East Lansing City Council Orders Independent Review of Actions by City’s Police Department

The East Lansing City Council moved to hire an outside attorney to conduct an independent review of actions taken by the city’s police department.

Council returned from a closed-session at the end of last night’s meeting and moved to allow the city attorney to retain outside counsel to conduct an independent review of “actions, policies and procedures” of the city’s police department. The motion specifies the review will look into encounters with the public and arrests “including those that occurred during welcome weekend for Michigan State University to the present.”

The motion also calls for the review to look into prosecutions, and for attorneys to provide a “confidential and privileged report and recommendations.”

The motion passed unanimously without discussion. 

The actions of East Lansing police and Chief Jen Brown have been heavily criticized after police pepper sprayed and arrested two young men during welcome weekend, and issued a misleading press release about the incident. City prosecutors recently dropped charges against the men. Additionally, comments Brown made in a news interview have been characterized as racist by city commissioners, the city manager and organizations like the Lansing NAACP branch. 

Recently, the city’s Police Oversight Commission and Human Rights Commission each called for Brown to be removed from her post, just months into her tenure.

The decision to order the review came at the end of a marathon meeting that stretched past midnight. ELi will continue to cover developments regarding the city’s police department, and provide coverage of the rest of the meeting later on.