A municipal watchdog investigation into the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners has ended with findings that several current or former commissioners abused their positions and resulted in the removal of one from his role as vice chair.

The Detroit Office of the Inspector General probe initiated last year was said to be one of several investigations into the police oversight board long marred by a reputation for dysfunction and ineffectiveness. It centered on allegations of improper case closures and unauthorized overtime pay amid a 2022 effort to clear a lengthy backlog of uninvestigated complaints against officers.

Inspector General Ellen Ha found that Commissioner Willie Bell and three former commissioners abused their positions by submitting budget requests and recommendations without authorization from the full board. The ex-commissioners all left last year ― Rev. Jim Holley and Annie Holt due to term limits and Brian Ferguson after a sheriff’s deputy caught him with a sex worker.

Former interim board secretary Melanie White also abused her position by ordering the immediate closure of citizen complaints that did not allege police misconduct ― an unauthorized process that ran counter to the city charter, Ha found.

Bell, who has previously served as board chair and until recently served as vice chair, was stripped of the role in a unanimous vote by the commission at its Thursday meeting. The District 4 commissioner was absent and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The OIG probe was prompted by a February 2023 allegation that more than 700 citizen complaints were “administratively closed” without proper investigation and contact with complainants over a five-month period in 2022. In response, Ha seized from the agency nearly 3,000 complaint files spanning two years.

The investigation drew additional claims of abuse and fraud as it went on, Ha’s report said, including two allegations that Bell attempted to discourage board staff from cooperating with the investigation. The OIG reported it could not determine whether that happened.

A veteran of the Detroit Police Department, Bell has served on the board for about a decade in an elected role. In a letter sent to Ha on his behalf last week, Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett denied any findings of impropriety by the commissioner, saying he acts in accordance with the board’s rules. 

“Commissioner Bell believes it would be fruitful for the OIG to make constructive management recommendations rather than attacking commissioners,” the letter said. 

Ha’s recommendations include immediate retraining for Bell and commissioner Lisa Carter, who she said both failed to correct former board secretary White’s abuse of her position. 

Ha also advised the board to ensure proper resolution of the citizen complaints that were triaged or closed and revise its rules to limit the secretary’s powers in accordance with the city charter. As of Thursday, the board’s case backlog stood at 1,334 cases.

The board has been under investigation by multiple agencies within the past year, according to a March 2023 statement from then-president Ferguson, who several months later resigned over the incident involving a prostitute.

A performance audit initiated in 2022 at the behest of Detroit City Council is ongoing, the Office of the Auditor General confirmed Thursday. The Detroit Police Department did not immediately share the status of a probe Ferguson previously said was being conducted by its internal affairs division.

Free Press reporter Nushrat Rahman contributed reporting.