The meeting lacked a quorum...again. Residents discussed potential solutions to the problems of drag racing and youth violence with the commissioners who were present.
Second time’s the charm #Detroit!! Today at 6:30pm I’ll be live reporting on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioner’s Community Meeting !
01:45 PM Jul 10, 2025 CDT
Alright! It’s almost time to rock and roll! Here’s today’s agenda:
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detroihttps://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/events/2025-07/Draft%20Agenda%20July%2010%2C%202025.pdf
The meeting is starting, although there’s no quorum. There’s some technical issues on their end, so no invocation yet.
Starting with public comment! Former police commissioner voices some concerns about teens and young adults riding ‘mini bikes’ at night.
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He also asks the committee to step up enforcement on people running red lights.
Our next speaker, Victoria, commends the board for pushing back on DPD collaboration with ICE- and mention that she urges them to go through with the creation of a task force to monitor government behavior.
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She also shares a link intending to correct a public notion that the board have not.
She requests that the department make things right with the family of the deceased, and our community.
Multiple responses from the board are basically summarized by saying they’re making active efforts to restructure DPD’s policies in order to prevent things like this from occurring again.
Next commenter says he wants to double down on the idea that misconduct can be assumed when there is no body cam footage from an officer. Saying that instead of an assumption, it should be a rule.
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“If justice is to be equal then so must be the burden of proof.”
Another member of the public says that she has no idea what’s going on with ‘these youngsters.’
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“What are the parents doing? That’s what my concern is.” Referencing hijacking, shooting, and other things as her rationale.
Making claims that young people are drag racing on West Grand Boulevard and asking the department to survey the area.
Detroit Chief of police responds by saying that violent crimes are down in Detroit- but there’s still a collective pain felt when these young children 4, 2 year olds- are shot.
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“We will be relentless in holding individuals responsible.”
He thanks the community because with the use of our cameras and technology, many people were able to reach out and help identify these suspects.
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He then gives a pained recount of the recent shooting of a 4 year old child by stray bullet.
Chief Todd Bettison says in order to curb the uptick of teen violence they are enforcing a curfew on young people.
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Saying he wants to hold parents responsible, he has also requested that the price parents would be responsible for paying would rise up to 250$ for a first time offense.
In regards to the drag racing: “We have put things in place to disrupt and know where they go…” he says, mentioning that our police have already identified multiple vehicles responsible.
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He says because his drift officers stop working at 3, the offenders start drifting at 4.
In response to that he intends to have officers out until 6am. But because he knows that’s not enough, he also wants to give more young people opportunities to be BUSY instead of committing crimes.
He says he just wants to let the audience know, it’s not one thing that causes crime- that it has to be attacked from many different layers. Talking about his pride in GDYT, and how it’s bringing the gap with over 1,000 young Detroiters participating.
“This department will continue. We won’t stop until we get the desired results that we need. Our young people deserve it.”
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And with that, he stops speaking.
Commissioner Linda asks about working youth out past curfew, to which our Chief of police responds that having a work permit or working ID will ensure that you are not penalized.
Our next commenter comes in heavy, disgruntled with the lack of focus on police officer misconduct.
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Not only that but he’s quite frustrated with the lack of quorum we have- saying that this is the second meeting facing this issue. He calls the chief “Captain of a sinking ship.”
He claims that Recent citizen complaints reveal that an officer stole 600$ from an individual, and that this should be reason enough to address corruption.
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Our next commenter says she’s been complaining about officers taking bed spaces from the homeless by going to shelters- getting 30% off vouchers. Claiming that there is no accountability and transparency. She says she’s been bringing this issue to the police for over a year.
The final in person speaker (wow his voice is deep) wants to offer a rebuttal to all the individuals complaining about the police department. Asking, how many of these people build relationships and involve themselves with their local precinct?
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Saying good officers should be praised.
Two speakers on zoom, the first one thanks the board for not encouraging federal involvement in our city- and asks if they can recognize that the kinds of tragedies we experience require more than just catching criminals.
She says that young people should be being fed just as the commenter before mentioned feeding police officers- and asks how we can help youth adjust into good adults. Asking for leadership from the board.
Chairman Daryl Woods says he’s willing to join any and everybody when it comes to helping our children. Saying they’ll be giving a thousand dollar scholarship to the youth advisory council, and that the board is not idle.
“If you need us to join at any place, anytime we are there.”
The final comment in the 7th precinct says this IS a forum for officer misconduct and should be treated as such.
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“When the community tries to work with the police department we are stonewalled.”
He brings up lieutenant Brandon Cole, calling him an a-hole, saying he was at protests without a body cam, and making racist political comments.
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To which the Chief of Police says that officers have a hard job, but everyone has a right to due process including his officers.
Since there is no quorum, the board is doing staff reports instead of their usual reports. Chairman Jerome says that we are still in a transitional era, moving reports from one digital system to another. He commends the City of Detroit’s technology team, and says through the end of June-
1347 cases have been investigated and closed. To put in perspective, in all of 2024, they had only achieved about 900 total.
He also says that last year they had 15 investigators, but today they have 21. Thankful for the staff that are working hard, and those still in training. He also says they are scheduled to investigate and close over 2300 cases by the end of this year.
Commissioner Tamara smith seeks to elaborate by mentioning we’re dealing with 15, 16 year old murderers and car thieves. She says this is like nothing they’ve seen before, and it’s their and the community’s responsibility to get engaged.
Paraphrasing her, ‘Your children are not the children that you once knew. These children are different.”’
Commissioner Linda Bernard recounts Friday night and how the department mobilized when an officer was shot by a 16 year old, the officer himself did not appear older than 18 or 19.
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She says the children are on both sides of this issue.
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The Chief lets everyone know the officer injured was shot in the hand, but has no nerve damage and can still move his hand.
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Someone is speaking now but i can’t hear her- oh wait they turned her microphone up. It’s a commenter from before-
It’s really kind of on and off- but she basically says she invited the officers to eat at an event she was holding.
They refer to this next woman a community leader, president of relations in the sixth precinct. She vocalizes that she’s proud to say her police department has taken the bull by the horns.
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There is a motion to adjourn.
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