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Concerns Of Racism Within Detroit Police Department Has Group Calling For Release Of Report

DETROIT (WWJ) - Amid concerns of racism in the Detroit police department, a citizen's group is demanding a recent report on race and equality be released to the public.

The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality is asking for a report on race and equality --that is believed to have been completed last year.

"Black officers complain about not being able to get certain assignments, or being disciplined differently than white officers," said retired officer John Bennett.

Bennett says the committee met with and connected to dozens of officers over an 8-month period last year and completed the report before he retired in August.

"The racial issues within the agency --were top-down. There were some executives who were identified as being the center of the problem," says Bennett, who co-chaired the committee.

He says the finding were surprising to him. "I thought we would uncover a situation where you had officer-to-officer issues going on -- where it was pretty much to the point where it was going to explode but that wasn't what we found."

Bennett says they also offered a list of recommendations to address the problems - including a change in policy.

The group's request was prompted by a recent social media posting by a Detroit cop that said,  "he has to police garbage" in the city.

Ricardo Moore, Vice Chair of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is also waiting on this document.

"We were advised that there would be a report generated with recommendations and that report would be forwarded to us. To my understanding that report is complete, however the Board of Commissioners have yet to receive it," said Moore.

WWJ Newsradio 950 is waiting on a response to this story and a copy of the report on race and equality.

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