DETROIT (WXYZ) — A meeting today could decide the fate of two Detroit Police Officers. Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said earlier this week that he intends to fire an officer and a sergeant, who he says broke policy.
The behavior in question? Calling Customs and Border Protection during two separate traffic stops, and ultimately getting the individuals involved into federal custody.
Watch Carli's report and our previous coverage
The first incident occurred on Dec. 16, and the second happened on Feb. 9. The Chief said his department is not in the immigration business, and takes the matter very seriously. The Chief's decidion will be a main topic during today's Board of Commissioners meeting.
The highly-anticipated meeting will be taking place at the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. The goal of today's meeting will be to discuss the chief's request for suspension without pay for the two employees.
Chief Bettison made the suspension announcement at a police Board of Commissioners meeting last week, saying he wants to go even further than that and fire the officer and sergeant involved in the two stops.
The first incident was discovered through a bodycam audit. In the incident last week, a Sergeant responded to a call for a supervisor at a traffic stop. They were requested because the civilian did not speak English, while the department has a 24/7 translation services line. The Chief said the Sergeant made the decision to contact border patrol for translation services instead.
In both incidents, the individuals were detained by federal agents, and both the sergeant and the officer have since been suspended with pay. The chief is requesting for the officers to be suspended without pay, which would need approval from the board.
“99 percent of our officers, 98, 98 percent do it the right way each and every day, they’re out there working hard. But I do have 1, 2 percent that decide to violate our rules, our policies and our procedures," Chief Bettison said.
Ultimately, Chief Bettison would like to see these two employees fired, he's made that clear. Their firing would have to go through a command hearing, a process that could take up to 21 days.
