City Council and ELPD Reticent on Newly Announced Prosecutorial Changes

Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon announced on July 27, that her “office will no longer pursue certain criminal charges resulting from non-public safety traffic stops, as part of an effort to address the impact of systemic racial bias in the criminal legal system.” 

Although East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson did not attend a press conference held by chiefs of other police departments in Ingham County to publicly object to Siemon’s policy change, East Lansing City Council members and the East Lansing Police Department have yet to explain how this change will impact policing in this City – and to say whether they agree with Siemon’s new policy. 

According to the County Prosecutor’s press release, examples of non-public safety related traffic stops include stops for “window tint, expired registration, a single defective tail light, failing to stop leaving a private drive, driving in the left lane, some defective equipment infractions, and driving while license suspended.”

“This is the prosecutor’s decision to make. This is their purview,” said Mayor Aaron Stephens when asked for comment. Stephens added that “in our many efforts for police reform” the City “has already been discussing our traffic stops and refocusing away from secondary stop violations.”

Some other Council Members echoed Stephens’ response, seeming to refer to changes to policing implemented in July 2020 and to the City’s policy stopping “the indiscriminate running of license plates.” 

Council Member Ron Bacon also specifically referenced the work of the Study Committee on an Independent Police Oversight Commission, along with community surveys and data analysis, as some of the work East Lansing has already done on the issue of understanding how traffic stops do and should work in the City.

“Chief Johnson and Deputy Chief [Steve] Gonzalez, in conjunction with our officers and the City of East Lansing have been working for nearly a year to do a review and retrospective analysis of our systems and patterns around stops and apparent inequities in those stop levels,” Bacon wrote to ELi. “This is all done in conjunction with our broader DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] realignment to put us on the right trajectory for lasting change.”

Council Member Dana Watson told ELi something similar: that ELPD has already been working on implementing similar policies for East Lansing. She also directly referenced her thoughts on the new prosecutorial change itself, which was absent in other responses.

“Criminal justice reform implores our prosecuting offices to create policy and utilize their knowledge with their lens to address systemic issues,” Watson wrote to ELi. “The Ingham County Prosecutor is thoughtfully progressive and policies like this are needed to remove racial inequities.” 

Other police departments in Ingham County objected publicly to Siemon’s shift in policy.

On Wednesday, July 28, as reported by the Lansing State Journal, Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth and six area police chiefs held a press conference to rebuke Siemon’s new policy. 

The new policy discourages “non-public safety” or “pretextual” stops, such as ones that “occur when a person is detained for a minor infraction (such as a traffic infraction) while police seek evidence of a more serious crime.”

In a press release, the prosecutor’s office explained the reasoning for this change: “Evidence shows that non-public safety stops often reflect racial bias, and police stop, question, and search people of color at higher rates than white people. In addition, these stops do not improve public safety, as the majority do not result in the discovery of contraband or weapons.”

Objections to this new policy came from the chiefs of police from Lansing, Meridian, Stockbridge, Leslie, and Williamston, along with the Ingham County Sheriff and the police chief for Eaton Rapids, located in Eaton County. The group stated that they do not believe the new policy will make communities safer.

ELPD was not a part of the press conference, and it is unclear as of now what changes are happening in prosecutions in East Lansing.

There was no response from Council or ELPD to questions about whether the ELPD was aware of the conference before it occurred or why ELPD leaders were not present. 

When asked, Deputy Chief Gonzalez reiterated many of Council’s points above, pointing to efforts already underway in ELPD to “[refocus] away from secondary stop violations.”

ELPD’s specific position relating to the new policies and whether they will be adhered to by East Lansing officers remains unclear.

When news of the new policy broke on Tuesday, ELi reached out to Council member Lisa Babcock, who is a lawyer with experience in criminal law, to better understand jurisdictional issues related to the District 54B court.

Babcock responded to our earlier questions but not immediately to ELi’s questions on Thursday about the press conference. 

Babcock told ELi that the County’s policy won’t necessarily affect 54B, as cases are either prosecuted by the County prosecutor’s office or by the City of East Lansing under the City’s code of ordinances. She also said that she looked forward to a larger discussion on these matters with Council, ELPD, and the community.

According to Babcock, budgetary concerns may play a role in which cases are prosecuted through 54B.

“While there are policing issues to be considered, the ugly truth is there are also budgetary issues to be considered,” Babcock told ELi. 

Babcock explained that cities can “mirror” state law. “The advantage to mirroring them is that the cost of prosecution goes to the City, or township, but the revenue goes to the City or township as well.”

East Lansing is now in the process of forming its first Independent Police Oversight Commission and yesterday announced that it is extending the application deadline to Aug. 6 for those who want to serve on the commission. Find out more here.

UPDATE July 30, 2021, at 3:15 p.m.: ELPD released a short statement regarding the new policy from the Ingham County Prosecutor’s office. You can read it here.