City rethinks jaywalking police gran

The arrest of a man for disorderly conduct and jaywalking set off swift criticism of how the police department handled the matter. This screenshot comes from a recording posted on Facebook about the arrest.

By Charles Sercombe
If you got a jaywalking ticket in the past month or so in Hamtramck– you can rip it up.
In a two-hour special city council meeting last Wednesday, the council agreed to have all tickets dismissed that were issued during a special crackdown by the police department.
However, after the meeting, City Manager Kathy Angerer told The Review that it will still be up to the city prosecutor, James Allen, to decide how to proceed with the tickets.
That council action followed the controversial arrest of a man for obstruction while an officer was warning pedestrians to not jaywalk. The man in question had become belligerent while the officer was warning him and other not to jaywalk.
The officer demanded to see that man’s ID but the man refused, and that led to public outrage when a recording of the incident was posted on various Hamtramck Facebook pages.
The enforcement was part of an $8,000 federal grant the police department received to spread the word on pedestrian safety. Part of the program required the department to issue warning tickets and regular tickets.
The problem was, the department failed to notify the public about its special enforcement.
The arrest also led to community pushback about the lack of communication from the department.
Another issue brought up was that, in Hamtramck, people have been crossing streets outside of crosswalks for decades.
“We don’t have enough crosswalks,” said Councilmember Mohammad Hassan.
Councilmember Saad Almasmari, who made the motion for tickets to be dismissed, also said that the enforcement, mostly on the southend where many Yemeni-Americans live, was selective.
Police Chief Anne Moise said officers were following directions from the state about where to focus the enforcement. The state had pinpointed several high auto-pedestrian accident zones, which includes areas in the southend.
The city was awarded the grant last October by the state’s Office of Highway Safety Planning, which also required the city to kick in an additional $2,000.
Several other cities that have higher than usual serious pedestrian accidents involving vehicles also received grants for enforcement. Hamtramck does not have the worst problem, averaging about three serious pedestrian accidents per year.
When the grant was accepted by the city council, there was no outcry about it then.
In recent weeks, the issue of pedestrian safety has come up, but within the perspective of having stepped-up traffic enforcement of speeders in the neighborhoods.
As last week’s special council meeting, there was also consideration of opting out of the grant at this point, but Moise asked for that to be tabled. She said a better option might be to have the tickets be reduced to just warning tickets.
The grant was to pay for overtime for officers to go on special patrols.
Councilmember Fadel Al-Marsoumi said the $10,000 program “isn’t worth one lawsuit.”
“I say leave it and be done with it,” he added.
Councilmember Carrie Beth Lasley questioned why the city even accepted the grant in the first place. She was not on council at the time the grant was accepted.
She said enforcement must come with “sensitivity” to the community.
Activist Bill Meyer said that having officers spread the word on pedestrian safety was not thought out. He said they are not trained for that role.
“This whole thing could have been avoided,” he said.
Posted Aug. 27, 2021