Time to act on talk of a police commission
In the last campaign season for city council and the mayor, there was some talk of establishing a civilian police commission.
With the string of recent criminal charges and convictions of Hamtramck police officers, the need for such a commission takes on more importance.
The public needs more community engagement with the police department, and the best way to do that is to create an oversight commission. Residents should be able to have input on what our department is focusing on.
We’ve had our share, and more, of bad apples in the department. It’s unfortunate that the behavior of a few have tarnished the department. It’s time to take a hands-on approach and tackle this issue.
Hamtramck has been racking up a number of lawsuits from the behavior of some of our officers, and this has got to stop.
But what we don’t need either is a commission to micro-manage the department. The commission, as we see it, could serve as a sounding board to what the department is focusing on.
Hamtramck needs smart and focused police enforcement.
Establishing a commission is a productive first step in making sure our community has a say in what the department should be doing.
To those candidates who spoke in favor of a commission, now is the time to follow through.
Posted March 18, 2022
2 Responses to Time to act on talk of a police commission
Leave a Reply
Mark M. Koroi
March 20, 2022 at 2:51 am
“Hamtramck has been racking up a number of lawsuits from the behavior of some our officers, and this has got to stop.”
No bull.
“Hamtramck needs smart and focused police enforcement.”
That is a gross understatement.
A key problem is that some officials perceive the police department as having its de facto primary mission being in raising revenue for general municipal operations – as opposed to public safety.
The COBRA anti-theft unit, by example, turned a profit of approximately $400,000 per annum to be shared with its cash-strapped constituent communities of Hamtramck, Highland Park and Ecorse – but was only disbanded after these municipalities were named in several civil rights lawsuits that wound up in payouts totalling many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In other words, COBRA was dissolved only after the lawsuit payouts turned the unit into a “red ink” venture. Never mind that serious allegations of misconduct were pled in those federal civil rights actions.
Even the current federal criminal indictment of former COBRA unit cop Mike Stout alleges that Stout received payoffs in exchange for obtaining confidential Law Enforcement Information Network data for dissemination to unauthorized private parties. Again the angle of using police operations to earn money – even if the alleged payments were intended to benefit Stout personally, as opposed to generating revenue for the city.
Some links to civilian police oversight board principles:
http://www.nacole.org
http://www.americanpoliceofficersalliance.com/oversight-board-facts/
Mark M. Koroi
March 27, 2022 at 10:38 pm
A independent citizens police oversight board could be instrumental in formulating policy for the Hamtramck Police Department.
One questionable area of policy is when the H.P.D. has assigned officer personnel to interagency specialty task forces, as set forth above with COBRA. Other H.P.D. personnel have been assigned to such outside task force groups, and this has led to controversies such as when an officer named Randall Hutchinson in 2011 pled guilty in a federal case to alleged illicit actions committed when he was part of a Drug Enforcement Administration task force:
http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/21080.php
http://www.thehamtramckreview.com/former-hamtramck-police-officer-enters-guilty-plea/
http://www.realestatelawblog.com/manhaattan-litigation-blog/2011/june/he-must-have-been-wired/
Like COBRA, the D.E.A. task force that then-H.P.D. officer Randall Hutchinson was assigned to derived revenue from asset forfeiture proceedings initiated as a result of investigations it conducted. A portion of that collected revenue was distributed by the D.E.A. to the City of Hamtramck. The distributions over the years that the City of Hamtramck over the years from participation in the task force has been substantial – and receipt of this monetary distribution over recent years has been a motivating factor in the City of Hamtramck maintaining its participation in that federal anti-drug task force.
Is it wise law enforcement policy to divert H.P.D. officers away from Hamtramck and assign them to multijurisdictional units that primarily operate outside city limits with the chief goal of generating revenue from asset forfeiture proceedings? The wisdom of such a police is something an oversight board would evaluate via public input and deliberations.
The impaneling of a civilian police oversight board is something that could have avoided the “jaywalking enforcement” fiasco of last summer that strained community relations. The chief of police and city manager admitted that a “communication failure” occurred with respect to that enforcement program that resulted in citizen displeasure.
A civilian police oversight board is something that would benefit Hamtramck residents.