Vice mayor will start work as Detroit's interim police chief next month

DETROIT – When the city’s new interim police chief takes the job next month, he said he will continue his years-long effort to build partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the community to reduce crime in Detroit.

“Collaboration is key,” said Todd Bettison, Detroit’s vice mayor and former Detroit police director, during a news conference Friday at Detroit Public Safety headquarters, where Mayor Mike Duggan introduced him as the city’s interim police chief.

“When you see the community and police working together with public safety as our north star, we can come together and learn to trust each other,” Bettison told the dozens of people attending the news conference. “That’s why Detroit is seeing these historic lows when it comes to reducing crime.”

Police Chief James White last week was named CEO of Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network. The chief, a licensed mental health counselor, is a 28-year Detroit police veteran who was named Detroit’s 43rd police chief in August 2021 after serving as interim chief for two months. White served as assistant chief from 2012 until August 2020, when he left to become head of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

Bettison said he will begin his new duties on Nov. 11, one day after White’s last day as chief. A national search for a permanent top cop will begin once Detroit police chiefs choose a search firm, board chairman Darryl Woods said.

Bettison said Friday that he “absolutely” wants the permanent job.

“I’m definitely here to compete,” Bettison said. “I truly believe I am the best person for the role of permanent chief because I have been here before… so with a resounding yes, I want to lead this police department.”

Bettison’s background

Bettison worked for the Detroit Police Department for 27 years before leaving in 2022 to become deputy mayor. He joined the department in 1994 as a patrol officer, according to his biography on the city’s website, and within five years he was promoted to sergeant, and a year later attained the rank of lieutenant. He was the first assistant chief when he left the department.

Since becoming deputy mayor, Bettison has served as Duggan’s point person on community issues. including efforts to find jobs for Detroit residents and the “Shot Stoppers” Violence Intervention Program.

During Friday’s press conference, Duggan praised Bettison’s work with the community.

“Every time something went wrong, he went to the community and said, ‘We messed up,’” the mayor said, adding that Bettison was instrumental in “transforming this department.”

“People thought if you worked with the community, crime would increase because you were weak on crime,” Duggan said. “We’ve shown the opposite, and last year we had the fewest homicides since 1966.”

Bettison was also responsible for overseeing the protests that lasted throughout the late spring and summer of 2020, following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer during an arrest on May 25, 2020. Bettison cried during a news conference after one of the protests, saying that after kneeling with protesters, someone in the crowd threw a projectile at officers, prompting police to deploy tear gas.

“In 2020, when there was a lot of civil unrest, we talked to Detroiters, and they said, ‘Not in our city’ in terms of tearing up and destroying things,” Bettison recalled during Friday’s press conference. “And we didn’t have the kind of problems that other cities had.”

Others respond

Community activist Maurice “Pastor Mo” Hardwick said Bettison has helped him several times without fuss.

“I once got a call at four in the morning from a man who said to me, ‘I’m about to blow up the police station, the churches and the schools,’” Hardwick recalls. “The guy was a little crazy, but he wasn’t that crazy, his sister was displaced. … I called Todd Bettison and he got out of bed. We went over to the guy and he came out of his pocket to put his sister in a hotel accommodation.

“Another time in Rouge Park, there was a young lady who was shot during a basketball game, and she had seven to nine children who saw her killed,” Hardwick said. “They slept on an air mattress in their pantry and had to go to school and do algebra after seeing their mother murdered in cold blood. I called and called Todd Bettison; he met me that day… and went into his bag and gave me $500, and we got those people in a house. This is the chef you get.

White said he has worked well with Bettison for years and believes the police department will be in good hands when he leaves for his new position.

“Todd is a partner,” White said. “He’s been a partner since the day I joined this department, not just when I was chief. I’m so proud to be able to turn this agency over to him, even though I’m not really turning it over because he hasn’t been anywhere. “

White told the man who will temporarily replace him, “Now that you’re officially home, I want to be a partner to you, just like you have been to me. If you need me, I’m just a phone call away. “

White also said he will help Detroit police in his new role as head of the county’s largest mental health agency.

“I will do everything I can to provide resources to you so that we don’t encounter these people with mental illnesses during police stops again,” White said.

National search begins

Woods, the police board chairman, said the board will begin a national search once the board chooses a company to conduct the interviews.

“The city charter says we need to do a national search, and we already have the ball rolling,” Woods said. “We have put together a committee to find a search firm, and then we will do our due diligence in interviewing some of the best candidates in the country. It will be a fair and transparent process.”

Bunch, who spent 29 years in prison for murder Before former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder commuted his sentence in 2019, Bettison said he helped him with a literacy program while the police board chairman was still in prison.

“He’s a powerful leader,” Woods said of Bettison. “He came to the prison and worked with us and the NAACP on a program that helped young people. We worked together to save the lives of so many young people who were on the wrong path. This is a strong selection (for interim chief), and as we figure this out, we’ll see if there’s someone better.

In 2007, while he was a police captain, Bettison found himself at the center of a controversy after driving an unmarked department vehicle into a utility pole on Detroit’s east side. Bettison, who was off-duty, later pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle while impaired after originally being charged with driving under the influence and carrying a weapon while intoxicated, which were also felonies.

An empty wine bottle was found on the passenger floorboard of Bettison’s car, while three identical bottles were on the ground outside the vehicle, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. A Detroit police supervisor visited Bettison at the hospital before removing the bottles from the accident scene, Worthy said. The supervisor was charged with tampering with evidence, misconduct in office and neglect of duty, although a jury acquitted him.

Detroit Police Chief Ricardo Moore, a former Detroit police officer, said Bettison “rose above that incident.”

“He was able to put that behind him,” Moore said. “I think Todd is an excellent choice.

The chief said he and Bettison were accompanied by former Detroit Police Chief and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who died in December 2020.

“Benny let us both develop our own career paths, and Todd’s career was great,” Moore said.

Former Detroit Police Assistant Chief Steve Dolunt, who worked with Bettison for years before retiring in 2017, said he doesn’t expect the new interim top cop to make any major changes.

“It seems like everything is going well. Crime is down, and I don’t see it turning upside down,” Dolunt said.

The new interim chief has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University and a Graduate Business Certificate from Wayne State’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, according to his biography. He is also a graduate of Eastern Michigan University’s School of Police Staff and Command, according to his biography.

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