Board of Police Commissioners

Detroit Board of Police Commissioners

Criminal Justice

Thursday, March 28, 2024
3:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m. EDT

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team

Note-taking by Gabriel Gamlin

Commissioners want to know more about information sharing agreements with other police departments, and whether those departments adhere to Obama's Community Policing initiative, which DPD has signed. DPD presented on facial recognition technology and associated policies.

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Live reporting by Nathaniel Eichenhorn

Nachum Eichenhorn @NachumDetroit

Good Morning #Detroit !
I will be live tweeting the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting today at 3:00 for #DetroitDocumenters @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @media_outlier @metrotimes @MichiganRadio @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit

01:22 PM Mar 28, 2024 CDT

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The meeting was called to order at 3:00pm. There is at the moment no quorum so they are moving forward with the invocation.

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The regular announcements are being read. Here are the upcoming meetings from the agenda:

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Meeting roll has been called as follows:
Pressley: Present
Bernard: Present
Bell: Absent
Carter: Absent
Hernandez: Absent
Woods: Absent
Smith: Present
Banks: Present
Burton: Absent
Moore: Present

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The minutes and agenda have been approved

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Some new investigators are being sworn in by Charman Pressley.
They are:
Destiny Staffney, Jureka Johnson, and Remon Kildani

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Now we're moving on to the chief of police report

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Crime is down across the board. 35% fewer homicides. 26% fewer robberies.

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Down 34% in carjackings

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Summer’s coming, so the drag racing squad is getting going and trying to discourage the activity.

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Going forward they plan to start ticketing spectators as well, not just drivers.

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Now we're just going through some incidents that occurred over the week.

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Comm'r Banks asks what the reason is for the decreased crime rates.
Answer: New hires, technology, and community cooperation.

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Community cooperation the best in the Asst Chief's 30 year career.

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Comm'r asks about the term "criminal homicide" and asks how many different types of homicide there are. The Asst Chief responds that he does not know

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Comm'r Burton: What cities does the City of Detroit have information sharing agreements with?
Pressley: We are already in possession of a document with this information.
Pressley requests copies be provided next meeting.

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Burton; I am concerned about a possible disparity in policies between parties to such an agreement.
AC: The various agreements address the use of the data shared.

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Pressley and Burton are going around and around a bit. Pressley seems a little fed up with Burton. Basic gist is:
Burton: We need info re policies and agreements, the board doesn't have that.
Pressley: we do have that, and I'll have it read into the record.
And then again.

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Comm'r Bernard clarifies that the question is whether the DPD is concerned about making agreements with PDs that may be engaging in unethical behaviors or have unethical policies.

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Pressley responds that a larger conversation on this issue can occur at the next meeting when the DPD can be prepared to address the issue, and the Board is in possession of the relevant documents.

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Burton is specifically concerned that other PDs may not have signed on the PRes Obama's Community Policing initiative, which DPD has signed.

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Excuse me, Bernard, not Burton.

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Now the Board is moving on to public comment.

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Caller is concerned about the disparity in car insurance rates between the City of Detroit and the suburbs, and the continuing problem of racial inequality. The caller is concerned about the data-sharing policies inadvertently allowing other PDs to exacerbate the issues.

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Two callers have expressed their support for the resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

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The next caller is voicing his concerns about the Board not taking misconduct seriously and says that no amount of Easter egg hunts will make people trust the police if they still feel disrespected and oppressed by them.

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This caller is also speaking in favor of the resolution on Gaza.

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Former Comm'r calls in to voice his strong concerns about the lack of action taken against DPD employees who falsify documents. Says in his 30 years working for the city, if he ever falsified a document he would have been instantly terminated.

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This caller is also in support of the Ceasefire resolution, and advocates that the Board disinvest from technologies that have been developed by Israel.

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Now we're going on to the DPD's presentation concerning facial recognition technology.

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DPD has consulted with partners including a law school and the ACLU to develop a policy that respects civil rights.

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The slides for the presentation can be found here:

detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitm…

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The presenter is emphasizing that SNAP (Statewide Network of Agency Photos) photos can only be for Par I crimes and can't be accessed otherwise. No info on how this claim is to be verified.

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The process to go from “lead” to taking action

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New templates have been created that include obvious disclaimers about probably cause and reminders that leads are not actionable evidence.

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The photo line-up policy has also changed to better ensure false positives are avoided.

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Here’s the full disclaimer:

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Comm'r asks how the Gaza ceasefire resolution will affect the use of facial rec tech.
Pressley: the resolution addresses surveillance technology and facial rec tech is not used to surveille the public.

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Comm'r Burton asks what the DPD would say to those whose civil rights have been wronged by the technology, and to the City, which is dealing with lawsuits regarding the technology?
Answer: We have apologized to those who have been wrongly apprehended.

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Burton says that DPD misidentifies people with the technology at a higher rate than other cities, and asks how many other cities have stopped using the technology?
Answer: I don't know which cities have stopped, if any, and they are so far only aware of 3 persons so misidentiied

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The Report from Acting Board Secretary Robert Brown is being presented now

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Brown is fielding questions about the hiring process, and when in the process it is appropriate to present candidates to the board.

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Moving on to New Business, Burton brings up concerns that the Gaza ceasefire resolution is not worded strongly enough.

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Pressley does not have the resolution before him, and therefore can entertain no changes at this time. That being the case, the meeting is adjourned at 5:01pm

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Well folks, this closes my coverage of the Detroit BOPC meeting for March 28, 2024. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings at

documenters.org

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If you believe anything in the coverage today is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line

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Attachments

Agenda

By Noah Kincade 3/28/2024

Transcript and recording

By Noah Kincade 3/28/2024

Agency Information

Detroit Board of Police Commissioners

www.detroitmi.gov

(313) 596-1830

bopc@detroitmi.gov

See Documenters reporting

The Board of Police Commissioners has supervisory control and oversight of the Police Department, including plenary authority over citizen complaints and the power to appoint fact finders, subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony, and require the production of evidence. The Board also appoints a civilian as Director of Police Personnel and approves all promotions made by the Chief. The 11 member board is comprised of 7 elected members from each city council district and 4 members appointed by the Mayor. https://detroitmi.gov/government/boards/board-police-commissioners