Live reporting by
Alex Klaus
Deputy Chief Mark Bliss voices disapproval with City Council agreeing to $1M settlement with Detroit Will Breathe.
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Alex
@mostlikelyalex
Hey y’all! Today at 3pm, I’ll be live-tweeting today's Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting for #DETdocumenters @media_outlier @Detour_Detroit @PlanetDetroit @freep @wdet @BridgeDet313 @DetDocumenters
12:56 PM Jul 28, 2022 CDT
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As always, please email documenters@outliermedia.org with the subject “Correction Request” if you find something inaccurate
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Today’s agenda includes a 10 minute “Grants and Contracts” presentation, along with a letter from interim Chief Investigator Lawrence Akbar regarding alleged “false narratives” by former OCI employees reported in a Detroit Free Press Article (see below) detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm… https://t.co/zx24XCnshl
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The article by @andreamsahouri reported that a former OCI employee experienced multiple instances of unprofessional behavior and harassment from OCI leadership. freep.com/story/news/202… twitter.com/mostlikelyalex…
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Commissioner Willie Bell: “Those claims are unfounded. It's just generalization, it's not factual.... We take these claims seriously. But the harassment, there's no substance to that at all — it's just sometimes you have individuals not happy with the department.” (1 of 2)
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"I think it's just totally unfair to Akbar and Cromwell, who have done an excellent job" working within an understaffed and underfunded office. “I think that we've been unfairly scrutinized.... More people are aware of how to file a complaint, moreso than ever.” (2 of 2)
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Last week, Commissioner Willie Burton commented that OCI is in worse shape than ever before, noting the number of resigned investigators in such a short period of time. Chair Brian Ferguson then cut him off, leading to an argument. twitter.com/mostlikelyalex…
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In last week’s meeting, Interim Chief Investigator Akbar and Interim Secretary Melanie White from the Office of the Chief Investigator (OCI) reported a drop from 850 to 779 total backlogged citizens complaint cases. They’re shooting to close 75 cases in the next two weeks. twitter.com/mostlikelyalex…
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Page 2 of the agenda lists a closed session regarding a request for the board to “reconsider Administrative Leave without pay but with medical benefits for officer Munthar Al-Tamini, badge 33 assigned to the ninth precinct. A similar item appeared on the 6/23/22 meeting agenda. twitter.com/mostlikelyalex…
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Multiple viewers during that meeting, I included, got kicked off the call. This was all I was able to catch, however I cannot confirm whether this was regarding the closed session or not. I can’t find a posted recording of the meeting, nor can I find meeting minutes to confirm. twitter.com/mostlikelyalex…
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Interim Secretary Melanie White says they are working with the Department of Innovation and Technology regarding the access to various board meeting replays. This might explain why I couldn’t find the meeting recording for the meeting I mentioned previously.
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Roll call:
Commissioners Willie Burton and QuanTez Pressley are absent. Commissioner Willie Bell is on his way.
Commissioner Ricardo Moore submitted an excused absence
Commissioners Willie Burton and QuanTez Pressley are absent. Commissioner Willie Bell is on his way.
Commissioner Ricardo Moore submitted an excused absence
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Chief White is also absent as well. A Deputy Chief is here but I did not catch his name.
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Chair Ferguson said he wants to publicly thank the IT department for working to get everything fixed not only for BOPC/DPD, but all the government departments.
He says there is a delay on some of the video uploads because they’re putting on closed captioning
He says there is a delay on some of the video uploads because they’re putting on closed captioning
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He says today, DPD’s agency CFO will provide a presentation on “Grants and Contracts”
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Chair Ferguson mentioned a @DETWILLBREATHE settlement, and asked dept to share any information of the settlement
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He says there were 137 citizens complaint cases closed in the month of July, including 31 since last Thursday, totaling 168. He says he will report numbers weekly.
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He also says they’ll be moving their closed session to next week.
Also next week, they’re going to try doing public comment at the beginning of the meeting. Commenters will still have 2 minutes to speak.
Also next week, they’re going to try doing public comment at the beginning of the meeting. Commenters will still have 2 minutes to speak.
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According to Deputy Chief: There are 6 injured off duty officers including:
1 sergeant from 2nd precinct
1 tactical services
1 auto theft unit
1 from ninth precinct
2 from the seven precinct
1 sergeant from 2nd precinct
1 tactical services
1 auto theft unit
1 from ninth precinct
2 from the seven precinct
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Crime stats: He says non fatal shootings are down 8% and robberies are down 18%. detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm… https://t.co/LapJP0ScaL
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During their weekend drag racing and drift enforcement (July22-24) He says there was minimal activity. One vehicle impounded, one stolen vehicle recovered, and one felony arrest
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Here is the weekly facial recognition report: detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm… https://t.co/mhFpVclebN
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And the weekly Shotspotter report: detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm… https://t.co/vRuOHe2Czw
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Response regarding Detroit will breathe: Deputy says it was a “Business decision to mitigate damages at trial.” He says their officers “overwhelmingly acted appropriately time and time again to protect free speech while also maintaining public safety”
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He says individuals “have not and will not” be able to produce evidence that the DPD have wronged them in any way “to undercut the dedicated women and men of the department”
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He says the department self-initiated “several internal investigations based upon its own review of videos posted on social media” but also the “department actively engaged with community leaders to ensure a free flow of information concerning the actions of our officers during +
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Burton is “a bit concerned” about where the dept. and board is in regards to officers with body worn cameras. He says a lot of officers are not wearing body worn cameras. He also mentions the many protestors shot and thrown to the ground by officers.
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Commissioner Bernard made a comment worth noting but if I try to capture it right now, I’ll miss other things. I will add it to my highlights.
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I can’t find the video at this moment, but there is a lengthy video of police violence against protestors.
freep.com/story/opinion/…
freep.com/story/opinion/…
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Next up, the presentation about grants and contracts by Nevrus P. Nazarko
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I’m going to be transparent, I’m not exactly sure what this report is about 😅 Will try to make my highlights more detailed!
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Okay so I think these are all different grants the department receives. For example, VOCA stands for “Victims of Crime Act” https://t.co/dzHwz0x3ds
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He skipped over many of his slides. The presentation is now finished https://t.co/kTzwVDmJGn
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Commissioner Bernard says the VOCA is a huge grant. She says she’s gotten funds from it.
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They keep talking about “Black Family Development”
I think this is the website: blackfamilydevelopment.org
I think this is the website: blackfamilydevelopment.org
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I’m wondering if Black Family Development is on one of the presentation pages that was skipped over 🤔 because I’m not seeing it in the presentation slides I caught
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Commissioner Holley asked how many grant writers are employed by the department. Mr. Nazarko says he isn’t sure, he knows there is at least one person working under him.
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Commissioner Bernard says they as a board are entitled to receive grants but they’ve never done it.
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Interim Secretary says that no personal items relating to the letter about the Detroit Free Press article can be disclosed or discussed in the open meeting.
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Commissioner Banks says a grant writer would take the board to a “whole nother level”
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Moving onto new business. Commissioner Burton is requesting an additional 20 seconds for public comment because of commenters who have disabilities like speech impediments, mobility issues, etc. Nobody else seconded the motion so Chair Ferguson said it failed.
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That’s disappointing considering we seem to be pretty ahead of time and are no longer going into closed session 😕
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On to public comment. There are 9 speakers, 2 in person, 5 on zoom, and two written.
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Our first commenter says she is hesitant to go to Greektown “knowing what’s going on with the police.” She says an officer approached her with hostility to move her car. She had more she said, but I didn’t catch much. Will go back to it and try to add it to my highlights. +
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The commenter said this was her first time encountering racism from the police department.
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Minister Eric Blount says somebody needs to call out the police department about the Black Lives Matter Lawsuit.
Regarding the grants and contracts presentation, he’s asking where the update on the union contract?
Maybe it was within the slides they skipped
Regarding the grants and contracts presentation, he’s asking where the update on the union contract?
Maybe it was within the slides they skipped
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Next commenter is asking for the board’s intentions with moving the public comment time.
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Our next public commenter is saying that it is disappointing that there has not been uploads of any of the meeting videos since June. He also brought up something else important about an exoneration on Mon, 11 am that I have to listen to my recording. Will add to highlights
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Last commenter “OCI STAFF for the truth” wrote in that they get feedback about harassment from all OCI staff, not just management. They said they have options, including a the ability to conduct their own investigation
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