DETROIT (WXYZ) — At least thirty Detroit police officers have been taken off the street after the department discovered they were working without active law enforcement licenses.
The officers affected are from all across the department, including homicide, road patrol and the special victims unit, which investigates child abuse, domestic violence and sex crimes.
“As of this morning, their guns and badges were taken from them,” said Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald. “They’ll be on administrative duty until we get this cleared up, hopefully as soon as possible.”
In a statement released Thursday, MCOLES said they show 32 Detroit officers without an active license.
DPD first got wind that there was a problem about two months ago, when they discovered one of their officers didn’t have an active license with MCOLES, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.
The discovery triggered a broader audit that discovered three more officers with lapsed or inactive licenses, and has now ballooned to 30.
“That is a big problem,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re working through the list, we’re trying to figure out what’s needed, where we need to get the documentation necessary.”
The problem appears to only affect officers who previously worked for DPD, left to join another department and later returned.
Officials say the that the department’s human resources or recruiting divisions are likely responsible for what they’re calling an error in paperwork that led to the officers removal.
According to MCOLES, the officers "were hired between November 2019 and August of 2024. Initial indications suggest DPD did not request reactivation of these officer’s law enforcement licenses when they were hired or rehired. The investigation is ongoing and at this point involves at least 32 officers."
“It’s very shocking,” said Commissioner Ricardo Moore, who oversees the department as a member of the Board of Police Commissioners. “I think that our personnel director needs to answer a couple questions to the board.”
Before the officers will be returned to active status, MCOLES says they need to be subjected to a background check to ensure that while they were away from the department, they didn’t encounter any problems.
"On a case-by-case basis the Commission will review the status of affected officer to determine if they are eligible for reactivation of their law enforcement licenses. The Commission collaborating with DPD to audit its entire roster and ensure all officers are actively licensed," said MCOLES Executive Director Tim Bourgeois.
MCOLES Press Release_11.21.24 by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
“By all accounts, they’re all just outstanding officers,” Fitzgerald said. “They come to work every day, they do their job.”
While working to bring the officers back into active status, the department is also trying to wrap its arms around whether the license issues might cause problems in court.
Right now, they believe that so long as the unlicensed officers were working with a partner whose license was active, any arrests they made would be legal.
“We’re still on solid grounds there, I believe,” Fitzgerald said. “But again we’ll let the attorneys figure that one out.”
A spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office confirms they were first told about the unlicensed officers today and had no comment.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.