A woman with darker skin and wearing a colorful head wrap, glasses, black coat is speaking and looking at her laptop screen.
Board Secretary Victoria Shah introduces board staff.

Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting, March 16, 2023

Dan Ignacio

Residents said the board has failed to accomodate a public commenter with a disability. They argued that the board must give her more time than the standard two minutes. 

Commissioner Willie Burton agreed, saying that the Detroit City Council usually gives the commenter three minutes. Yet Chair Bryan Ferguson said the board does accomodate her, and insisted, “We have to be fair.” The matter was forwarded to the Personnel & Training Committee. 

Y’all a disgrace. 
— Former Commissioner William Davis, criticizing the board for not properly accomodating a commenter with a disability. 

The board voted for the Personnel & Training Committee to reassess job candidates for its chief investigator position. This comes after the board rescinded its job offer to the Rev. Jerome Warfield Sr., a former commissioner. The position has been vacant for three years. 

I don’t mean disrespect. I was pleased to pick you. 

— Commissioner Jim Holley, addressing the Rev. Jerome Warfield Sr. and the board’s rescission of Warfield’s job offer. 

Some commissioners are concerned about the license plate readers that the Detroit Police Department (DPD) wants to install throughout the city. The readers would cost $5 million to install. The department has already installed 80 readers, and it says it wants to install more to combat an increase in car theft. 

Commissioner Linda Bernard and Vice Chair Annie Holt worried about potential abuse of the surveillance technology, and Holt drew parallels to the department’s use of facial recognition. DPD’s use of that technology has led to at least two false arrests of Black men in 2020 and 2021. Commissioner Burton further argued that the use of surveillance technology disproportionately impacts low-income Black and Hispanic communities. He pointed out that Ypsilanti has banned license plate readers. 

Others pushed back. Commissioner Jesus Hernandez decried equating license plate readers to facial recognition. A deputy police chief sitting in for Police Chief James White said the department has policies in place to mitigate abuse of license plate readers, similar to its facial recognition policy adopted in 2019. 

“No, no, no.” I’m hearing that a lot, but they’re not coming up with any solutions. 

— Chair Bryan Ferguson, referring to commissioners who disagree with the police department’s use of license plate readers. 

Newly hired Board Secretary Victoria Shah presented budget updates. The budget for fiscal year 2023 will accomodate two new positions for a community relations manager and a data analyst. Shah also noted, for fiscal year 2022, that the board has a surplus of about $858,000 from a budget of more than $3.8 million. 

This page is a work-in-progress. Some information and links are not yet determined, as indicated by [brackets].

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 and more documentation by Madison Ganzak.

The agency’s last meeting on March 9 was documented by Colleen Cirocco and Minnah Arshad. The next meeting on March 23 was documented by Alex Klaus and Damien Benson.

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 (3 p.m.) can be heard 30 minutes into the recording. 

Images

Online meeting software showing a video feed, which shows a photo collage of police officers and the words, “Community Meeting. City of Detroit. Channel 21. Board of Police Commissioners.”
Commissioners Annie Holt speaking, seated at a table draped in blue cloth. To the right is Bryan Ferguson, who is writing, and Jim Holley, who is resting his head in his right hand.
Chaplain Diane Oliver speaking at a podium in front of a microphone.
Board Secretary Victoria Shah speaking and looking at her laptop screen.
A deputy police chief looking and pointing to his left. Seated next to him is Commissioner Jesus Hernandez.
Commissioner Linda Bernard speaking.
Commissioner Lisa Carter speaking. To her right is Commissioner Holley.
Lt. Mark Young speaking at the podium.
Jerome Warfield Sr. speaking at the podium.
Presentation slide which reads, “Board of Police Commissioners. BOPC Budget Updates. FY2022/23 & FY2023/24. March 20, 2023.” It shows a map of the city districts and the commissioners that represent each district.
Presentation slide which reads, “FY2022/23 Status. BOPC is projected to end FY2022/23 with a 858,886.16 surplus.” A table is shown with columns titled, “Annual Budget,” “YTD Actual,” “Funds Available,” “% actual,” “Surplus Projected” and “Rationale & Justification.” There is a row named “Total”: 3,872,579.00 for “Annual Budget,” 1,653,908.55 for “YTD Actual,” 2,218,670.45 for “Funds Available,” 43% for “% actual” and 858,886.16 for “Surplus Projected.”
Presentation slide which reads, “FY2023/24 Budget Impacts. Existing staff salary increases resulting in overall current salary budget increase max of 5%, each individual will depending on market analysis and performance. Administrative team restructuring to increase relationships, service, and effectiveness of the Board with the community; and align to NACOLE and business best practices. Improve community, Board, and staff experience during meetings with snacks, water, more literature, etc. If TASS investigators are not onboarded in time to use FY2022/23 funds, then this funding needs to be added to FY2023/24 budget to address the backlog.” A graphic is included, which reads: “What is meaningful civilian oversight? Proactive. Independent. Community-driven. Empowered. Transparent. Individualized. An investment in our communities. An iterative process.”
Presentation slide which reads, “Administrative Team Restructure. Establish a Commissioner & Community Partnership Team to provide dedicated Commissioner support. Increased capacity to support the partnerships between Commissioners and community; and deliver partnership driven outcomes. Financial Officer and Grant Writer partner to increase BOPC’s budget through City budget approval and grants to better meet the community’s police oversight needs.” An organizational chart is shown, which includes “Secretary” at the top, connected to “Chief Investigator,” “Office of the Chief Investigator,” “Central Administrative Team” and “Commissioner & Community Partnerships Team (CCP)” below.
Presentation slide which reads, “Position Impacts (1 of 2).” A table is shown with columns titled, “FY2022/23 Positions,” “FY2022/23 FTE,” “FY2023/24 Positions,” “FY2023/24 FTE,” “FTE +/-” and “Updated Functions/Comments.”
Presentation slide which reads, “Position Impacts (2 of 2).” A table is shown with columns titled, “FY2022/23 Positions,” “FY2022/23 FTE,” “FY2023/24 Positions,” “FY2023/24 FTE,” “FTE +/-” and “Updated Functions/Comments.”
Presentation slide which reads, “FY2023/24 Budget Submission.” A table is shown. It has columns titled “FY2022/23 Budget,” “FY2023/24 Budget,” “Change,” “% Change” and “Rationale.” The rows are titled, “Salaries & Wages,” “Fringe Benefits,” “Professional & Contracts,” “Operating Supplies,” “Operating Services,” “Travel & Training,” “Equipment Acquisition” and “Total.” The “Total” row reads as follows: 3,872,579.00 for “FY2022/23 Budget,” 4,438,357.37 for “FY2023/24 Budget,” 565,778.37 for “Change” and 13% for “% Change.”
Commissioner Willie Burton speaking with outstretched hands, as if to indicate he is asking a question. Seated next to him are Commissioners Willie Bell and Hernandez.
Commissioner Holley speaking. Carter is looking at him.
Commissioner Ricardo Moore speaking, next to Parliamentarian Jackson and Commissioner Cedric Banks.
Commissioner Bell speaking, as Burton looks at him.
Parliamentarian Jackson speaking.
Commissioner Bernard speaking to Holt, Ferguson, Holley and Carter, all to her left.
Commissioners Carter, Bell, Burton and Hernandez rising from their seats.

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Page published March 26, 2023.

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