Tagged: Detroit Police

The top ranks of Detroit's police department are getting reshuffled.

Mayor Dave Bing announced the plan today. He says the appointment of two new assistant chiefs, along with some high-level reassignments and promotions, will make the department more efficient and responsive.

"We're all concerned about the safety of the people here in this city and we've made these recommendation new leadership, and we think we're going to see results immediately," Bing said.

The department is struggling to keep a lid on crime as it deals with a string of internal sex scandals.

If I began exhibiting clear signs that I could no longer take care of myself, eventually something would happen.

I might get myself killed or locked up. Thousands of people suffer such fates every year.  But in more fortunate cases, incompetent people have legal guardians appointed for them.

Sometimes, they are declared wards of the state. The idea is to prevent them from doing themselves, or anyone else, any harm.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has suspended Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

“After learning of the allegations regarding Chief Ralph Godbee, I have placed him on a 30-day suspension pending a full and thorough investigation of this matter," Bing said in a statement released Tuesday.

The "allegations" come from a Detroit police officer, Angelica Robinson, who says she was sexually involved with Godbee.

Detroit’s first responders say they’re under siege from all angles—and some officers say their ranks are reaching a breaking point.

Detroit’s police and fire departments have taken some steep cuts in the past few months. Police officers in particular have taken major pay and benefit cuts, and are now working twelve-hour shifts.

And relations with city leaders have turned downright hostile. At a community meeting with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing last week, that anger boiled over.

A community meeting with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing came to an abrupt and early end last night.

Bing and members of his administration were booed and heckled offstage after about 20 minutes.

Before the meeting broke down, Bing took questions from a few people. Most were angry questions, about issues ranging from the city’s lagging bus system, to a proposal to let the state lease Belle Isle.

The city of Detroit held its annual memorial service to commemorate the September 11th terrorist attacks Tuesday.

A mournful bagpipe solo captured the somber spirit at the event in downtown Campus Martius Park. With speeches, music and prayer, it remembered victims of the tragedy, and honored the first responders who saved lives that day.

Robert Foley, special-agent-in-charge of the FBI in Detroit, said the 11th anniversary should “renew our resolve” to prevent future attacks. But he says it’s tricky to figure out just how much success we’ve had.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is lamenting cutting police officers' pay by 10 percent to help shore up the city's finances.

The Detroit Free Press reported on his remarks today, a day after a judge ruled the city could make the cuts and implement 12-hour work shifts:

“This 10% cut that’s been imposed … does not make me feel good at all,” Bing said. “I know the negative impact that it has on individuals and their families, and I wish that we at a better situation where I didn’t have to do it. But in order to bring our city back to financial stability, there’s pain that’s going around for all of us.”

Bing said he hopes the pay cuts and longer shifts are only temporary while the city works to get out from under a mountain of debt.

City leaders slashed $75 million from the police department’s 2012-13 budget.

The cuts were challenged by the Detroit Police Officers Association

But yesterday, Wayne County Circuit Judge Kathleen MacDonald lifted an injunction allowing the cuts to go forward.

Detroit's Police Chief praised officers for staying on despite the cuts, but Michigan Radio's Sarah Cwiek reports that "one detective-sergeant says figuring a way out of the department is a daily topic of conversation among officers."