Hayes said in a statement to Metro Times. “In areas where ShotSpotter is deployed, we have seen significant reductions in gunfire. So far this year, we have recovered 244 firearms and made 131 arrests as a result of ShotSpotter cases.”

    Hayes said the technology also “helps save lives.”

    “Just this week, DPD responded to a ShotSpotter alert of multiple shots fired, for which no 911 calls were placed,” Hayes said. “When officers arrived, they found a critically injured victim who likely would have succumbed to his injuries at the scene had ShotSpotter technology not alerted DPD to the incident and to its location.” 

    Community advocates and civil rights groups argue that the system sends officers charging into predominantly Black neighborhoods on high alert, even though the majority of alerts turn out to be false alarms. An analysis by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General found that ShotSpotter alerts “rarely produce evidence of a gun-related crime” and led police to increase stop-and-frisk encounters in areas already over-policed. About 89% of ShotSpotter alerts in Chicago resulted in no evidence of gunfire or any crime.

    Opponents also note that several cities — including San Antonio, Charlotte, Trenton, Troy, and Grand Rapids — have canceled or rejected ShotSpotter contracts amid concerns about its reliability and cost.

    The appeals court remanded the Detroit case to Wayne County Circuit Court to determine potential remedies and address the city’s defenses, including claims that the lawsuit is moot because the contracts have already been implemented.

    “With surveillance and similar technology ever encroaching into every recess of modern life, procedural safeguards cannot be ignored or downplayed by government actors as mere technicalities,” the court wrote. “To ensure that technology serves the people, and not the other way around, strict compliance with procedural safeguards like the CIOGS Ordinance may well be needed. And, unfortunately, such compliance was lacking here.”

    In a statement, Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett noted that the court’s opinion does not impact the use of ShotSpotter in the city.

    “The Court of Appeals opinion does not void the use of this technology, which is still in place,” Mallett said. “In its opinion the Court of Appeals recognized the City of Detroit’s defenses to the lawsuit that may result in another dismissal by the trial court.”


    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Civil rights complaint targets Detroit police misconduct and Wayne County records purge

    [ad_1]

    Overview:

    Exonerees are calling for a “full federal investigation” of destroyed case files and the harsh actions of a homicide detective.

    A civil rights complaint is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Detroit’s wrongful convictions and Wayne County’s illegal record purge that advocates say landed numerous innocent people in prison and blocked exonerations. 

    In a letter sent to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Freedom Ain’t Free, a Detroit-based nonprofit led by two exonerees, is asking for a “full federal investigation” under the Justice Department’s police misconduct authority. 

    “The people of Detroit deserve transparency and justice,” the complaint says, adding that years of “unchecked prosecutorial misconduct” and “abusive practices” have disproportionately harmed Black defendants.

    Central to the complaint is retired Detroit Police Homicide Detective Barbara Simon, whose deceptive and coercive interrogation tactics were the subject of a two-part Metro Times series in July 2024. Simon’s techniques led to at least four exonerations and five lawsuits, which so far have cost taxpayers about $25 million. All of the men were charged with murder, and some of them falsely confessed after they say Simon illegally isolated suspects without access to attorneys or phones, fabricated evidence, and threatened life prison sentences unless they signed statements she drafted.

    The letter cites 11 inmates who have reached out to Freedom Ain’t Free, saying they were also victimized by Simon’s tactics. 

    “This list demonstrates that Simon’s misconduct is not a matter of history alone, but an ongoing crisis impacting numerous individuals and families who remain trapped by wrongful convictions,” the letter, written by exoneree Lamarr Monson, states.

    In October 2024, Monson reached an $8.5 million settlement with the city after he alleged Simon tricked him into falsely confessing. Based solely on that false confession, Monson was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a 12-year-old at a drug house in Detroit. He was 24 years old at the time and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison.  

    According to the letter, Simon has been sued at least 18 times in federal court. Michigan courts, including the state Supreme Court, “have already found statements obtained by Simon to be unreliable and her credibility deeply compromised.”

    The complaint spotlights the case of Mark Craighead, who was convicted in 2002 and later won relief after new evidence showed a “common scheme of coercion and falsification.” Craighead alleged Simon told him he would “spend the rest of his life in prison if he did not sign” a confession written by the detective.  

    Under duress, Craighead signed the confession and was convicted of manslaughter in 2002. He was freed from prison in 2009 and exonerated in 2022.

    The letter also calls for an investigation into the illegal destruction of felony and misdemeanor case files when Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was the elected county prosecutor. Between 2001 and 2004, while Duggan was prosecutor, most if not all records from 1995 and earlier were allegedly destroyed in violation of state law. 

    The records contained a wealth of vital information, including police and forensic reports, lab results, transcripts, video recordings, and witness statements, all of which are essential for mounting a defense against wrongful convictions. What makes the file purge especially concerning is that it involved records from a deeply troubling era in Detroit’s Homicide Division, a time plagued by rampant misconduct, false confessions, constitutional abuses of witnesses and suspects, and a widespread federal investigation. In the 1980s and 1990s, the misconduct among police, especially homicide detectives, was so pervasive and egregious that the DOJ demanded reforms to avoid a costly lawsuit while Duggan was the county prosecutor.

    Duggan has repeatedly denied that his office was behind the destruction of records. 

    Freedom Ain’t Free says the missing files have impeded innocence claims and post-conviction reviews, including work by the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which was created in 2018 and has secured at least 15 exonerations since then. 

    The complaint points to incarcerated people like Carl Hubbard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1992 without any physical evidence and “cannot prove his innocence after his case file vanished.” It also argues that the wholesale destruction of records undermines due-process rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes obstruction of justice. 

    As Metro Times previously reported, Wayne County officials have acknowledged that large swaths of older prosecutor files cannot be found. Current Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office has said the purge occurred before she took office in 2004 and has hampered appeals and CIU work. 

    The complaint alleges that Detroit murder cases in the 1980s and ’90s were rife with coerced confessions, witness intimidation, and Brady violations, or when prosecutors fail to disclose evidence. It cites more than 30 wrongful convictions from that era and notes that “no officers, prosecutors, or officials have faced discipline, demotion, or termination.”

    The filing highlights three recurring problems: 

    • Reliance on jailhouse informants and scripted statements later recanted or disproved.
    • Detectives “concealed” leads and evidence in separate files that were not turned over to the defense. 
    • About 88% of exonerees from these cases are Black men. 

    The Detroit Police Department operated under a federal consent decree beginning in 2003 after the DOJ found unconstitutional arrests, detentions, and interrogation practices. Freedom Ain’t Free argues the civil rights abuses of those years kept innocent people in prison, particularly those with missing case files.

    The complaint requests subpoenas for records tied to the record purge, a review of convictions linked to discredited officers and jailhouse informants, and a top-to-bottom audit of cases that involved Simon. 

    “The people of Detroit deserve transparency and justice,” the letter states. “The destruction of evidence, unchecked prosecutorial misconduct, and the abusive practices by detectives such as Barbra Simon have perpetuated a cycle of harm, disproportionately impacting Black communities. We implore the DOJ to act swiftly to restore faith in the rule of law.”

    More than a year after a Metro Times investigation revealed the widespread misconduct of Simon and the destruction of prosecutor files, families of men still imprisoned because of her tainted cases are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of accountability and action. 

    Worthy has pledged that her office would investigate Simon cases, but despite public promises, protests, and mounting evidence of wrongdoing, Worthy has yet to meet with victims’ families or launch a transparent investigation into their loved ones’ convictions.

    “To this day, men whose convictions were tied to Simon remain incarcerated, unable to secure justice due to lost files, missing evidence, and institutional resistance,” the complaint states. “Simon’s history is not an anomaly — it is symptomatic of a department that rewarded abusive tactics while ignoring accountability.”

    Whether the complaint gets any traction is another question. Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has pledged to halt oversight of police misconduct cases. 

    “The DOJ under Biden found police were wantonly assaulting people and that it wasn’t a problem of ‘bad apples’ but of avoidable, department-wide failures,” Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “By turning its back on police abuse, Trump’s DOJ is putting communities at risk, and the ACLU is stepping in because people are not safe when police can ignore their civil rights.”


    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • State AG urged to investigate how popular Detroit Democrat avoided mandatory jail time for third DUI

    [ad_1]

    AP Photo/Paul Sancya

    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is under fire for her office’s handling of a third drunk driving case against Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch.

    Local activist Robert Davis is calling on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate how Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch dodged a mandatory jail sentence after pleading guilty to his third drunk driving offense in 2005.

    In a letter sent Thursday to Nessel’s office, Davis argued that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office “blatantly failed” to enforce a plea agreement that required Kinloch to serve 30 days in jail in 2005. Instead, Kinloch was released from six months of non-reporting probation in early 2006 without serving the mandatory time.

    “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s blatant failure to enforce the sentencing agreement and plea agreement constitutes misconduct,” Davis wrote. “The Attorney General must investigate and take supervisory control due to misconduct committed by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in Kinloch’s felony DUI case.”

    Davis pointed to court records showing that then-Circuit Court Judge Vonda Evans approved a probation officer’s unusual request to discharge Kinloch early and eliminate his 30-day jail requirement. When the prosecutor’s office belatedly sought to enforce the sentence in 2007, Evans granted the request. But no one followed through, and Kinloch never went to jail.

    “Despite Judge Evans’ January 9, 2008 Opinion and Order GRANTING the Wayne County Prosecutor’s motion to enforce the sentencing agreement, since that order’s entry, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has NEVER sought to enforce the sentencing agreement and plea agreement that required Mr. Kinloch to serve 30-days in the Wayne County Jail,” Davis wrote.

    In a statement to Metro Times on Friday, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Maria Miller said, “Prosecutor [Kym] Worthy will not dignify the request with a response.”

    A spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Friday that the case is best handled by Wayne County prosecutors unless Davis files a former complaint that alleges criminal wrongdoing.

    “As this matter was handled by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, I must refer you to that office for further insights into the handling of this case,” AG spokesperson Danny Wimmer said. “If Mr. Davis intends to allege specific criminal wrongdoing, I believe he is aware of the process to formally file a criminal complaint with this department.”

    The case resurfaced last month when Metro Times reported that Kinloch, a powerful Detroit Democrat, never served jail time. Prosecutors at the time acknowledged the problem but let the issue quietly drop after media scrutiny faded.

    In the letter, Davis noted that then-Assistant Prosecutors Paul Bernier and Jeffrey Caminsky urged Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda R. Evans to enforce the jail sentence. It’s unclear what became of those requests, and Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach Bernier or Caminsky.

    Kinloch, 56, has long been a fixture in Detroit politics. He was appointed to the Wayne County Board of Commissioners in 2021 and won a four-year term the following year. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan named him to the Board of Water Commissioners in 2018, a position he still holds. He also serves as chairman of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, is vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, and heads the Democratic Party’s 13th Congressional District. Over the years he has also sat on the Wayne County Housing Commission, the Detroit Library Commission, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, and the county’s planning and development department.

    Kinloch is also the brother of Solomon Kinoch, pastor of Triumph Church, who is running for mayor in the general election against City Council President Mary Sheffield.

    In an interview last month, Kinloch told Metro Times he pulled no strings and that the probation department recommended his release from jail.

    “It was a scary time, and it was 20 years ago, and I did everything the court required of me,” Kinloch said.

    In his letter to the AG’s office, Davis alleged “Kinloch has bragged openly about how his political connections and influence allowed him not to serve the mandatory 30-day jail sentence.”

    Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach Kinloch for a response.

    Davis recently sued Detroit police and Wayne County prosecutors after both failed to timely disclose records about the case under the Freedom of Information Act.

    Last month, a Detroit man alleged wrongdoing after prosecutors dismissed a case against a woman accused of falsely accusing her daughter’s father of molesting her child. The ex-partner, Taylor Clark, is the granddaughter of retired Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway, whose cousin Richard Hathaway is the chief assistant at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. Clark lives with Michael Hathaway in a luxury apartment in Royal Oak, according to court records. She has resided with the former judge since she was 15, according to her ex-partner, who asked not to be identified because of the severity of the allegations that Clark leveled against him.

    Worthy said she had been unaware of the allegations and would recuse her office from the case. But she denied that any of the Hathaways were involved in dismissing the case.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Exonerated men demand criminal probe of ex-Detroit detective accused of misconduct

    Exonerated men demand criminal probe of ex-Detroit detective accused of misconduct

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Mark Craighead (left) and Lamarr Monson were both exonerated of murder.

    Two men who were exonerated of murder implored Detroit police on Thursday to investigate a former homicide detective who is accused of two decades of misconduct that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment.

    Mark Craighead, who spent more than seven years in prison after falsely confessing to murder in June 2000, alleges retired Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

    Simon was featured in “The Closer,” a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    “We missed out on so much time with our families, and she’s still walking the streets and collecting a pension. She’s still free,” Craighead said in a news conference outside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. “We’re demanding accountability. We want her arrested.”

    Craighead was joined by former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford and Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Monson blames Simon for bungling the investigation in 1996.

    Crawford said everyone who was complicit in the wrongful convictions needs to pay a price.

    “They need to say to the world and to the media, ‘These are the people responsible for the wrongful convictions. They will be held accountable,’” Crawford said.

    Craighead filed a criminal complaint against Simon with the Detroit Police Department on Sept. 4, and DPD said it would investigate.

    Craighead said he’s committed to freeing innocent people who are still in prison because of Simon.

    “They’ll be in prison for the rest of their lives unless we do something about it,” Craighhead said.

    On Aug. 28, the exonerees and families of prisoners rallied outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for an independent and extensive review of all of Simon’s cases. Earlier this month, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she plans to expand a unit dedicated to exonerating innocent people by hiring an attorney to review Simon’s cases.

    Craighead said it shouldn’t have taken so long for Simon to come under scrutiny.

    “Barbara Simon should have been investigated a long time ago,” Craighead said. “They knew what she was doing.”

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Exonerated man files criminal complaint against former Detroit detective featured in Metro Times series

    Exonerated man files criminal complaint against former Detroit detective featured in Metro Times series

    [ad_1]

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against the Detroit detective who elicited his false confession in June 2000.

    Craighead alleges former Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

    Simon was the subject of a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her actions, activists and lawyers say.

    Craighead filed the complaint with the Detroit Police Department, alleging cops, prosecutors, and judges looked the other way while Simon repeatedly committed crimes and violated the rights of Black Detroiters.

    “What she did was criminal,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “If one of us did that, we’d be in jail. Yet Barabra Simon is still walking the streets. She should have been arrested.”

    Craighead pointed to a bombshell statement by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker when she granted him a new trial in February 2021. She said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s case demonstrated “a common scheme of misconduct.”

    “Not only has this Court already found statements obtained by Simon not to be credible, but so too has the Michigan Supreme Court,” Walker said.

    “This impeachment evidence demonstrates that Simon has repeatedly lied as part of her misconduct, which would allow a jury to evaluate whether to trust her testimony in light of information demonstrating a character of truthfulness,” Walker added.

    The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Walker.

    Craighead says the courts’ acknowledgements that Simon committed a pattern of crimes should have prompted an investigation.

    “It’s very powerful,” Craighead says of Walker’s statements. “That tells you that the courts and prosecutors know about her. So why hasn’t she been investigated? Now that I filed a complaint, they have to look into it.”

    At a Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday, Commissioner Willie Burton asked why DPD wasn’t investigating Simon after the Metro Times series was published in July.

    Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald claimed the department was unaware of the allegations, despite the courts’ allegations and those made by numerous suspects and witnesses. In fact, Simon has been sued by four exonerated men, and each lawsuit laid out very specific allegations of criminal misconduct against her. Two of the lawsuits have been settled for an average of $8 million apiece.

    “I have not seen any of these complaints or allegations,” Fitzgerald told Burton.

    Burton responded that the alleged crimes occurred while Simon was a DPD employee and asked whether the department would investigate.

    “If those allegations are brought forward to us, yes, but they have not been,” Fitzgerald said.

    His response prompted Craighead to file the complaint.

    Craighead was assisted in filing the complaint by former police commissioner Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit officer and Wayne County sheriff’s deputy.

    “There can never be justice without accountability,” Crawford tells Metro Times. “DPD and everyone involved needs to be held accountable.”

    The complaint is just the latest action taken in the last month by Craighead, other exonerees, and families of inmates who say they were wrongfully imprisoned because of Simon’s misconduct.

    On Aug. 28, exonerees and family members of inmates marched outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an independent investigation of all of Simon’s cases.

    In a written statement, Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded that she has “been working on a monetary way to address this situation.”

    “I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th,” Worthy said. “I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”

    The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which helped free four inmates who were victimized by Simon’s conduct, said many more innocent people are likely in prison because of the former detective.

    “All of the family members I talk to ask me, ‘Why isn’t Barbara Simon in jail?’” Craighead says. “Everyone knew this was happening, and no one did anything about it.”

    In 2000, Simon accused Craighead of fatally shooting his friend three years earlier. He was locked in a small room for hours without a warrant or access to an attorney, food, or phone call. When he refused to incriminate himself, he was held in a vermin-infested jail cell.

    A day later, Craighead says Simon falsely claimed they had evidence tying him to the murder. They did not. He ended up signing a confession that Simon wrote after she claimed he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he didn’t admit to a story she concocted, according to his lawsuit.

    “I was tired, dirty. I had a migraine,” Craighead said on the local podcast ML Soul of Detroit after the Metro Times series ran. “Everything was going wrong. I was terrified.”

    Phone records later showed that Craighead was working at Sam’s Club at the time of the shooting, which resulted in his exoneration.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Families and exonerees rally against former Detroit detective accused of misconduct, wrongful convictions

    Families and exonerees rally against former Detroit detective accused of misconduct, wrongful convictions

    [ad_1]

    Protesters gathered outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, calling for an independent and extensive review of all cases handled by a former Detroit detective accused of putting innocent Black men behind bars for two decades.

    Demonstrators also urged Prosecutor Kym Worthy to file charges against retired Detective Barbara Simon for allegedly committing perjury and unlawfully detaining suspects and witnesses while working in the homicide division in the 1990s and early 2000s.

    The protest was prompted by a two-part Metro Times series that showed how Simon confined young suspects and witnesses to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant. She also elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted.

    Four men have been exonerated so far, and a fifth was released before his murder trial because DNA evidence cleared him.

    “We want Barbara Simon locked up,” said Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. “She repeatedly committed perjury, illegally detained suspects without warrants, and threatened witnesses.”

    Craighead falsely confessed to fatally shooting his friend in June 1997 after police detained him without a warrant and refused to let him call an attorney. After spending a night in a rodent-infested jail cell, Craighead was worn down and signed a confession written by Simon, who was known as “the closer” because of her ability to secure convictions.

    Protesters chanted, “Free the innocent,” and “No justice, no peace,” while marching outside the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit. They held signs that read, “Kym Worthy is unworthy of your vote,” and, “We want independent investigations.”

    They’re urging Worthy to meet with them.

    After the protest, Worthy told Metro Times in a statement that she is working on a potential solution.

    “I have been working on a monetary way to address this situation,” Worthy said. “I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th. I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”

    Among those marching were relatives of Black men still in prison after Simon handled their cases.

    Latonya Crump’s brother Damon Smith has been behind bars since Simon interrogated him in 1999 for a murder he insists he didn’t commit. He said Simon was belligerent and threatening and told him he’d be charged with pulling the trigger if he didn’t admit his involvement.

    He maintained his innocence, and as a result, he said, he was accused of pulling the trigger. After Smith’s trial, where he was found guilty, Smith’s brother Patrick Roberts, who was a prosecution witness, later recanted in a letter, saying Smith was not involved in the shooting.

    “It’s very frustrating to know that he’s locked up for something he didn’t do,” Crump said. “I want a proper investigation. It’s important that everyone who was improperly convicted get a new trial.”

    Steve Neavling

    Protesters hold up a sign in support of Damon Smith, who has been in prison for 25 years.

    Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, blames Simon for bungling his investigation in 1996. Like Craighead, Monson had no criminal record, was interrogated for hours by Simon, and was denied access to a phone and a lawyer, according to court records. He was convicted of murder based on a false confession that was later contradicted by evidence that should have been presented at his trial.

    Monson, who was exonerated in 2017, said he owes it to the innocent people still in prison to continue fighting for their release.

    “This is what humanity is about,” Monson said. “Everyone should be fighting for the innocent people in prison. Barbara Simon set up young Black men to go to jail, and she needs to be held accountable.”

    Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton said he supports an extensive investigation.

    “This tragic case shows why we need effective oversight in Detroit,” Burton said. “We cannot afford to have even one citizen’s rights violated and wrongfully spend even an hour in jail. I will continue to fight on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to ensure we eliminate the backlog of citizen complaint reviews and hold the department accountable.”

    Also among the protesters was former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford, who used a megaphone to call on Worthy to meet with demonstrators.

    “Kym Worthy, come down and talk to us,” Crawford said. “Let’s have a conversation. You are stealing the lives of the unlawfully incarcerated.”

    Worthy’s office has a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which is tasked with freeing innocent people from prison, but the unit hasn’t worked on cases related to Simon, despite her troubling history.

    “This exposes the Conviction Integrity Unit for not having integrity if they are not holding people like Barbara Simon accountable,” Crawford said.

    Craighead and other protesters said they don’t plan to stop rallying until a full investigation of Simon’s cases is completed.

    “If we don’t speak out, wrongfully convicted people are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison,” Craighead said. “I get calls all the time from people who say they are innocent and in prison because of Barbara Simon.”

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Metro Times investigation leads Detroit police commissioners to demand probe into ex-detective’s cases

    Metro Times investigation leads Detroit police commissioners to demand probe into ex-detective’s cases

    [ad_1]

    Detroit police commissioners are calling for an internal, full-scale investigation of cases handled by a former Detroit detective after Metro Times published a two-part series exposing her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonments.

    In the 1990s and early 2000s, Barbara Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

    Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her tactics, activists and lawyers say.

    At a Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting Thursday, commissioners called on the department to review the hundreds of cases handled by Simon, who retired in 2010.

    “This has to be taken very, very seriously,” Detroit Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Darryl Woods tells Metro Times. “You don’t just read an article on this level. This is not a situation where we should sit back and watch. We need to take a close look at this. Do your due diligence and see if anything bad happened on the watch of the Detroit Police Department.”

    Detroit Police Deputy Chief Tiffany Stewart told commissioners that she “did read a portion of part one” of the series and said that the responsibility to investigate Simon’s cases ultimately falls on the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which has a conviction integrity unit (CIU) tasked with freeing innocent people from prison.

    “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has a conviction integrity unit, and that is actually spearheaded through their unit,” Stewart said. “Prisoners who have appeals or concerns with their case can navigate to this unit to work in concert with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, and they will pull the case, investigate it, and make a determination from that point.”

    Problem is, that unit is understaffed and has only dismissed three cases since January 2023, and none of those cases involved Simon. In fact, the prosecutor’s office fought to keep men in prison who were ultimately exonerated because of Simon’s handling of the investigations.

    Metro Times is awaiting a response from the prosecutor’s office.

    Police Commissioner Ricardo Moore, who first called on an internal investigation of Simon’s cases Thursday, says he disagrees that the responsibility only lies with the prosecutor’s office since the detective worked for DPD.

    “It seemed shocking to me that the department saw complaints of a pattern of behavior and wouldn’t want to review the cases and make a recommendation to the prosecutor’s office,” Moore tells Metro Times. “I think it’s worth the department investigating the actions themselves instead of punting to the prosecutor’s office.”

    Former Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford agrees and says DPD has a responsibility to determine if its detective violated the law to elicit false confessions and witness statements.

    “Prosecute everyone responsible for wrongful convictions,” Crawford tells Metro Times. “Detroit police commissioners should call on the Wayne County prosecutor and police chief to investigate and prosecute all responsible for wrongful convictions. … There’s no justice for the wrongfully convicted until all are held accountable.”

    At the commission meeting, Eric Blount, a minister at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Detroit, compared Simon’s actions to the Algiers Motel massacre in July 1967, when three Black teenage boys were killed by a task force composed of Detroit cops, Michigan State Police, and the Michigan Army National Guard. Blount said the Metro Times series detailed “the evilness that a detective perpetrated against this community time and time again and affected people’s lives.”

    “When you do something that evil, you affect that person, that family, that community, that city, that state. The world hurts when you do something like that,” Blount said.

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Mark Craighead and Lamarr Monson were exonerated after it was found that Detective Barbara Simon used deceptive and coercive interrogation techniques on them.

    Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 of a murder he didn’t commit after he falsely confessed under pressure from Simon, says DPD has a moral responsibility to investigate their former detective’s actions. Many more innocent people are still in prison, he says, because the police department and prosecutors are refusing to review cases handled by Simon, who has been admonished by judges.

    In February 2021, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker granted Craighead a new trial and said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that new evidence in his case “establishes a common scheme of misconduct.”

    Craighead says the entire justice system is failing innocent people still behind bars.

    “Freedom ain’t free. There is no justice in the justice system,” Craighead says, calling Simon’s actions “Black-on-Black crime.”

    “There’s corruption from the top to the bottom,” he says. “There are so many eyes that have been closed, ears that have been closed, and heads that have been turned. There are so many young Black innocent men still in prison because of Barbara Simon.”

    Craighead adds, “It’s the responsibility of the police department, the prosecutors, and the judges to look into these cases. They have all turned a blind eye. All of them have an opportunity to right a wrong.”

    click to enlarge The covers of the two-part Metro Times series The “The Closer.” - Metro Times archives

    Metro Times archives

    The covers of the two-part Metro Times series The “The Closer.”

    A six-month Metro Times investigation found that Simon spent years waging psychological warfare on young Black men accused of murder. In the 1990s and early 2000s, she engaged in investigative misconduct, illegally held suspects without a warrant, denied them access to an attorney or phone call, threatened them, and made false promises of leniency, judges and prosecutors would later determine. Suspects who refused to talk without an attorney were confined to jail cells infested with cockroaches, rats, and other vermin.

    Her tactics led to false confessions and fabricated witness statements.

    Four Black men have been exonerated after defense attorneys showed that Simon elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted. Another man was freed after DNA showed he didn’t commit murder.

    The exonerations have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements.

    Defense attorneys and the Michigan Innocence Clinic say many more innocent people are likely still in prison because of Simon’s tactics. But without a comprehensive review of those cases, they will die in prison, the attorneys and clinic say.

    If anyone has a reason to distrust the Detroit Police Department in the 1990s, it’s Woods. He spent nearly 29 years in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. In 2019, Woods was released from prison after former Governor Rick Snyder commuted his sentence. A trial judge determined that witnesses in Woods’s case may have committed perjury.

    “It’s vitally an important story,” Woods said of the Metro Times series. “The fact of the matter is, injustices occurred. At the time, there was malicious and willful gross neglect and Gestapo tactics. That doesn’t define the men and women of the Detroit Police Department today. But at the same token, it gives them a black eye.”

    Other cities have conducted extensive examinations of cases tied to unethical detectives, which has led to numerous exonerations in places like New York City and Chicago.

    So far, neither the Detroit Police Department nor the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has shown a willingness to dig deeper into cases tied to Simon.

    DPD didn’t respond to a request for a follow-up interview about the police commission’s demands for a thorough review of Simon’s cases.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Teen describes inhumane conditions at Wayne County juvenile jail after arrest

    Teen describes inhumane conditions at Wayne County juvenile jail after arrest

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center.

    While Nicole Walker fretted over the whereabouts of her arrested 16-year-old daughter Saturday, the Detroit teenager was confined to what she describes as an overcrowded, understaffed juvenile jail in Hamtramck that didn’t even have cups for water.

    The teenager claims Wayne County authorities prevented her from calling her mom and left her alone in a cold jail where she witnessed juveniles getting abused.

    “They took me away from my mother, and I didn’t have any connections to the outside world,” the girl tells Metro Times. “I felt like I was invisible and that no one cared about me. They don’t care about you. They’re evil. The whole building is unsafe.”

    Detroit police arrested the teenager, whose name Metro Times isn’t disclosing because she’s a juvenile, on Friday afternoon on allegations that she pointed a gun at a group of people at a convenience store near her home on Detroit’s east side. Her mother says police refused to answer her questions and wouldn’t say where her daughter was going.

    Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton helped the family file a complaint against police for their handling of the juvenile.

    “Look at the stress they put on this family,” Burton tells Metro Times. “I think there is a lot to come out about this. Questions need to be asked. There needs to be oversight and accountability.”

    According to the teenager, she was placed in a backroom at a police precinct office for three to four hours before being taken to the Detroit Juvenile Detention Center, which has come under fire for deplorable conditions and abusive staffers.

    She says she wasn’t allowed to call her mother until Saturday evening — more than 30 hours after she was arrested. County officials confirmed she called her mom on Saturday and Tuesday.

    The teenager says she witnessed staffers assaulting juveniles.

    “When they tell you to go to your room, these big guys chase you around,” she says. “They will drag you, throw you, punch you. They are so bad there. It was crazy.”

    She says the meals tasted like “dog food,” and the only drinks available were orange juice because the jail had run out of cups for water. If the juveniles wanted to drink water, they had to form cups with their hands to sip from the sink, she says.

    “We were treated like animals,” she says, breaking down in tears. “I lost my mind. It’s crazy in there.”

    Wayne County spokesperson Doda Lulgjuraj disputed claims that there were no cups for water.

    “Our team says cups were and are still available in every pod,” Lulgjuraj tells Metro Times.

    Meanwhile, the teenager says she’s “deathly scared” to go back to jail.

    “I’m terrified,” she says. “Honestly, I would rather die than go back there. It’s a scary place.”

    Her case is in front of a juvenile judge.

    Last week, Metro Times launched “The Closer,” an investigative series about a former Detroit detective who terrorized teenagers to elicit false confessions and witness statements. In Part II, released this week, activists and attorneys call for a wholesale review of all the cases handled by the detective.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Desperate Detroit mother fights for contact with arrested gender-nonconforming child

    Desperate Detroit mother fights for contact with arrested gender-nonconforming child

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Detroit police arrested a 16-year-old girl outside her home.

    Nicole Walker says she hasn’t slept or eaten since Detroit police swooped in and arrested her 16-year-old child outside her home on Friday afternoon.

    Since then, Walker hasn’t been able to talk to her child, who is lodged in a juvenile center.

    Walker is also worried because she says her child is gender nonconforming and uses he/him pronouns. Although the mother refers to her “daughter,” Metro Times will use the child’s preferred pronouns.

    Her child, whom Metro Times isn’t identifying because he’s a minor, has been charged with felonious assault on allegations he pointed a gun at someone at a gas station near Walker’s home on the city’s east side.

    Walker, who is on oxygen 24 hours a day, says authorities are preventing her and her child from speaking over the phone.

    “I’m going crazy,” Walker, 55, tells Metro Times. “I can’t get information anywhere. They told me they don’t have to tell me anything about my daughter. I haven’t eaten since Friday. I can’t sleep.”

    In general, police in Michigan are barred from interrogating a child without a parent or guardian present. Walker is worried her child will falsely confess out of fear.

    “I’m so afraid they’re trying to get my daughter to say something she didn’t do,” Walker says. “She’s naive.”

    Last week, Metro Times launched “The Closer,” an investigative series about a former Detroit detective who elicited false confessions and witness statements while interviewing teenagers.

    A Detroit police spokesman defended the department’s handling of the situation, saying Walker’s child wasn’t interrogated, and they “have no authority” over who juveniles are allowed to communicate with while in jail. Metro Times also reached out to Wayne County for comment and will update this article with their response.

    “The family member did come to the station, and we advised her of her daughter being in custody,” the spokesman tells Metro Times. “No interrogation was done that night. … If there were any discussions to be made, they would have contacted a family member or lawyer.”

    Walker says her child was walking home from a convenience store when police arrested him. Walker yanked the oxygen tube out of her nose and demanded to know what was going on.

    “They told me to ‘shut the hell up, this has nothing to do with you,’” Walker claims. “They didn’t Mirandize her. They just took her. She even asked, ‘Why am I being handcuffed?’ They wouldn’t say a word.”

    At about 10 p.m., Walker says, she finally got a call from a court-appointed attorney who explained some vague details about the allegations.

    At a juvenile court hearing via Zoom on Saturday, Walker pleaded to speak with her child, but the referee wouldn’t let her. The referee set a $500 bond but indicated that only Walker could post the bond, she says.

    Since she’s unable to leave her house because she’s on oxygen, Walker has been unable to post bond. She sent family members to try to post bond, but they were denied.

    “They flat out told me I personally have to do it, even though I have my husband, who is her father on her birth certificate,” Walker says.

    But she’s not giving up.

    “I have made up my mind that I will die if I have to pick up my daughter,” Walker says. “I will take a chance and die to find my daughter.”

    A hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in juvenile court.

    Walker desperately wants to talk to her child before the hearing to ensure he doesn’t incriminate himself.

    “I’m so afraid,” Walker says. “I’m scared to death. She’s never been in trouble in a day in her life. She’s never even been in a police department.”

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Detroit’s flawed police commission is failing to hold cops accountable

    Detroit’s flawed police commission is failing to hold cops accountable

    [ad_1]

    Fifty years after Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young created a civilian oversight board to monitor the city’s police department, the commission has drifted far from its original mission, with members showing more allegiance to the administration than to public oversight.

    The shift has raised concerns about the board’s effectiveness and integrity at a time when police oversight is so important.

    The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is supposed to have seven elected members and four mayoral appointees. The idea is to ensure a majority of the commissioners are accountable to the public and to minimize the role that appointees play since the mayor also appoints the police chief.

    But Mayor Mike Duggan recently appointed a replacement for one of the elected members who resigned, and some of the other elected commissioners either fail to show up to meetings, giving the appointees a majority, or fall in line with the police administration.

    Now, the mayor’s appointees are running the commission, holding the chair and vice chair positions.

    “Police oversight is dead in America’s Blackest and poorest city,” Commissioner Willie Burton, who was elected, tells Metro Times. “The mayor’s appointees are running the board. If you’re appointed, you’re beholden to the mayor and the police chief. If you’re elected, you’re beholden to the people who elected you.”

    Despite being established as an independent oversight body, the commission is largely functioning as a rubber stamp for the Detroit Police Department. Instead of scrutinizing controversial decisions and asking tough questions, the commission’s members often offer congratulatory comments to police leaders and fail to hold the department accountable.

    Critics argue that this lack of rigorous oversight undermines the commission’s role and erodes public trust in the accountability meant to ensure fair and just policing.

    “The commission goes along with what the chief says,” Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit police commissioner, tells Metro Times. “They’re like cheerleaders for the police department. That’s the kind of commission you have.”

    At a time when officer misconduct is a persistent problem and the use of controversial police surveillance technology is at an all-time high, even leading to false arrests, the commission rarely challenges the department.

    The commission’s role is significant. It’s tasked with establishing departmental policies, investigating citizen complaints, and holding abusive officers accountable. But some elected commissioners aren’t showing up to meetings, and those who do often bicker over minor issues instead of making difficult decisions.

    What’s worse, some elected commissioners say, is that Duggan is meeting privately with some of his appointees and diluting the power of the independent oversight board.

    “The problem is the mayor himself,” Commissioner Ricardo Moore, who was elected and often challenges the status quo, says. “He meets secretly with commissioners and staff. Whatever he wants them to do, he’s going to suggest it.”

    Duggan’s spokesman John Roach denied the claim that appointed commissioners are acting as rubber stamps, calling the assertion “fiction.”

    “A cursory review of the Board of Police Commissioners’ votes over the last year will show that the mayor’s appointees rarely vote as a block on controversial issues,” Roach says. “Their votes diverge just as frequently as the votes of elected commissioners.”

    When the police commission had the opportunity to address public concerns about heavy-handed responses to protests and surveillance overreach with facial recognition technology, the camera network Project Greenlight, license plate readers, and the gunshot detection system Shot Spotter, the appointed members largely aligned with the mayor and police chief.

    But so did some of the elected members.

    Commissioners Willie Bell, a former Detroit cop, and Lisa Carter, a retired Wayne County Sheriff’s lieutenant, often fall in line with the administration and rarely show a desire to act as overseers. They’ve also missed a lot of meetings.

    Perhaps not surprisingly, groups connected to Duggan have supported Bell and Carter in their elections. A dark money group linked to Duggan, Our Neighborhoods First, which is run by current and former mayoral appointees and was incorporated by a lawyer for Duggan’s campaign, sent out mailers urging residents to vote for Bell and Carter in 2021.

    A political action committee called Powering the Economy, which is funded primarily by the Detroit Regional Chamber and received donations from Duggan, contributed financially to the campaigns of two police commissioners who weren’t speaking out against facial recognition technology in 2017 and 2018.

    In simple terms, Moore says, Duggan is a “puppet master.”

    “You don’t see him, but he’s always right there in the mix,” Moore says.

    Moore says some police commissioners also accept gifts and favors, which creates conflicts of interest. For example, he says, some of them receive “baseball tickets, get taken out to dinner, and ask the chief for favors.”

    Burton says citizen complaints against police are stacking up, but no one is joining him in raising the issue.

    “Police oversight is dead until we get rid of these rubber stamps and call on a charter amendment to ensure every commissioner is elected,” Burton says. “Residents want justice and accountability.”

    tweet this

    In April, a former top executive with the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners claimed in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against because of her gender and that “a clique” of commissioners “sabotaged” her attempts to resolve a backlog of hundreds of citizen complaints against cops. The lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court alleges Melanie White was unlawfully fired from her job as executive manager after she was tasked with eliminating a “massive citizen complaint backlog.”

    Since then, the backlog of citizen complaints has more than doubled, Burton says.

    At an important commission meeting on June 13, when members were tasked with appointing the new leaders, only three elected members attended the meeting — Burton, Moore, and Cedrick Banks. The other four attendees were mayoral appointees. With a majority at the meeting, the mayoral appointees selected two of their own to serve as chair and vice chair.

    Darryl Woods, who spent 29 years in prison after being convicted of murder for his role in a 1990 drug-related robbery, was selected to serve as the chair, even though he had just been appointed by Duggan last year. He also has been criticized for falsely suggesting he was exonerated.

    The new vice chair is Tamara Liberty Smith, who was appointed by Duggan last year to replace elected commissioner Bryan Ferguson and resigned after getting arrested for allegedly getting a blow job from a sex worker in his truck on the city’s northwest side.

    Burton tried to nominate an elected commissioner to serve in the leadership roles, but he was rebuffed.

    For the position of vice chair, Burton nominated Cedrick Banks, who was elected to the commission. But Banks declined

    “I’m not getting into that,” Banks responded at the meeting.

    Then Burton tried to nominate Linda Bernard, but she didn’t show up to the meeting.

    “The whole thing is sad,” Burton said at the meeting.

    Under the city’s charter, an election must be held by November for Ferguson’s seat. But it’s unclear if that’s going to happen. To find out, Metro Times called the Detroit Bureau of Elections, which referred us to the Wayne County Bureau of Elections, which in turn directed us to the Detroit Bureau of Elections, which then insisted we talk to the Wayne County Bureau of Elections. We gave up.

    Some of the appointed commissioners have also tried to shut down elected commissioners. In April, Woods urged the commission to censor Burton because “his posture and his demeanor is negative.” At the time, Burton was trying to pass a resolution that supported Palestinians and admonished the kinds of surveillance technology used by both Detroit and Israel.

    Woods’s motions went nowhere because the board no longer had a quorum after too many commissioners left the meeting early.

    At other times, mayoral appointees shut off Burton’s microphone.

    “You have people in these positions who don’t understand their roles,” Burton says. “They arrived on this board and are silencing me and the 100,000 people who live in my district. They are putting a rope around democracy.”

    Activists and others say one solution is making the entire board elected.

    “I was elected, not selected,” Crawford says. “That’s what democracy is about. The charter should be revised so that all the commissioners are elected. It should come from the people.”

    Burton agrees.

    “Police oversight is dead until we get rid of these rubber stamps and call on a charter amendment to ensure every commissioner is elected,” Burton says. “Residents want justice and accountability. The only way they’re going to get that is to vote on elected leadership.”

    Even the commission’s website lacks basic information. For example, the newest available minutes for public meetings is from 2020.

    Burton says residents must demand accountability.

    “Go to city hall, put your fist in the air, and say, ‘You’re not going to take it no more,’” Burton says, his voice rising. “No justice, no peace. Stand up to injustice. Stand up to officer misconduct. That’s what democracy is about.”

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Detroit police to overhaul facial recognition use after ‘groundbreaking settlement’ in false arrest suit

    Detroit police to overhaul facial recognition use after ‘groundbreaking settlement’ in false arrest suit

    [ad_1]

    Civil rights activists on Friday announced a “groundbreaking settlement agreement” in connection with a lawsuit filed by a Black man who was arrested by Detroit police based on a false facial recognition match.

    Robert Williams was arrested in front of his wife and young daughters at his Farmington Hills home in January 2020 after the facial recognition system incorrectly flagged him as a shoplifting suspect. He was locked up for 30 hours in an overcrowded detention facility where he was forced to sleep on a cement floor.

    Based on two blurry surveillance photos, Williams was accused of stealing watches from a Shinola store in Detroit in 2018.

    In April 2021, the ACLU of Michigan filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Williams, alleging the police department violated his Fourth Amendment rights and that his wrongful arrest was in violation of the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

    Williams is among at least three innocent Black people who have been arrested by Detroit police due to a false facial recognition match.

    Featured in the far-reaching settlement are restrictions in how the Detroit Police Department can use facial recognition technology.

    The core components of the settlement include:

    • Prohibiting police from arresting people based solely on facial recognition results or photo lineups following a facial recognition search.

    • Banning police from conducting lineups based solely on facial recognition leads without independent and reliable evidence linking a suspect to a crime.

    • Mandating police training on the risks and dangers of facial recognition technology and highlighting its higher misidentification rates for people of color.

    • Requiring an audit of all cases in which facial recognition technology was used to obtain an arrest warrant since 2017.

    Over the next four years, the U.S. District Court will retain jurisdiction of the case to ensure the agreement is enforced.

    “The Detroit Police Department’s abuses of facial recognition technology completely upended my life,” Williams said. “My wife and young daughters had to watch helplessly as I was arrested for a crime I didn’t commit and by the time I got home from jail, I had already missed my youngest losing her first tooth and my eldest couldn’t even bear to look at my picture. Even now, years later, it still brings them to tears when they think about it.”

    Civil right activists say the settlement is important because facial recognition technology is significantly flawed, inevitably leading to false arrests.

    The technology has come under increasing fire after studies have shown that the software misidentifies people of color more often than white people, which Metro Times reported in a cover story in July 2019.

    While Detroit has embraced the technology, at least 25 cities have banned it.

    “This settlement finally brings justice to Detroit, and the Williams family, after years of fighting to expose the flaws of this dangerous technology,” Phil Mayor, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, said. “Police reliance on shoddy technology merely creates shoddy investigations. Under this settlement, the Detroit Police Department should transform from being a nationwide leader in wrongful arrests driven by facial recognition technology into being a leader in implementing meaningful guardrails to constrain and limit their use of the technology.”

    Nationwide, at least six people have reported being falsely arrested based on flawed facial recognition matches. All have been Black.

    Three of those cases were in Detroit.

    In February 2022, Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when six cops arrested her at her home in Detroit based on a false facial recognition match. She spent 11 hours at the Detroit Detention Center and was charged with robbery and carjacking. A month later, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case.

    The technology also misidentified Michael Oliver in July 2019. Oliver was arrested and falsely accused of stealing a teacher’s cellphone and throwing it. He also filed a lawsuit against the city.

    “We hope this groundbreaking settlement will not only prevent future wrongful arrests of Black people in Detroit, but that it will serve as a model for other police departments that insist on using facial recognition technology,” Michael J. Steinberg, director of the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School, said. “We are also thrilled that Mr. Williams, who has become a face of movement to stop the misuse of facial recognition, will receive some measure of relief.”

    In a statement to Metro Times, Detroit Police Chief James White said his department raised the standards for making an arrest based on facial recognition matches after Williams was misidentified. Under the newer policies, police can only use matches as a tip to further an investigation, and matches cannot be the sole basis for an arrest.

    But even under the new policies, police arrested the other two Detroiters who were later found to be victims of faulty matches.

    “The Department is pleased with its work with the ACLU and University of Michigan over the last year and a half and that our new facial recognition policy, we firmly believe will serve as a national best practice and model for other agencies using this technology,” White said. “While the work DPD and the ACLU may differ, our goals are similar — to ensure policing is done in a fair, equitable, and constitutional manner.”

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Detroit’s Real Time Crime Center, where facial recognition software is used.

    Less than a year before Williams was arrested, Detroiters urged the city’s Board of Police Commissioners to ban the technology, saying it would lead to false arrests. But the commissioners and Mayor Mike Duggan stood behind the technology, saying it wouldn’t be abused.

    Detroit’s facial recognition software is especially pervasive because it’s used on an ever-expanding surveillance network of high-definition cameras under Duggan’s Project Green Light, a crime-fighting initiative that began in 2016 at gas stations and fast-food restaurants. Since then, the city has installed more than 500 surveillance cameras at parks, schools, low-income housing complexes, immigration centers, gas stations, churches, abortion clinics, hotels, health centers, apartments, and addiction treatment centers. The city also installed high-definition cameras at roughly 500 intersections at a time when other cities are scaling back surveillance because of privacy concerns.

    Williams said everyone should be worried about facial recognition.

    “The scariest part is that what happened to me could have happened to anyone,” Williams said. “But, at least with this settlement, it will be far less likely to happen again to another person in Detroit. With this painful chapter of our lives closing, my wife and I will continue raising awareness about the dangers of this technology.”

    The ACLU still supports a ban on the technology.

    “The multiple wrongful arrests by police in Detroit and other American cities show that face recognition technology is fundamentally dangerous in the hands of law enforcement,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The most effective way to avoid abuses is for lawmakers to ban police use of the technology, as city councils from Boston to Minneapolis to San Francisco have done. But in jurisdictions where lawmakers have yet to act, police departments should look to Detroit’s new policies, which will seriously mitigate the risk of further false arrests and related harms.”

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Safety or exclusion? Detroiters shut out of public parks during fireworks

    Safety or exclusion? Detroiters shut out of public parks during fireworks

    [ad_1]

    Detroit’s annual fireworks display on Monday was as radiant and breathtaking as ever.

    Trouble is, many Detroiters had trouble seeing the dazzling display because the city’s police department closed most of the public parks and spaces that offered the best views.

    Now residents and City Council President Mary Sheffield want to know why.

    The decision to close the parks “restricts viewing access for some of our most vulnerable residents, including our seniors and disabled residents,” Sheffield said in a memo to the Detroit Police Department and General Services Department on Monday.

    “It is my hope that the City can be as accommodating as possible for the residents who may find it difficult to attend the fireworks in Hart Plaza and other heavily trafficked areas,” she added.

    While thousands of residents squeezed into Hart Plaza, Spirit Plaza, and Belle Isle, most of the parks — and the Riverwalk — were closed, even though many of them were recently improved with tax-funded renovations. They included Riverside Park, Owen Park, Erma Henderson Park, Mt. Elliot Park, AB Ford Park, Lakewood East Park, Gabriel Richard Park, Stockton Park, Maheras-Gentry Park, and Mariner Park.

    Residents also took to social media to air their grievances.

    “Tonight was a fucking disaster,” @sociallychrissy tweeted. “I wanted to believe that tonight was for Detroiters and after the events of tonight, I have to say Detroit didn’t want Detroiters at the 2024 fireworks.”

    Kat Stafford, a former Free Press reporter who now serves as the global race and justice editor for Reuters, also expressed her disappointment.

    “No tents on Belle Isle. City parks closed,” Stafford tweeted. “These are public spaces that have been used by Detroiters for years. But we know those exclusive rooftop events will proceed as normal.”

    @metrotimes #detroit #fordfireworks ♬ original sound – Detroit Metro Times

    Alex Washington, a former Metro Times digital content editor, said the park closures smacked of racism.

    “I can’t find the words to explain why this is wrong and feels very anti-Black Detroit, but this is wrong and feels very anti-Black Detroit,” she tweeted.

    Washington added, “Like you know how crazy it is you can’t go to a city park and watch the city fireworks?!”

    So why are the parks closed?

    The police department cites a spate of past shootings. In 2017, three people were shot downtown just before and after the fireworks display. In 2013, a man was fatally shot about a mile away from downtown at the Martin Luther King Apartments. In 2011, a 14-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the groin, and a stray bullet struck a 16-year-old girl in the leg near the Renaissance Center. And in 2004, a man opened fire into a crowd that had gathered for the fireworks, injuring eight people and killing one.

    “There’s just too many kids walking around with guns,” then-Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown told WJR-AM 760 after the 2012 shooting.

    A vast majority of those shootings, however, occurred in areas that are still open.

    Detroit police pointed out that the park closures during the fireworks are nothing new and have been a regular occurrence for the past few years.

    “Decisions regarding open viewing areas are made in the interest of the safety of the hundreds of thousands of attendees,” DPD said in a statement to Metro Times.

    Closing the parks, the police department said, ensures “the safety of all attendees, by dedicating police presence to this event and limiting congestion of areas around the city.”

    DPD added, “The Department is confident in our strategy and in the hard work of our officers. We know the community looks forward to this event and wants to enjoy it safely.”

    As it has in the past, DPD also enforced a curfew downtown for anyone under the age of 18 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

    No violence was reported at the fireworks this year.

    Over the past two months, DPD has also come under fire for its handling of large crowds and protests. Police were scrutinized for their heavy-handed response to the Cinco de Mayo festival. And on May 19, a Detroit cop was captured on video telling an anti-war protester to “go back to Mexico.”

    Councilwoman Mary Waters threatened to subpoena police Chief James White, questioning what she said “may be a disturbing, systemic pattern of racist, xenophobic police conduct.”

    White suspended the officer who made the “go back to Mexico” comment after discovering he had also made an offensive remark to a Black protester.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • ‘Go back to Mexico’ remark is not what got Detroit lieutenant suspended

    ‘Go back to Mexico’ remark is not what got Detroit lieutenant suspended

    [ad_1]

    An internal investigation into a Detroit lieutenant who told a protester to “go back to Mexico” uncovered other offensive comments he made during a recent pro-Palestinian demonstration, prompting his suspension Wednesday.

    Chief James White plans to ask the Detroit Police Commission to withhold Lt. Brandon Cole’s pay as early as Thursday afternoon.

    At least one Detroit police commissioner, Willie Burton, plans to call for “immediate disciplinary action.”

    In viral video footage posted on social media, Cole taunted a Palestinian activist outside Huntington Place on Sunday, saying “Why don’t you just go back to Mexico?”

    The activist, Lexis Zeidan, grew up in Dearborn and now lives in Detroit, though according to investigators the “Mexico” reference was a reference to the fact that she had been on vacation in Mexico. Investigators are focusing on Cole’s decision to disclose information from Zeidan’s social media page.

    During the internal investigation, police also reviewed body camera footage that revealed Cole antagonizing a Black protester with a racially insensitive remark, according to two sources close to the investigation. Details of that remark have not yet been disclosed.

    Burton says he’s going to call for White to demote Cole and demand better handling of protests.

    “The department must provide the board an updated review of their training procedures for officers dealing with protesters,” Burton tells Metro Times. “This unacceptable incident is one of many that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuits and eroded trust in the police out in the community.”

    William Davis, a civil rights activist and former Detroit police commissioner, says Cole should be fired.

    “His job is to de-escalate and not to antagonize anybody,” Davis, president of the Detroit chapter of the National Action Network, tells Metro Times. “Anybody who abuses social media and says something like that doesn’t have the right demeanor to serve in the Detroit Police Department, especially in a leadership position. You should be unappointed from that position and go back to your suburban community and look for another job.”

    Davis says these kinds of problems will continue because DPD is increasingly hiring white, suburban cops to serve in a predominantly Black city.

    In a statement Wednesday, White announced he was suspending Cole because “additional facts” about the case had surfaced.

    “Having considered this new information, my concerns over the events of May 19 have worsened,” White said.

    DPD declined to release more information.

    You can tune into the Detroit Police Commission meeting beginning at 3 p.m. on Zoom.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link

  • Lawsuit alleges Detroit police commissioners ‘sabotaged’ efforts to resolve backlog of citizen complaints

    Lawsuit alleges Detroit police commissioners ‘sabotaged’ efforts to resolve backlog of citizen complaints

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Melanie White, the former executive manager for the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit.

    A former top executive with the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners claims in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against because of her gender and that “a clique” of commissioners “sabotaged” her attempts to resolve a backlog of hundreds of citizen complaints against cops.

    The lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on Wednesday alleges Melanie White was unlawfully fired from her job as executive manager after she was tasked with eliminating a “massive citizen complaint backlog.”

    The suit, which names the city of Detroit and former Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Bryan Ferguson, claims she was subjected to “a campaign of vitriol, verbal bullying, harassment, character assassination, unequal treatment and violations.”

    According to the lawsuit, Ferguson and other commissioners sabotaged her efforts to close the backlog “to justify her suspension and later termination.”

    Ferguson later resigned in July 2023 after he was arrested for allegedly getting a blow job from a sex worker in his truck on the city’s northwest side.

    Despite reporting the sabotage to Mayor Mike Duggan, he did nothing to address a work stoppage by employees who disliked White, the lawsuit states.

    White’s attorney Carl Edwards says Ferguson was clearly biased against women and treated White unfairly because of her gender.

    “It’s tragic,” White’s attorney Carl Edwards tells Metro Times. “A woman with 20 years of experience with a sterling record of work performance lost her job because of a man who is a serial sex harasser who favors men over women. It’s an awful case.”

    White also helped several women coworkers file gender discrimination complaints because they were paid “substantially” less than their male counterparts.

    At that point, White had a target on her back, Edwards says.

    White took a mental health leave of absence from January to March 2023 “because of severe bullying, harassment, hatred, retaliation and discrimination” by Ferguson, the lawsuit states. During her absence, Ferguson ordered her belongings to be removed from her office and sent to a storage room, according to the lawsuit.

    Several days after she returned to work, White says Ferguson suspended her and escorted her from her workplace with the help of a “fully armed” cop.

    Less than a week later, a top city attorney notified Ferguson that the suspension was improper and violated board policies and procedures. The attorney ordered Ferguson to reinstate White, but he refused, the suit alleges.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizen complaints began to pile up because of a significant reduction in staff.

    Under pressure from the public, Duggan held a meeting in January 2022 with White, police Chief James White, and several commissioners to eliminate the backlog, which had “skyrocketed,” the suit states. Duggan’s staff developed a software to monitor the progress of the work.

    In another meeting with the mayor in October 2022, White complained that some police commissioners and staff members were obstructing progress on the backlog. Since the software allowed city officials to monitor the work, Duggan’s administration should have been able to identify the saboteurs, according to the suit.

    “They didn’t have to rely on anything Melanie White said,” Edwards says. “They had direct eyes on it. That’s what makes this case so egregious. The program was being sabotaged, and they took no action. To me, it’s baffling.”

    To demonstrate that White was a good employee, the lawsuit points out that the board’s three previous chairs described her as “excellent” and “outstanding.” In October 2022, Chief White called her “an amazing professional.”

    But when Ferguson became chairman in July 2022, White’s “job performance was consistently and unfairly criticized,” the suit states.

    Duggan’s office declined to comment. Metro Times couldn’t reach Ferguson for comment.

    [ad_2]

    Steve Neavling

    Source link