In 1974, Detroiters won the right to police the police. Fifty years later, few want the job.
Three seats on the 11-member Board of Police Commissioners — the elected body tasked with oversight of the police — don’t have any candidates on the ballot for the August primary.
And there’s no competition for three others, with only one candidate for each seat on the August ballot.
The deadline to file to run was April 22. While it’s too late to add a name to the ballot, candidate hopefuls still could run write-in campaigns.
“I think that if no one’s running, it’s because it’s lacking any point,” said attorney Megan Norris, who served on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners in the early 2000s under former mayors Dennis Archer and Kwame Kilpatrick.
And it’s disheartening, said Board Chairman Darryl Woods Jr.
“I challenge citizens to step up,” he said.
“I’m hoping that we get some strong write-in candidates that would step up to the plate to serve the citizens of Detroit. It’s not too late.”
The Detroit Police Commissioners was established in 1974 as a result of years of demands for civilian police oversight from community leaders and civil rights activists, and in the aftermath of the summer of 1967, which some call a riot and others a rebellion against police brutality, racial segregation, and economic injustice.
The board has “supervisory control and oversight” of the police department, and among its functions is to review and investigate complaints against Detroit police, shape policies and practices of police and approve its budget. The board also gives the final say in discipline against an officer and can subpoena witnesses and take testimony.
But the contrast between the original oversight board and today’s is stark.
When it was first established, five commissioners were appointed by the mayor to serve five-year terms, and they included powerful leaders, reverends and politicians like the Rev. Charles Butler, civil rights leader Susan Mills-Peek and attorney Sharon McPhail, who later served on city council from 2002 to 2006.
Coleman Young, the city’s first Black mayor, was instrumental in the oversight board’s creation. It was seen as a huge honor to serve on the board, Norris said.
Today, the oversight board needs its own oversight, critics say. It has a reputation for dysfunction and ineffectiveness, commissioners bickering during their public meetings every Thursday and a persistent backlog of police complaints. There were 2,651 open cases of police complaints filed by citizens as of May 12.
This past year, Woods Jr. said the board has returned to civility and has done the work it is intended to do: It has suspended at least 10 officers without pay for incidents involving domestic and substance abuse, and has shaped important policies, like its push for Detroit police to release body camera footage of crucial incidents, such as police shootings, with 30 days instead of 45, he said.
And Woods Jr. said the board played a role in the dismissal of tickets issued against five legal observers at two pro-Palestinian protests. Woods Jr. said the board demanded the dismissals because members believed the citations were a “far overreach” and “egregious,” as well as a threat to First Amendment rights.
While there’s a contrast between the past and present, the board has never been perfect. When Norris served, she said it became corrupt in the eyes of many in the public after Kilpatrick took office and appointed his allies.
Shortly after, in 2012, the city revised its charter and the board expanded to 11 commissioners — four appointed, seven elected, which is how it operates today. It was a move Norris said was a mistake. Bigger boards lead to fewer agreements and more dysfunction, Norris said.
Now there’s few even running to serve on the oversight board, and there’s a legal fight in one commission race.
In the upcoming August primary, there was no one who tried to run for police commissioner in District 1. In District 3, two candidates filed to run but none were certified. Election officials must verify candidates’ petition signatures to be certified and placed on the ballot.
There’s also no one on the ballot in District 5, after Commissioner Willie Burton withdrew his candidacy.
Only Scott Bowman, a local activist who is at nearly every board meeting criticizing the board and police, is on the ballot in District 4. And only local activist Victoria Camille is on the ballot for District 7. Camille is a local organizer for police accountability and once served on the board as secretary.
In District 2, Lavish Williams and current commissioner Linda Bernard filed to run, but only Williams was certified to be on the ballot.
According to city officials, all candidates for commissioners who weren’t certified didn’t garner enough signatures for certification, including Bernard.
Bernard filed a lawsuit May 9 in an attempt to get Williams off the ballot, claiming the headings of his petitions are wrong, Williams told the Free Press. Bernard did not respond to requests for comment.
“You have people in certain positions, they don’t want to leave those positions. They don’t want to see new, fresh faces,” Williams said.
The only competitive election for police commissioner is in District 6, with a race between current commissioner Lisa Carter and attorney Garrett Burton, a Michigan State Appellate Defender.
Duggan appointed board chairman Woods Jr. in January 2024 to a five-year term. Three at-large commissioners are also appointed by the mayor to serve five-year terms. Currently, they are QuanTez Pressley, whose term ends in 2027; Jesus Hernandez, whose term ends at the end of May, and Eva Garza Dewaelsche, who previously served on the board several times and whose current term ends in October 2028.
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com.