Oversight Commission Questions ELPD Use of Cameras, Treatment of People In Psychological Distress

The East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) faced questions about camera usage, how it responds to people in distress and use of force policy during the Wednesday, April 5, East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) meeting.

Additionally, the commission discussed a potential hurdle to receiving the Michigan State Police (MSP) report on the April 2022 police shooting of DeAnthony VanAtten and asked members of the public to fill three openings on the commission.

ELPD’s ability to respond to people in distress comes into question.

There were several moments during the course of the three hour meeting where ELPD’s ability to respond to people in psychological crisis came into question.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, one resident, Ash Meadow, pointed out material released by ELPD indicates there is often not a social worker present when ELPD responds to people experiencing mental health crises. Meadow referred to statistics showing people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other people approached by law enforcement and said, if ELPD is going to employ social workers, they should meet the standards “that others in similar roles are already meeting.”

Meadow singled out as unacceptable an incident in the report where the social worker was not able to join a response because they were in a “Leadership Meeting” at the time of the incident.

ELPD Captain Chad Pride responded at the meeting by saying there is currently only one social worker staffed by ELPD and the department has been trying to hire a second for quite some time. This means the social worker is often not working when these calls come in. Pride said ELPD recently received an application from a potential second social worker.

Commissioner Amanda Morgan, who works as a social worker, said it can be difficult to find police social workers because many people in social work are not interested in working in a police department.

Morgan also said the department’s social worker needs more training specific to their duties within the police department, as would the second if hired.

The exchange is just the latest example of commissioners questioning ELPD’s use of social workers.

Later in the meeting, Commissioner Robin Etchison expressed concern about the number of times in the use of force report that ELPD officers had their guns drawn. Etchison is especially concerned about guns being drawn when responding to someone having a mental health crisis.

“There’s going to be another [police] shooting here in East Lansing,” Etchison said. “The person that is going to get shot is going to be a person in crisis.”

Pride left the meeting prior to Etchison’s comments but later emailed ELi the ELPD’s response to resistance policy.

The policy largely leaves it to an officer’s discretion when force is necessary, but does say a “reasonable” level of force must be used. The policy does allow officers to draw their weapons during high risk stops.

The policy says officers may have their weapons at the ready when stopping a person or vehicle that “the officer believes to have been involved in a felony, carrying a weapon, or poses a significant threat and danger to officers or a significant threat and danger to the community.”

Body camera usage also comes into question.

During the meeting, Commissioner Kath Edsall and City Councilmember Dana Watson questioned Pride about the usage of body cameras.

Edsall said she had heard from a family involved that guns were drawn during an investigation of a threatening social media post on March 8.

Pride responded the incident she was referring to was actually done by the Ingham Regional Special Response Team (IRSRT), which is made up of different agencies in the area including ELPD. He said the report on the incident would have been written by the IRSRT leader, but, if an ELPD officer were to draw their gun, they would also have to write a report.

Pride said he does not know of any ELPD officers that were present at the incident, but that he would look to find out more. He also said he would reach out to IRSRT to see if the oversight commission can obtain a copy of the incident report.

Watson said the incident led her to wonder about body camera usage and asked Pride how he would know if an officer is routinely turning off their body camera. Pride said, if it is discovered during a review of footage that a camera was turned off, that officer would have to explain why.

“If someone is improperly using their bodycam, we wouldn’t know until something had happened,” Watson responded. “That’s like a reactive [action] but there isn’t a proactive [policy].”

Edsall expressed a belief that officers should have their cameras on throughout their entire shift. Pride said it is not possible for officers to do this for an entire 12-hour shift due to the battery life of the camera and officers turning cameras off during bathroom breaks. He said the costs for new equipment to have cameras running an entire shift is not in the budget.

Edsall said she is concerned about times when cameras are turned on in the middle of an encounter and do not capture the entire interaction.

After the meeting, Pride sent ELi an email containing ELPD’s camera policy. The policy states officers must turn their cameras on “during each citizen encounter while performing their official duties.”

These duties can include traffic stops, calls for service, Terry stops (a pat-down search that doesn’t violate the fourth amendment), investigative efforts, arrests and seizures, searches, and suspect or warrant interviews.

The policy also highlights that camera activation can be done manually or triggered by a police vehicle being driven above 80 miles per hour, police vehicle emergency lights being activated, airbag deployment within the police vehicle and being near another activated camera. Additionally, there is a “gunshot” feature that automatically activates body cameras. However, the feature frequently malfunctions and activates the cameras without intended cause.

The policy also says all cameras capture the 90 seconds of footage before they are activated. However, this footage does not have audio.

State statute may block the oversight commission from receiving materials related to investigation of the April 2022 police shooting at Meijer.

The meeting agenda included a March 24 email exchange where Commission Chair Erick Williams requested Pride and ELPD Chief Kim Johnson share with the commission MSP’s report on the April 2022 police shooting of DeAnthony VanAtten.

However, it is unclear if the oversight commission will be able to obtain the report because of an ELPD policy that prohibits it from sharing reports from the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) or the Statewide Records Management System (SRMS) that are used by police to share reports. Pride said he has reached out to MSP and City Attorney Anthony Chubb to see if it would be allowed to share the report with the commission.

Police Oversight Commission Vice Chair Chris Root explained to ELi that the commission tried to obtain the report from MSP in September though a FOIA request, but that there would be a charge of roughly $400 to obtain it. She said the commission abandoned that FOIA request after Pride said he believed the commission could receive the report through ELPD. However, Pride later became uncertain ELPD could provide the report due to the department’s policy. Root said the commission has now filed a new FOIA request with MSP.

Johnson said in the email to the commission, the department is processing the report by deciding on redactions now, in case it is allowed to share it. However, processing was slowed by increased police responsibilities for St. Patrick’s Day and preparing for the NCAA basketball tournament, events that regularly trigger disruptions requiring police response. At the meeting, Pride said one officer is responsible for redactions in the report and that officer must also attend to his other police duties.

Pride said he did not want to give an exact date the redactions will be done, but that the officer is getting closer to finishing. He said the department has not yet gotten an answer from Chubb or MSP about whether the commission will be able to view the redacted report.

The commission is seeking applications for three openings.

Noel Garcia’s seat on the commission opened after he was appointed to City Council in January. Additionally, Commissioners Jamie White and Ron Fink have vacated their seats, leaving three open positions on the commission.

Williams suggested meeting attendees apply for the open positions during the meeting’s break time, but he did not receive any takers. Those interested can read the city’s process of applying to join a commission here. Additionally, the staff resource for the Commission, DEI Director Elaine Hardy, can be reached at ehardy@cityofeastlansing.com.

Correction, May 10, 2023: The original version of this report misrepresented a point made by Ash Meadow and that paragraph has been fixed.