Grosse Pointe Park —
Following the suspension of five public safety officers involved in the
controversial video recording of a mentally impaired man that surfaced in
November, city officials on Wednesday signed a policing reform agreement as
well as a proclamation calling for respect of all individuals.
The agreement partners the
city with the U.S. Justice Department, Michigan Department of Civil Rights and
local groups.
"We are here today to,
I guess what I consider, put one of the closing chapters to the issue that
occurred last fall in the city of Grosse Pointe Park," Police Chief David
Hiller said Wednesday. "There were actions taken by some of our officers
that were not appropriate and needed to be dealt with. And it has been dealt
with."
Five public safety officers
involved in the controversial videotaping of a mentally impaired man were
suspended in November for two months without pay and were placed on probation
for a year. The officers involved have also been reassigned to different shifts
so they're not all working at the same time.
The memorandum of
agreement, a two-page document, outlines the direction the police department
will take in the coming years. The memorandum calls for the department to
develop a "cultural competency customer service and racial profiling
training program for all police personnel."
Hiller also outlined a
series of changes that have taken place since the incident first came to light,
including:
■Reassigning supervisors
■Reorganizing patrol groups
where Hiller felt officers had gotten "too comfortable" with each
other
■Increased training for
officers in dealing with the elderly and people with mental illness
■Providing cultural
sensitivity training
The proclamation requires
city employees to "respect and treat with dignity all persons, resident or
visitor — regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity,
religion or disability — in all aspects if community life or service."
"I support the chief
and our department in every way," Mayor Palmer Heenan said. "We're
taking a step forward as we have in a number other areas. I'm proud of our
city."
The city and department
officials did not name the officers because their disciplinary action is a
personnel issue, they said.
In addition, the department
announced in November that it would undergo sensitivity training that would
focus on dealing with people with mental disorders.
The videos surfaced last
fall and showed a man singing and making odd noises. The man has said the
recordings "made me feel like a fool." Three grainy cellphone videos,
recorded from a second cellphone, were published on a local news blog and
sparked the controversy. Detroiter Michael Scipio identified himself as the man
depicted in the video footage. A city spokesman said police were taking
Scipio's word that he is the person in the videos.
In the first video, a male
voice is heard saying, "Go ahead, do your song," followed by a man
calling out something unintelligible. A caption on the video claims the voice
belongs to a Grosse Pointe Park police officer, although the man who spoke does
not identify himself. In the second, the man is cackling. A caption claims the
video was "taken from a police car," although nothing on the video
indicates what kind of vehicle was involved.
Scipio said in November he
did not know when the footage was taken or which officers shot it, saying he
has had many encounters with Grosse Pointe Park police, who have stopped him
for public intoxication, driven him home and taken him to the hospital.
Relatives told reporters
Scipio is mentally ill and lives in a boarding house on the Detroit border with
Grosse Pointe Park.
