Commissioner Willie Burton speaking as QuanTez Pressley, Cedric Banks and an audience of Detroit Police Department officers look at him. Commissioner Jim Holley has his head bowed, and DPD Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes is using his phone.
Commissioner Willie Burton accused the board of not being transparent in its investigator hiring process.

Detroit Board of Police Commissioners Community Meeting, April 13, 2023

Dan Ignacio

Commissioners appointed the Rev. Jerome Warfield Sr. as their chief investigator; it is unsure whether he will accept. They also chose five candidates to become investigators for board. Meanwhile, the number of open citizen complaint cases continues to rise, despite a plateau in longstanding cases. 

“What have they done to earn my trust?”
— Young adult giving public comment, saying there is a lack of police accountability. 

Commissioners appointed the Rev. Jerome Warfield Sr. as chief investigator, even though they rescinded a job offer to him last month. On Feb. 10, the board’s Personnel & Training Committee recommended to hire Warfield for the position, and the board made an offer on Feb. 23. He accepted. But on March 2, the board rescinded the chief investigator offer. Warfield subsequently sued the board. 

Only four commissioners — Vice Chair Annie Holt, Jim Holley, Ricardo Moore and Willie Burton — voted yes to approve Warfield’s appointment. The no votes were Chair Bryan Ferguson, Cedric Banks and QuanTez Pressley, while Jesus Hernandez, Linda Bernard and Lisa Carter were absent. As part of the appointment, Warfield’s “retroactive start date” is March 13. 

The board also chose candidates to fill five investigator positions. Commissioners chose to offer Briana Chinman, Justin St. Clair, Mary Simmons, Nicole Mesiner and Vauadia Fleming each a salary range from $40,344 to $60,306 should they accept. 

Commissioner Burton was the only no vote for all five hires. He loudly protested, saying commissioners weren’t informed about these candidates and accusing the board of corruption and rubber-stamping. Although Chair Ferguson said Burton is a member of the board’s Personnel & Training Committee, which interviewed and voted to recommend the investigator candidates.

The board has 523 open cases investigating citizen complaints, an increase from 482 open cases on March 16. While there was only an increase of 4 open cases aged 61 days or older, the bulk of open cases remains older than 90 days. Regardless, Board Secretary Victoria Shah was positive about the case closure rate. 

“We’re just about closing cases at the same rate that they’re coming in the door, which is good, considering that we’re not fully staffed.” 

Since the start of 2023, the Board of Police Commissioners has received 377 citizen complaints against police officers. About 29% of these cases were closed within 20 days. 

Table of Contents

Documentation

The meeting was live-blogged on Mastodon and Twitter for Detroit Documenters, which offers its own report.

Documents available on Documenters.org, including the meeting agenda.

The agency’s last meeting on April 6 was documented by Alex Klaus and Heidi Ausgood. The next meeting on April 20 was documented by Alex Klaus and Gina McPherson.

Visit the agency’s website for official information.

Materials

Archived pages

Mastodon posts and meeting page are archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Audio

The actual start of the meeting (6:31 p.m.) can be heard 31 minutes into the recording. 

Images

Screenshots of online meeting.

Online meeting application showing a video feed of a white room with seats arranged for an audience to face a long table draped in blue cloth.
Video feeds of the room and a sign language interpreter. In the room, people have partially filled the audience seats. Seated at the long table are Administrative Specialist Robert Brown, an unidentifiable person, Board Secretary Victoria Shah, Parliamentarian Frances Jackson, Commissioner Ricardo Moore, Commissioner Linda Bernard, Vice Chair Annie Holt, Chair Bryan Ferguson, Commissioner Jim Holley, Commissioner Cedric Banks and Detroit Police Department Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes.
Commissioners and audience members look at someone speaking at a podium. This person is tall and bald, has darker skin, and is wearing glasses, a white dress shirt and grey pants.
Detroit City Councilmember Scott Benson walking from the podium to the audience seating while commissioners applaud.
DPD Cmdr. Jacqueline Pritchett at the podium looking back at the audience.
Document that reads, “Resolution honoring Lieutenant Kimberly A. Gabriel. Whereas Kimberly Gabriel was appointed to the Detroit Police Department on November 20, 1995. Upon graduating from the Detroit Metropolitan Police Academy, Officer Gabriel began her career at the Seventh Precinct; and whereas Officer Gabriel spent several years at the Seventh Precinct and Crime Scene Services. Officer Gabriel displayed tremendous knowledge and leadership skills as an officer and was promoted to the rank of sergeant on February 6, 2004. Sergeant Gabriel’s assignments included Police Recruiting, the Seventh Precinct, Internal Controls and Sex Crimes. On July 30, 2018 she was promoted to Lieutenant. Her assignments included the Seventh Precinct, Chief’s Neighborhood Liason and Internal-External Relations, where she served until her retirement; and whereas Lieutenant Gabriel was the deserving recipient of the following awards: Chief’s Merit Award, both Consent Judgement Awards, the Ford Fireworks Award, the Major League Baseball All-Star Recognition Award, the Rosa Parks Funeral Recognition Award, and the Super Bowl XL Recognition Award, as well as numerous letters of commendation from citizens and superiors; and whereas Lieutenant Gabriel has tireless served the Detroit Police Department, the citizens of Detroit and its neighboring communities for 27 years. She has served the Detroit Police Department with loyalty, professionalism, integrity and dedication, and is widely respected throughout the law enforcement community as the consummate professional. Now therefore it be resolved That the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, speaking on behalf of the citizens of the great City of Detroit, recognizes and honors the lifelong contributions and commitment to excellence in public service of Lieutenant Kimberly A. Gabriel. Her display of courage and unwavering community spirit has improve the quality of life for the citizens of Detroit. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. We thank and congratulate you, Lieutenant Kimberly A. Gabriel.
The left video feed shows Commissioners QuanTez Pressley, Banks, Burton and Deputy Chief Hayes; the right video feed shows sign language interpreter Toi pointing to their right ear and shaking their head.
Commissioner Bernard speaking. Commissioner Moore adjusting his glasses, Vice Chair Holt looking at Bernard; Chair Ferguson and Commissioner Holley looking away.
Presentation slide titled “Current Department Staffing.” A blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023” has the following data: 2408 Sworn Positions Filled, 641 Civilian Positions Filled, 266 Sworn Positions Vacant, 131 Civilian Positions Vacant, 2674 Sworn Total Positions, 772 Civilian Positions Vacant.
Presentation slide titled “2023 Sworn Recruiting (7/1/2022 to 3/31/2022).” A blue bar chart with the same title has the following data: 3535 Total # Applicants, 59 #IN Process, 251 Withdrew#, 2957 Archived#, 425 Temporarily Disqualified, 470 Disqualified Permanently, 209 #Awaiting Calls.
Presentation slide titled “March MCOLES Testing.” A blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023” has the following data: 137 Written Scheduled, 184 Physical Agility Scheduled, 77 Written Appeared, 101 Physical Agility Appeared, 46 Written Passed, 57 Physical Agility Passed, 31 Written Failed, 44 Physical Agility Failed, 13 Written Rescheduled, 25 Physical Agility Rescheduled, 0 Written Withdrew, 0 Physical Agility Withdrew, 47 Written No Show, 58 Physical Agility No Show.
Presentation slide titled “Total New Hires.” A blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023” has the following data: 32 Sworn, 23 Civilians, 0 Police Assistants, 55 Total New Hires.
Presentation slide titled “Detroit Residency Information.” A blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023” has the following data: 542 Detroit Total Sworn, 1828 Non-Detroit Total Sworn, 425 Detroit Total Civilians, 216 Non-Detroit Total Civilians, 15 Detroit Police Assistant, 23 Non-Detroit Police Assistant.
Presentation slide with a blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023,” which has the following data: 9 Sworn, 7 Civilians, 0 Police Assistants, 16 Total Attrition.
Presentation slide titled “Leaves of Absence / Restricted Duty.” A blue bar chart titled “Mar 2023” has the following data: 19 Sworn FMLA Contiguous, 8 Civilian FMLA Contiguous, 66 Sworn FMLA Intermittent, 85 Sworn FMLA Intermittent, 6 Sworn PPL, 0 Civilian PPL, 3 Sworn Medical Leave, 6 Civilian Medical Leave, 0 Sworn Military, 0 Civilian Military, 0 Sworn General Leave, 0 Civilian General Leave, 160 Sworn Restricted, 9 Civilian Restricted.
Presentation slide titled “Monthly Separations.” A table contains the following cells with numeric values that don’t equal zero: 1 P.O Retired, 3 P.O Resigned, 2 P.O Resigned under charges, 1 P.O Disability, 1 P.O Dismissed, 8 P.O Total; 1 Lieutenant Deaths, 1 Lieutenant Total; 1 Total Retired, 3 Total Resigned, 2 Total Resigned under charges, 1 Total Deaths, 1 Total Disability, 1 Total Dismissed, 9 Total Total. The columns are titled, “March,” “Retired,” “Retired with charges,” “Resigned,” “Resigned under charges,” “Deaths,” “Disability,” “Dismissed,” “Total.” The rows are titled, “P.O,” “Investigator,” “Sergeant,” “Lieutenant,” “Detective,” “Captain,” “Commander,” “Deputy Chief,” “Assistant Chief,” “Total.”
Presentation slide titled “Police Recruiting,” which reads, “Sworn Separations.”
Presentation slide titled “Department Separations 2022 vs 2023.” A blue bar chart titled “Department Separation 2022 and 2023” has the following data: 31 2022 Jan, 14 2023 Jan, 20 2022 Feb, 14 2023 Feb, 25 2022 Mar, 9 2023 Mar, 22 2022 Apr, 2 2023 Apr, 26 2022 May, 0 2023 May, 34 2022 Jun, 0 2023 Jun, 30 2022 Jul, 0 2023 Jul, 39 2022 Aug, 0 2023 Aug, 33 2022 Sep, 0 2023 Sep, 27 2022 Oct, 0 2023 Oct, 15 2022 Nov, 0 2023 Nov, 20 2022 Dec, 0 2023 Dec.
Presentation slide titled “Police Recruiting.” A blue bar chart titled “Separations to Other Depts 2022 to Present” has the following data: 9 Jan, 3 Feb, 14 Mar, 13 Apr, 8 May, 22 Jun, 12 Jul, 23 Aug, 25 Sep, 12 Oct, 6 Nov, 6 Dec, 3 Jan, 2 Feb, 1 Mar, 1 Apr. A thick arrow with the text “Contract Renewal” is placed over 12 Oct through 1 Apr.
Presentation slide titled “Police Recruiting,” which reads, “Sworn Appointments (New Hires).”
Presentation slide titled “Student Police Officer Summary.” A table titled “Training Academy Hiring and Graduation Schedule” has the following data: 10/31/22: 33 Entered, 0 Certified, 29 SPOs Remaining in Class, 04/29/23 Graduation; 12/19/22: 26 Entered, 0 Certified, 20 SPOs Remaining in Class, 05/26/23 Graduation; **01/30/23: 25 Entered, 2 Certified, 20 SPOs Remaining Class, 06/30/23 Graduation; **02/27/22: 37 Entered, 9 Certified, 26 SPOs Remaining in Class, TBD (Jul) Graduation; **03/27/23: 32 Entered, 3 Certified, 32 SPOs Remaining in Class, TBD (Aug) Graduation; Totals: 153 Entered, 14 Certified, 127 SPOs Remaining in Class. The rest of the slide reads: “(11 of the 14) were demobilized (certified). Upcoming Class. Start Date: 4/24/23. Class Size: 30+. Reinstatements for Apr: 10. Total for Apr: 40. Laterals for 2023: 1.”
Presentation slide titled “2022 / 2023 Reinstatements.” A blue chart on the left titled “Reinstatements Requests by Month” has the following data: 2 Sep-22, 14 Oct-22, 9 Nov-22, 6 Dec-22, 10 Jan-23, 12 Feb-23, 11 Mar-23. A blue chart on the right titled “Status of Reinstatement Requests” has the following data: 29 Approved, 8 Denied, 19 Processing, 8 Withdrew. The rest of the slide reads, “Since announcement of new contract on 9/28/22: Requests — 64. Approved- 29. Hired — 22.”
Presentation slide titled “Police Recruiting,” which reads, “Recruiting Initiatives.”
Presentation slide titled “Recruiting Initiatives.” A list titled “New Partnerships” contains: ◦ “Children Services Agency for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services” ◦ “The Cave of Adullam Transformational Training Academy (The CATTA)” ◦ “Downtown Boxing gym” ◦ “Operation: Country and Community “Serving your Country, while you serve a Community” ◦ “Ronnie Cyrus-Reserve Component Transition Assistance Advisor Program.” A list titled “Previous Week” contains: ✓ “Foster Youth Job Fair, Career Exploration” ✓ “American Job Network with Detroit at Works” ✓ “Durfee Innovation Weekly Career Event” ✓ “Michigan Career Expo at Radisson Hotel” ✓ “Burger King outreach (closing locations in Detroit)” ✓ “Returning Citizens” ✓ “DPD Career Fair.” A list titled “Upcoming” contains: ◦ “Scheduled Colleges visits:” ❏ “Community colleges (WC3D-April 25, 2023” ❏ “4-year institution (WSU-April 17, 2023)” ❏ “High schools to conduct ‘Meet & Greet’” ◦ “Social Media Footprint” ❏ “DPD Media —working on campaign strategy and developing specific social media outputs as recruiting platforms.”
Presentation slide titled “March 25 2022 DPD Career Day.” Six photos shows various indoor scenes, including classrooms and event venues.
Presentation slide titled “Human Resources.” A blue chart titled “Separated vs New Hires 2022/2023” has the following data: 21 New Hires Jan, 31 Separated Jan; 21 New Hires Feb, 20 Separated Feb; 0 New Hires Mar, 25 Separated Mar; 35 New Hires Apr, 22 Separated Apr; 10 New Hires May, 26 Separated May; 22 New Hires Jun, 34 Separated Jun; 9 New Hires Jul, 30 Separated Jul; 21 New Hires Aug, 39 Separated Aug; 39 New Hires Sep, 33 Separated Sep; 28 New Hires Oct, 27 Separated Oct; 16 New Hires Nov, 15 Separated Nov; 12 New Hires Dec, 24 Separated Dec; 24 New Hires Jan, 14 Separated Jan; 37 New Hires Feb, 14 Separated Feb; 33 New Hires Mar, 9 Separated Mar. The rest of the slide reads, “In Jan-Mar 2023, DPD had a net gain of 57 officers.”
Presentation slide which reads, “Police Recruiting.” A graphic reads, “Detroit Police. Now Hiring | $85K*. 313-596-8890,” and shows a photo of nine police officers on or in front of a black armored SWAT vehicle.
A person speaking at a podium with blond and black hair, and wearing a black and green floral print long-sleeve shirt. Vice Chair Holt, Chair Ferguson, Commissioners Holley, Pressley, Banks and Burton are looking at the person speaking.
Person speaking at the podium. They are in a black DPD uniform and have black hair and darker skin. Commissioners Moore, Bernard, Holt, Ferguson, Holley and Pressley are looking at them.
Sterling Brewer, pastor for King David Missionary Baptist Church, speaking at the podium and facing the audience as Commissioners Bernard, Holt, Ferguson, Holley, Pressley and Banks look at him. A separate video feed for sign language interpreter Toi is blank, only showing a photo of Toi.
Presentation application showing a presentation slide titled, “Board of Police Commissioners,” which reads, “Citizen Complaints Updates. April 13, 2023.”
Presentation slide titled, “Recent Improvements/Initiatives,” which reads, “Continue: Weekly spreadsheet for Supervisors to coach investigators/seniors to close cases timely. In addition to working on backlog cases, there is a focus on ensuring new cases get closed timely, and do not contribute to a greater backlog. Investigator new hire interviews are complete.”
Presentation slide titled, “Definitions/Clarification of Process,” which reads, “Closed Case: A case is closed when the investigator has completed the investigation and written their report. Letters go out to the complainant within 45 days of the closure date. Commissioner CCR Reviews — After a case is closed, it goes to a Commissioner for review and sign off. Cases that are sitting with Commissioners for review Are Not included in the Open Cases numbers. Sign off must happen within the above 45-day window.”
Presentation slide titled, “Total Open Cases by Age.” A bar/line graph with table titled, “Open Cases by Age,” has the following data: 3/16/2023: 300 Aged 91+ days, 43 Aged 61-90 days, 139 Aged 0-60 days, 482 Total Open; 3/22/2023: 295 Aged 91+ days, 51 Aged 61-90 days, 139 Aged 0-60 days, 485 Total Open; 3/30/2023 295 Aged 91+ days, 52 Aged 61-90 days, 155 Aged 0-60 days, 502 Total Open; 4/6/2023: 302 Aged 91+ days, 51 Aged 61-90 days, 168 Aged 0-60 days, 521 Total Open; 4/13/2023: 303 Aged 91+ days, 44 Aged 61-90 days, 176 Aged 0-60 days, 523 Total Open.
Presentation slide titled, “Commissioner CCR Reviews (as of 4/13/2023),” which reads, “14 Closed Cases are with Commissioners for review/sign off. ~25 newly Closed Cases are being distributed to Commissioners after today’s meeting.”
Presentation slide titled, “2023 Performance,” which reads, “377 cases received in 2023 YTD. 136 of the 2023 cases are closed (25 closes since last week). 108 closed within 60 days. 27 closed between 61-90 days. 1 closed over 90 days.” A green/yellow/red 3D bar chart titled, “2023 Closed Cases (as of 4/13/2023),” has the following data: 42 0-10 Days to Close, 29 11-20 Days to Close, 14 21-30 Days to Close, 9 31-40 Days to Close, 9 41-50 Days to Close, 5 51-60 Days to Close, 10 61-70 Days to Close, 13 71-80 Days to Close, 4 81-90 Days to Close, 1 91+ Days to Close.
Presentation slide titled, “2023 Performance,” which reads, “377 cases received in 2023 YTD. 241 of the 2023 cases are still open. 17 are aged over 90 days, and contributing to the backlog. 44 are approaching 90 days aged.” A green/yellow/red 3D bar chart titled, “2023 Open Cases (as of 4/13/2023),” has the following data: 52 0-10 Days to Close, 38 11-20 Days to Close, 28 21-30 Days to Close, 26 31-40 Days to Close, 17 41-50 Days to Close, 19 51-60 Days to Close, 19 61-70 Days to Close, 17 71-80 Days to Close, 8 81-90 Days to Close, 17 91+ Days to Close.
Commissioner Burton speaking as Pressley, Banks and an audience of DPD officers look at him. Commissioner Holley has his head bowed, Deputy Chief Hayes is using his phone.
Chair Ferguson speaking while Vice Chair Holt looks at the audience, Commissioner Holley bows his head, Pressley looks at Ferguson and Banks looks into space.
Parliamentarian Jackson speaking while Board Secretary Shah picks up her phone and Commissioner Moore and Vice Chair Holt look at each other — Holt is smiling.
Commissioner Burton speaking and gesturing to Board Secretary Shah, Parliamentarian Jackson, Commissioners Moore, Holt, Ferguson, Holley, Pressley and Banks, who are all looking at Burton.
Commissioners Moore and Banks walking away from Burton, who is speaking to Board Secretary Shah, Parliamentarian Jackson, Commissioners Holt, Ferguson, Holley, and Pressley. Shah is typing on her laptop, Holt is also speaking, Holley is looking down and away, and Pressley is resting his head on his hand.
Two video feeds of the board meeting room and of city Attorney Adam Saxby.
Board Secretary Shah, Parliamentarian Jackson, Commissioners Moore, Holt, Ferguson, Holley, Pressley, Banks and Burton.

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Page published April 13, 2023.

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