East Lansing Police Chief Faces Backlash Over “Racist” Remark and Body Cam Lapses

Passions were high at the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) meeting on Oct. 1, as some commissioners said a statement Police Chief Jen Brown made in a news interview was racist.

Brown was speaking with WLNS about data that shows ELPD officers use force a disproportionate amount in incidents involving Black people when she made a comment that some commissioners believe showed racial bias. 

“We have a very transient population, and over the last month, starting with Welcome Weekend, we have had a disproportionate number of minorities come into the community and commit crimes, and as police officers we are simply responding to those crimes,” Brown told WLNS.

Commissioner Amanda Morgan asked Brown what bias training would say about using the word “minorities.” Brown said it was not mentioned. 

“Using the word minority is a microaggression because it implies people of color are marginalized; they are definitely targeted, but they’re not the minority,” Morgan said. “Minority is a term that we white folk use and that our culture uses to label people as less than us. I encourage you, as you do your implicit bias training, look at your speech…this statement is very tone deaf.” 

Councilmember Dana Watson, who serves as a council liaison to the oversight commission, said Brown’s statement reinforces the idea that Black and brown people are not welcome in East Lansing. 

“I’ve been struck since our last City Council meeting when covert racist terms were used by the chief: ‘They’re not from around here.’ But now with that article, that’s overt racism,” Watson said. “We are not a sundown town, but we’ve gotten the messages enough: Black people don’t come here to hang. Some of us just drive around the city of East Lansing, because we got the message.” 

Watson said Brown’s statement carries a double-standard, because many city employees don’t live in East Lansing. 

“It’s covert racism to say ‘they’re not from around here,’ because our police aren’t from around here, our city manager isn’t from around here. So, why is that the description?” Watson asked. “If that’s the future of the city of East Lansing, we will protest, we will boycott, we will use what we know we can use to gain leverage.”

Commissioner Sharon Hobbs drew parallels between Brown’s statement and President Donald Trump’s administration. 

“The person in the White House likes white, and it’s reflected everywhere,” Hobbs said. “We have to really fight hard to change that for this community…and ‘Make America Great Again,’ we all know what that means: Get rid of Black and brown people, let’s get rid of the LGBTQ community.” 

Commission questions ELPD’s usage of body cameras. 

Oversight commissioners again asked about ELPD actions during MSU’s welcome weekend, which featured several violent incidents downtown, arrests and accusations of racial bias in ELPD’s handling of the incidents. 

At the Oct. 1 ELIPOC meeting, commissioners asked about officers’ interaction with a 21-year-old Lansing resident during welcome weekend. Officers tased the man after he wielded a 9-inch knife. However, audio is not available in all of the footage of the interaction because officers did not activate their cameras.

Four body-worn camera footage clips were released to the public on Sept. 12. The first two minutes of all the recordings showed video but had no audio. 

Audio and video are recorded simultaneously once body-worn cameras are manually activated or activated by an automatic trigger, like a police siren. Cameras will also save two minutes of footage prior to when they are activated. This footage, however, is without audio. 

ELIPOC Vice Chair Kath Edsall asked about the missing audio. ELPD policy states that the  body-worn cameras must be on for entire incidents. 

Brown said an officer may forget to turn on their camera if they need to respond to an urgent matter. 

“I can’t put myself in the officers’ shoes. I wasn’t there, but I can say that the first response of the individual is probably to make sure the crowd is safe when you have an individual with a 9-inch knife,” Brown said. “Not all situations can an officer press the body cam and grab a taser or gun for whatever is needed to de-escalate that situation. The body cams were pressed when the situation was contained and the crowd was safe.”

Edsall asked what officers are told to do in training when it comes to body cam usage, to which Brown responded, “Press the body cam.” 

Brown agreed that what the officers did during that incident did not align with training.

 “I talked to two out of four officers who were in that situation, and what they expressed to me was that this was a situation that needed immediate remedy, and the focus was on the individual with the knife and protecting the crowd, not pressing the button,” Brown said. “We can train 20 hours a day, and again, you’re reacting to a high-stress situation with an individual who has a knife going after a crowd.”

Commissioner Rasha Thomas acknowledged that ELPD officers have a stressful job, but emphasized that they still broke policy.  

“I understand what you’re saying…but you also said that policy,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t matter how stressful the situation is because that’s your job, you signed up for it…I just watched the videos; there are four officers about 15 yards away from this individual. He grabbed the knife, took about five steps, then took five steps back, put the knife back in the bag, and was like this [put his arms up], then got tased…No one was in dire threat of their life being taken by a knife, where four officers could not tap their chest.” 

Commission Chair Ernest Conerly emphasized that the body-worn cameras provide protection for the police and community. 

“If officers have an instinct to grab a gun, they should have an instinct to turn on the camera,” he said. 

Brown agreed with commissioners that it could be helpful for officers to receive additional training on turning on their cameras during high-stress situations. 

“In my two years I’ve been at this department, we have not trained with the body cams on and the use of firearms, so it’s a great idea,” Brown said. “Let’s get the officers under some stressful situations at the range for training and practice hitting the body cam at the same time you are grabbing a firearm or taser.”