Police chief is officially fired

Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri

By Charles Sercombe
Back in May of 2024, Hamtramck welcomed — with open arms and much fanfare — the hiring of Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri.
He came here after retiring from the New York Police Department, having served over 20 years there.
Altaheri was the first Yemeni-American to be appointed to the position, and also one of the few outsiders hired as police chief. Most of those who have served as police chief rose through the ranks of the Hamtramck Police Department – and, in fact, outsiders were generally met with suspicion and resentment.
But things had greatly changed in the department, with many new, fresh faces without family connections to the department.
Altaheri was sworn into office in an outside ceremony, held across from city hall in Zussman Park.
Many Yemeni-Americans from here and Dearborn attended the ceremony, where Altaheri was given a rock-star welcome. In the year-plus that he served, Altaheri initiated a number of community outreach programs, earning him widespread praise.
Flash forward to recent months, and Altaheri finds himself fired from the position by the very people who initially championed his hiring: the mayor and city council.
The Review reached out to Altaheri for comment, but he did not respond.
During his brief tenure here, Chief Altaheri oversaw an infusion of racially, ethnically diverse hirings, including women, into the department.
Altaheri also began a series of podcast interviews, called “The Chief’s Corner,” with local residents and business owners, that aired on social media.
And he was praised for starting a youth police academy here.
The chief’s downfall, after an internal investigation that included secretly-made recordings, revealed someone with an apparent twin personality, with one side making the department more community-oriented, and another that dealt in a number of alleged wrongdoings – some that may border on criminal.
According to an internal investigation conducted by the law firm Miller Johnson, the following accusations were looked into, and we reprint verbatim:

Destroying evidence and obstructing the investigation
When Altaheri was placed on administrative leave by Garbarino, one of Altaheri’s first reactions after leaving Garbarino’s office was to wipe his City-issued phone. Altaheri directed an evidence technician (and Altaheri’s friend) to erase the data on his phone. The technician immediately did so. Altaheri’s directive to destroy evidence violated multiple City policies.

Driving his City-issued vehicle after consuming alcohol
The investigation substantiated a widely known instance of Altaheri driving recklessly in his City-issued truck after consuming alcohol.
The evidence established that, on September 19, 2024, after attending an officer appreciation party and consuming alcohol, Altaheri drove to and from a strip club, with other officers riding with him, in his City-issued truck.
He activated his police lights to run red lights and drove erratically. Multiple witnesses observed him consuming significant amounts of alcohol and/or appearing inebriated before driving that night. Multiple officers also witnessed him driving recklessly.
Videos of his driving taken that night confirm their account, including showing Altaheri activating his police lights to run a red light and then immediately turning off his lights after he drove through the intersection with no plausible legitimate justification.
In addition to this significant incident, the investigation revealed other likely instances in which Altaheri consumed alcohol before driving his City-issued truck.
Reducing another officer’s discipline in exchange for the destruction of evidence
The video of Altaheri’s reckless driving also gave rise to another violation of HPD’s rules and regulations. A few months after the reckless driving incident, it was discovered that an HPD officer had committed timecard fraud. The officer, however, had a copy of the reckless driving video.
During the officer’s recorded disciplinary hearing, the officer should have been terminated or forced to resign in lieu of termination for timecard fraud, and Altaheri concluded as much.
However, prior to the hearing’s conclusion, Altaheri and the other officers involved in the disciplinary proceeding went off the record and met in a hallway to discuss the officer’s corrective action further. During that hallway conversation, Altaheri agreed to a lesser penalty in exchange for the officer deleting the reckless driving video.
Altaheri then came back on the record and changed the resignation in lieu of termination (as previously negotiated) to a 30-day suspension.
Because the evidence demonstrated that Altaheri’s decision to reduce the severity of the discipline was influenced by his desire for the officer to destroy compromising evidence against him, Altaheri’s conduct violated HPD’s rules and regulations.

Handing a loaded gun to a civilian and instructing her to put it to someone’s head
The evidence also substantiated the allegation that Altaheri handed a loaded gun to a civilian volunteer and told her to put it to someone’s head.
A recording of that incident was previously released publicly and is the subject of local news articles. An officer who witnessed the event — and who quickly took the gun away from the volunteer — confirmed that the recording was accurate and that Altaheri handed the gun to the civilian volunteer.
During the investigation, Altaheri largely confirmed the facts but claimed that it was a joke. Whether or not Altaheri was “joking,” as he has claimed, the evidence shows that he created a serious danger in handing a loaded firearm to an untrained civilian volunteer in a crowded room.
Further, Altaheri’s contention that the firearm was unloaded is implausible given the available evidence, and even handing an unloaded gun to the civilian in that setting would violate HPD policies.

Pressuring officers to help him in a custody dispute
At least five 911 calls prompted HPD officers to respond to the residence that Altaheri shared with the mother of his two-year-old son.
There is evidence reflecting that in one instance, Altaheri suggested that officers conduct an investigation at the residence in a way that would be favorable to his position in a dispute over custody of his son.
On September 19, 2024 (the same night as the driving incident described above), officers responded to the house following a 911 hang-up call on which Altaheri and the woman can be heard arguing. Altaheri then apparently left the residence and arrived back at the house, giving the appearance that he was not at home when the 911 call was placed.
The police observed that the woman’s foot was injured, and the officers treated the call like a medical incident. Altaheri, however, told the officers to investigate her for drug use, conveying to three of them that he was hoping to use what they found (and any resulting police report) to gain custody of his son.
Two of the four officers thought that she might be intoxicated, but none of them believed there was a basis to investigate her for drug activity. Altaheri then told one of the officers to write the police report in a way that would be as vague as possible while helping him build his custody case.
The police report described the woman’s eyes as “glossy, bloodshot, and … not to react to light,” while omitting any mention of Altaheri’s presence during the incident.
In using his inherent power as Police Chief for personal benefit in this fashion, Altaheri violated HPD’s rules and regulations.

Violating policies and procedures regarding stolen property
The investigation substantiated that Altaheri participated in the recovery of a vehicle that had been reported as stolen without following standard police practices and procedures. The vehicle, an expensive Mercedes Benz, was in the possession of one of Altaheri’s acquaintances.
Altaheri persuaded the acquaintance to turn over the car voluntarily to one of Altaheri’s longtime friends from New York. Adamczyk and two civilians — one a convicted felon — participated in the effort to recover the car and transport it to New York.
Although there were differing accounts as to whose idea this escapade was, with Altaheri and Adamczyk pointing fingers at each other, it is undisputed that both of them participated in the conduct and failed to follow basic police procedures governing the recovery of a stolen car.

Violating other policies and procedures
The evidence obtained during the investigation also revealed that Altaheri gave Adamczyk unfettered access to his electronic signature and to at least one of his City-issued email accounts in violation of HPD policies. Altaheri’s conduct during two meetings in May 2025, one of which was recorded, also included physical and verbal threats that violated HPD’s rules and regulations.

Unsubstantiated allegations
The investigation did not confirm or dispel the allegation that Altaheri committed domestic violence and did not substantiate the allegation that he misused his authority as Police Chief to cover up acts of domestic violence. The investigation also did not uncover evidence that Altaheri improperly solicited money from a local towing company operator.

So where does this leave the police department?
As of now, Deputy Police Chief Andy Mileski is in charge of the department. There has been no word on whether a new chief will be hired, or whether Mileski will remain in the post permanently.
In the meantime, steps are being taken to also fire a police investigator who is connected with the internal investigation. That officer is part of a union, so there are specific steps the city has to take to begin the process of firing.
Posted Sept. 12, 2025