​​Citizens address public safety on second ‘listening tour’ stop

WARREN — Warren residents expressed their ideas and concerns about public safety at the second stop of the “listening tour” Jan. 22 at the Van Dyke Public Schools Career and Technical Education Center.

The panel of Warren public safety professionals and decision-makers included Mayor Lori Stone, Police Commissioner William Dwyer, Fire Commissioner Wilburt “Skip” McAdams, Police Deputy Commissioner Charles Rushton, City Council President Angela Rogensues and City Councilman Dave Dwyer. Also present on the panel were Crime Commission members Angela Middleswart, Tracy Antrikin, Sumon Kobir, Najim Ahmed, Kayla Porvaznik and Mike Riley. Riley is also a member of Warren’s Community Emergency Response Team.

Among the things residents in attendance were encouraged to share with the panel was what made them feel safe.

Former Warren City Councilman Garry Watts, who served on the council from 2019 to 2023, commended Warren’s fire and police departments for the great job they are doing. He lauded the Warren Fire Department’s new cadet class but raised a concern about the Police Department’s reduction in officers.

“I know the Police Department is down about 18 officers. It is my understanding you are going to hire a few but we don’t have a new hiring list,” Watts said. “In today’s time, don’t let the ball fall.”

Watts continued.

“Summer is not here yet. It’s true, it’s going to get busy. The cold has been keeping things down. They’re (police and fire) doing a great job,” Watts said. “We need to keep departments staffed and training up.”

Although the expert panel did not answer any questions or address the concerns of residents at the listening tour stop, they listened and took notes.

Commissioner Dwyer later addressed some of the concerns mentioned by residents.

“We are down 18 (officers). I’ll confirm that,” said the commissioner. “We have a list and we’re going to be hiring seven additional officers. And then we’ll also develop a new list, and we’ll fill those vacancies probably around May with the new list.”

The department hired three officers last week and will hire four more Feb. 5, according to the commissioner.

“It’s kind of interesting. We were fully staffed in June of last year. What had happened, we had a tremendous amount of people retire. As a result of the retirements, we had to start a new list and that’s how we got behind,” Dwyer said. “We’re doing fine. Things are going very well.”

According to Dwyer, it is a big department with approximately 242 sworn officers.

“The mayor has indicated she knows the need to have public safety fully staffed and has given us the approval to develop a new list, in the near future, once this list is exhausted,” Dwyer said.

One Warren resident expressed concern about cars being parked at Owen Jax Community Center at night for three or four hours when the building is closed.

“We went over there that night and didn’t find anything there, but did later, and I believe ticketed and towed a vehicle,” Dwyer said. “We are monitoring it closely now to see if we have any other problems.”

Michael Howard, who ran for Warren City Council in District 2 in 2023, addressed the panel about transparency in the Warren Police Department and their body camera policy.

“Transparency does not mean sharing every detail. Transparency means providing the context of the decisions we make,” Howard said. “Transparency is the currency of leadership.”

Howard gave this example.

“Not me personally, but another community member, requested the body cam policy for the city of Warren and was denied. It went to the FOIA board of appeals, and it was denied. As a resident, my only recourse now is to sue the city to get the body cam policy,” Howard said. “I can go to Google and type in Madison Heights’ body cam policy, and it comes up.”

The commissioner addressed it.

“I can’t get into details on that at this point, other than to say that we’ve been advised by our attorneys and by other people in law enforcement not to release that,” Dwyer said. “But we’re going to take another look and see if we can’t do something as far as the confidentiality portions of it could be (redacted).”

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office was represented at the meeting by Todd Schmitz, chief of operations.

“Thanks to Commissioner Dwyer and the Warren Police Department, the Prosecutor’s Office has changed our policy regarding felony firearm charges, and at the request of the Warren Police Department, we’ve now charged more felony firearm crimes to try to be tougher on gun crimes than have ever been charged by the office in the past,” Schmitz said.

The commissioner said he thought the event was very productive.

“I am addressing all the concerns that were noted that night,” Dwyer said.