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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint Police lead multi-agency, felony warrant sweep
Posted: Oct 29, 2013 12:09 PM EDT Updated: Oct 29, 2013 6:15 PM EDT
By Lori Dougovito - bio | email
FLINT (WJRT) -
(10/29/13) - Thirty-eight people and at least two guns were taken off the streets during a two day, multi-agency, felony warrant sweep in Flint.
Federal, state and local officers were out in force searching for some of the area's most violent and wanted criminals. They started Monday morning.
It's not an easy task, considering there are currently some 40,000 outstanding warrants in Flint.
Police Chief James Tolbert pushed for the sweep and briefed department heads at Emergency Manager Darnell Earley's weekly meeting Tuesday morning.
"40,000 is a lot, but just like I tell my guys, 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' We just have to do that one bite at a time," said Tolbert.
ABC12 was out with officers hours earlier.
They were looking for people who failed to appear in court or people not in custody with warrants or suspected in crimes. These are gun related crimes, violent offenders, CSC and arson related as well. Parole absconders were targeted too.
Police had a list of 76 people.
Tolbert said police determined, right off the bat, three people were already in custody somewhere else. Of those three, two are wanted for murder and one is wanted for assault with intent to murder, Tolbert said.
Clarence Davison was one of the people police arrested in Flint during the sweep. He was suspected in the severe strangulation of his ex-girlfriend earlier this month. Davison was arrested Monday while officers were searching for someone else.
"He happened to be at the location," Tolbert said.
The detective on the case said he's meeting with prosecutors Tuesday about charges.
Tolbert said the FBI, U.S. Marshals Office, ATF, Michigan State Police, Michigan Department of Corrections, Genesee County Sheriff's Department and Grand Blanc Township Police assisted in the efforts.
"That's a good thing," said Flint resident Morise Starr. "Get em (sic) off the street."
Flint Police Lt. Collin Birnie was with the team of officers we went along with.
"Heck, if we got three people off the street that were violent felons that's a great thing for the community," Birnie said.
City Spokesman Jason Lorenz said the early, final numbers indicate 38 people were arrested and 85 warrants were cleared.
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Tue Oct 29, 2013 6:12 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint police to post online daily crime reports starting next week
Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
on November 16, 2013 at 12:07 PM
FLINT, MI – Flint’s new police Chief James Tolbert said a move next week will be a step toward restoring the public’s confidence in his department.
Major crimes throughout the city will be posted on its website on a day-by-day basis, Tolbert said.
He spoke about public safety alongside Mayor Dayne Walling on Saturday, Nov. 16, on Flint resident A.C. Dumas’ talk radio show on WFLT 1420AM.
“You’re talking about being transparent. You’re talking about letting people know what’s going on,” Tolbert said. “That’s one of the ways we’re going to get the trust back in the community.”
Dumas and callers questioned both Tolbert and Walling on the city’s spending of the public safety millage. In November 2012, voters passed a five-year, 6-mill property tax increase that was expected to raise $5.3 million in its first year for police and fire services.
The city has 122 sworn police officers and an additional seven officers in the police academy at Mott Community College, Tolbert said. He said he’s talked with Emergency Manager Darnell Earley about hiring more officers.
“Like a lot of residents, I’ve been frustrated that the city has been so slow to respond to that investment that the people made,” Walling said about the rate of hiring new officers. “We have resources there. There was a commitment made to increase the police and fire force. I haven’t seen the audit yet. That will be made public in approximately a month.
“With this situation with the emergency manager, those decisions have been made through a different process. We’re all going to see where everything stands when this audit comes out.”
Earley, who was not on the radio show, said hiring a police officer is a lengthy process. Candidates must be properly vetted, trained and certified.
“We’re sensitive to the citizen’s concerns about the number of police officers and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that whatever resources we have that are designed for hiring police officers – that that process will be done as thoroughly and as expeditiously as possible,” Earley told The Flint Journal on Saturday. “Hiring a sworn police officer is a lot different than hiring a clerk or analyst. We’re working diligently to identify those individuals who we think will make good police professionals for the city of Flint.”
Dumas wanted to know what Tolbert’s plan for reducing crime in Flint is.
There will be targeted enforcement based on where crime takes place, Tolbert said, but added that the community needs to step up.
Dumas told Tolbert that citizens are already paying extra taxes to help stabilize police staffing.
“Do you want me to go out there and fight crime,” Dumas asked. “My mother? What do you mean?”
There will never be enough resources to have an officer on every block in Flint, Tolbert said.
“What we need is to have the community be more aware of what’s going on and how to report that,” he said. “We want to teach them how to report, where to report – we want the community to have more trust in the police department to know that if they tell us something we’re going to act on that.”
Dominic Adams is a reporter for The Flint Journal. Contact him at dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. |
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Sat Nov 16, 2013 3:11 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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I am glad Tolbert is responding to the citizens who want to know what is happening in their city. There are not enough volunteers on the scanner facebook pages and most people don't have the luxury of listening to the scanners. I know many who run to listen when the sirens start running and the helicopter is over head. It is frustrating when the info is not available and no one can find out what happened.
Tolbert seems to be aware of his limitations as far as staffing goes. His officers are surprised to see him out there with them on patrol and even at fires. So far Tolbert is a good fit for Flint.
Citizens are watching what is going on with our police and several have commented they will leave if the police leave because of strained working conditions.
Will there eventually be a Metropolitan Police Force and if so are there plans to develop this concept. And will the citizens be informed of the changes?
When will the drug areas and major drug gangs be addressed. We know the police know where they are and we know our officers have been told not to be proactive. That is not helping the citizens. Tolbert's sting was a good start, but where are our drug and gang units? |
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Sat Nov 16, 2013 3:22 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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New Flint police chief takes new approach to top cop job
David Harris | dharris5@mlive.com By David Harris | dharris5@mlive.com
on December 10, 2013 at 6:00 AM, updated December 10, 2013 at 6:13 AM
FLINT, MI -- New Flint Police Chief James Tolbert was walking out of a meeting at City Hall when he was approached by a man who said there was a panhandler outside.
It was hardly the most urgent or important call Tolbert will respond to in America's most dangerous city, but how Tolbert handled the situation shows what kind of chief he wants to be. He walked over to the man with the scruffy beard and grubby clothing.
A no non-sense cop may have gotten in his face, scolded the man and threatened to arrest him. But Tolbert calmly told the man that there's no soliciting at city hall, and that he would have to go on his way. The new chief asked the man if he wanted anything, and he mumbled that he wanted some coffee.
Tolbert pointed to a coffee stand, let the man get his coffee, and then the man left. Tolbert, 53, wants to tackle problems head on, but also wants to have a public persona and transparent for a department that's been criticized for not caring about the people it serves.
"He's probably asking for money because he doesn't have any money," Tolbert said, adding things would have ended much differently if the man was being combative. "So I can lock him up or I could have a conversation with him and say 'you can't do this. You have to move on.'"
Then he gives his philosophy on how to deal with people like the man.
"The negative way (would be) to say 'look at this guy he's out here not doing anything with himself,'" he said. "No, he's a human being. I believe when you interact with people as a police officer you think 'if it was your mother, father, sister, brother, how would you want the police to act and treat them?'"
In nearly two months since Gov. Rick Snyder's administration tabbed Tolbert to lead Flint police, Tolbert is trying to make the department more analytical about crime and public-friendly.
Calls for service and crime logs are being posted online. In the future he wants to post real-time crime data on the city's website. He's calling more press conferences for updates on cases.
It's a far different feel than what the department was like under former Chief Alvern Lock, who lost the faith of some of his officers as evidenced by a "no confidence" vote earlier this year,
Flint Police Officers Association President Kevin Smith said Tolbert is much more hands on than Lock or other previous chiefs were.
"He's also very personable and vocal," said Smith. "He's just one of those guys that he sees you he asks how things are going and what you're up to. When you do that it boosts morale."
At the same time, Tolbert's also pushing the department to be more data-driven with identifying hotspots and problem areas. He wants his officers to do more proactive policing. All this is to reach his main goal: Reduce crime and get Flint off the "most violent" list, a title its had for the last three years.
Always asking questions
Tolbert said he regularly works 12-hour days, getting in about 7:30 a.m. and also comes in on the weekends. He meets each morning with his top command staff, which includes the two captains and the head of the homicide division, to go over the last 24 hours of crime.
He allowed the Flint Journal to sit in on some meetings on Tuesday, Nov. 26. It was quiet the night previous, he is told. There were some weather-related accidents, including two that involved minor police officer injuries. They also discuss the recent homicide of a 16-year-old boy on Tobias Street.
Tolbert constantly is asking questions, and topics vary widely from gang maps to the upcoming implosion of the Genesee Towers. He's particular in what he wants – he even switched the sides of the logos of the Flint police and Michigan State Police at the top of the press release form.
Later, he wanted the synopsis of the implosion plan for the police completed in a certain way. He likes to go down to meet with officers in the station and will go out to some calls.
Nearly two months on the job, Tolbert is getting to know Flint. Seeming that he grew up in Detroit and worked there for nearly three decades, he had a lot to learn about the new town. He's gone to meeting after meeting with local officials and regular residents.
He's been impressed with the work of the Flint police officers, who he said do so much with little resources and credits the Michigan State Police with the 40 people patrolling the city or working in the detective bureau.
Being more efficient
That's not to say he doesn't see some things that could be done better. A goal Tolbert has is to work on getting some of the 40,000 warrants off the book. He's already completed a two-day warrant sweep netting 38 arrests that cleared 85 violent felony warrants.
"It's all about a calamity of consequences," he said. "Gone are the days of the 'dis'-appearance ticket. You have a warrant you are going to jail."
The effort in reducing the number of warrants is important and Tolbert has promoted the idea in talks with community groups, said Mayor Dayne Walling.
"He was just adamant about the need to focus on getting known offenders off the streets so the comm actually sees a reduction in crime because a known offender on the street is going to commit additional criminal incidents," said Walling.
Working with service organizations to work with the external issues of crime also is important, he said, because police can't arrest its way out of community problems.
He also wants to be more efficient so police can do some proactive policing. It's tough to do with fewer resources -€“ there are about 140 sworn police officers in the department - but there are ways to be more efficient, Tolbert said.
Police can do that by eliminated calls, such as having victims of crimes such as property destruction submit a report on the CopLogic system on the city's website. It also is about prioritizing calls, taking the most important first.
He also said he wants more hot spot policing by identifying where the crimes are and who are committing them. A self-described "tech guy," he's already been talking to Wayne State University to bring in some people who can install and analyze that material.
"It's about using crime data to target the people perpetuating these crimes," said Tolbert.
In his previous job, he has had some success in reducing crime from data that was collected and analyzed, said Andrew Arena, former agent in charge of the FBI Detroit division. Arena was part of the Violent Crimes Task Force made up of federal, state and local law enforcement where Tolbert was one of the Detroit police representatives.
Crime dropped 50 percent on Detroit's eastside as part of a targeted effort in 2010, Arena said. Tolbert was a person who wasn't afraid to speak his mind and tell people how he saw things, he said.
"I think he's a big picture type of guy," said Arena. "He knows what needs to be done. Flint is not unlike Detroit. You got less resources so you have to do more with less. You have to look at intelligence and data to know where to use your resources."
Growing up
Tolbert grew up on Detroit's northwest side. His father was a factory worker with General Motors and his mother working as a nurse in the Wayne County Jail. He has an older brother, younger brother and a twin brother.
After graduating from the now-closed Detroit St. Martin De Porres High School in 1978, Tolbert's father informed him there was not enough money in the family to pay for him to go to college. That removed the option of being a walk-on at a small school in Indiana to play football.
So the next step was joining the military. He went to a recruiting office and walked up to the Army recruiter. He paid Tolbert no attention, so he moved onto the Marines. He saw a photo of a Marine above the recruiter.
"I looked up and saw a (picture) of a guy in dress blues and said 'I want to wear that' and that's how I joined the Marine Corps," he said.
His father was a bit taken aback what his son did.
"I said you told me I had to do something. And he said 'but you joined the hardest one,'" said Tolbert with a laugh.
Despite the rigors of being a Marine, Tolbert excelled. He earned the "honor award" for being a top recruit, he said. He wanted to gain a skill while serving, and thought he wanted to be a truck driver.
But Tolbert was assigned to the Military Police, and found that he liked the work. After he was moved the reserves, he joined the Detroit Police Department in the 1980s. While at DPD, he served in the first Gulf War, mostly policing the base and going on transports.
He retired from the reserves in 1999.
Time with DPD
The Detroit Police Department has had many scandals, controversies and alleged conspiracies over the years.
"It's about using crime data to target the people perpetuating these crimes," said Tolbert.
One case Tolbert worked on was the Tamara Greene case. Tolbert was named in a lawsuit alleging he blocked a detective's efforts to solve the killing of an exotic dancer tied to a long-rumored party at the home of disgraced ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Tolbert denies stopping anyone from investigating. He becomes animated when talking about the case, leaning forward and throwing up his arms.
"What I told my officers is we are going to investigate the homicide, and where ever it takes us, that's where it takes us," said Tolbert. "I never had anybody from the city government from the mayor on down on how to handle the investigation. Never happened."
He also doesn't believe the alleged party ever happened.
"I just can't see that kind of conspiracy happening without somebody somewhere down the line saying 'you know what, here it is, this is what happened, I was there,'" Tolbert said. "We can't find anybody that's ever said that."
Tolbert worked his way up the chain, eventually heading up the homicide unit and then becoming deputy chief. For every serious shooting or homicide, Tolbert would receive a call.
"Not a night went by that I wasn't notified about something," he said.
By contrast, it can be much slower in Flint, he said, when there's nights when nothing major is happening.
The man who oversaw Tolbert while he was in charge of homicide had nothing but good things to say. Tony Saunders, who retired in 2007 as deputy chief, called Tolbert "extremely competent and a hard worker" who executed well.
He always exceeded performance goals and the case closure rate went up from 44 percent to 51 percent under Tolbert's leadership, said Saunders.
"You have to be an analytical person, you have to spot trends and motivate your staff," Saunders said. "He was able to do that."
Mike Stefani, the former Detroit police officer and attorney who represented the officers that blew open the Kilpatrick text message scandal, said Tolbert will make a good chief. Stefani said the two have been friends for years.
He said Tolbert was able to stay above the fray from the issues at the DPD.
"He was hard working and knowledgeable," said Stefani. "Tolbert was the kind of guy that, although he knew the brass, he was also extremely competent."
But not everyone was so impressed with what Tolbert did with Detroit police. An outspoken and retired sergeant in the Detroit Police Department David Malhalab said he doesn't believe Tolbert was a good selection for chief.
"He should not be a police chief anywhere in this country," said Malhalab, adding that Tolbert was recently passed over for Detroit's chief position. "Flint shouldn't have to suffer with Detroit's deputy chief."
Good reviews so far
Tolbert said he has been impressed with the "spirit of volunteerism" and the will of resident's to make the city a better place to live. He's even had a chance to eat at the Flint institution Halo Burger, although he hasn't had a Flint-style coney dog yet.
City leaders have good things to say about the chief so far.
Earley had high praise.
"The chief has done an exceptional job, and has brought dynamic new leadership to police services in the City of Flint," he said.
Flint City Council President Scott Kincaid said Tolbert has shown good leadership.
"I've got a lot confidence in the new police chief in taking the city in the right direction as far as being involved in community policing and having a better relationship with police officers in the city of Flint."
Smith said officers are happy with what has gone on so far.
"He's out there on the front lines with guys, backing up on calls," Smith said. "He's doing everything a chief should."
Walling said he has been impressed with his leadership and willingness to meet with officers and community groups.
"He's taken an aggressive approach to reducing crime in the City of Flint by re-engaging the Flint Police Department and also the community," said Walling. |
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Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:24 am |
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