Reports coming from Downtown are saying that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is firing James Barren as chief of police and Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans is to take over as Detroit’s top cop on Monday. Now if this is true, many in the news media as well as a couple of City Council members are saying that Bing is breaking a campaign promise he made while campaigning for mayor earlier this year. Nonetheless as of Saturday morning, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has fired Police Chief James Barren and plans to hire Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans as the new chief, according to an assistant police chief who also is leaving the force. Assistant Chief Ronald Fleming said Barren called him late Friday afternoon and said he had been relieved of duty and Evans would become chief on Monday.
Now Fleming’s went on to tell the Free Press that Barren had brought him out of retirement and since Barren is leaving than he is leaving too. Bing’s spokeswoman Karen Dumas denied the firing but other officials confirmed the report, requesting anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk about it. However former interim Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. who had appointed Barren -- a former police executive with 31 years on the city force -- in October said he thinks that Barren did nothing less than an outstanding job in his tenure. So Cockrel said he is disappointed by Bing’s decision in a late Friday evening statement.
Other people are commenting on Bing’s decisions such as Detroit Police Officer John Bennett, who is also a candidate for City Council, said he heard the news from Fleming. Bennett said that Bing lied to the Detroit Police Department but most importantly the citizens of Detroit. Bennett went on to say that Bing told us the citizens that James Barren would be the Chief of Police if he is elected mayor.
While on the campaign trail, Bing had told Detroiters that he would keep chief in post. Still to Bing’s credit, he wasn’t elected mayor yet and he made the comments before being elected mayor. Although Bing said he would retain Barren, saying Barren shares his vision of making public safety a top priority, he said that before all that jumped off in the last few weeks regarding the Detroit Police Department such as the departments failure to acknowledge one in five Detroit homicides last year. Also the fact that Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy brought the astonishing discrepancy to light and Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans own observations corroborated the Worthy’s story.
Still back in April Bing said that if something’s not broken, there’s no need to fix but to Bing’s credit he did stress that he would evaluate Barren and other employee on their performance. However some are puzzled to hear that Barren was fired Friday, according to Assistant Police Chief Fleming. While Barren could not be reached for comment by the Free Press, the truth of the matter is that Bing’s firing of Barren is not really a broken promise but one that Bing evaluated before allowing it to happen.
Detroit City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she was surprised by Bing's change of direction and given how laudatory the mayor was of Chief Barren during the campaign. Councilwoman Cockrel went on to say that she appreciated the work that Chief Barren did because he came in at a period of extremely low morale as she was referring to the text message scandal that stemmed from the firing of former Deputy Chief Gary Brown. She went on to say that Chief Barren did a great deal to improve the morale of the department and stabilize the department.
The astonishing news of Barren’s firing came after Barren held a news conference earlier in the day on Friday where he spoke about Tuesday's shooting of seven Detroit teens. In the news conference, Barren said that in over 30 years in law enforcement, he’s never seen individuals so brazen as he was referring to the footage seen on the surveillance tape that shows three people opening fire at a bus station on the Southfield Freeway service drive at West Warren. It is unclear whether his handling of this shooting played a role in the firing.
But what is clear is that Barrens on the way out and it seems that Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans will be replacing him. Attempts to reach Sheriff Evans about being tapped for the chief role were unsuccessful. However the criticism about Bing’s decision continues to poor in. Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow criticized the move saying it underscores that Bing does not have a plan to make the city safer. Barrow went on to say that the problem is Detroit needs to have cops on the street and in our neighborhoods so playing musical chairs with police chiefs is just another sign that he's out of touch with Detroit. Despite Evans' long record in law enforcement, Barrow said he was not impressed.
However Councilman Ken Cockrel said Evans will hopefully bring the department in good standing with the federal government. The department is under a federal consent decree in which it is to make improvements in several areas while being monitored by the government. However Dave Bing’s spokeswoman Karen Dumas refuted the news media reports and maintained Friday that Barren remains the city's top cop. Dumas said that Barren is still the chief. Dumas went on to say that until an official announcement is made regarding any changes, they're just rumors and the mayor has not received or accepted his resignation.
Still if the rumors are true which seem to be accurate, it would seem as if Bing broke a campaign promise. However if you look at the last month or so and the fact that Bing stressed he would evaluate Barren as well as other employees on their performances which is what Bing did by allowing Barren to respond to Worthy’s and Evans accusations as well as the handling of the shooting of 7 kids. Some to Bing’s credit, he saw how Barren and the Police Department had handled these two situations and felt that he had seen enough from Barren and the Detroit's top brass.
However some might criticize Bing because he didn’t give Barren a chance to handle both of those accusations. Barren has only been on the job for 8 full months with July being his 9th month if he was given a chance. Thus Bing does have a lot of explaining to do on why he fired Barren but at the same time, Bing has given Barren a chance since taking office in May. Bing perhaps has seen that in Barren’s 8 months on the job, his performance in terms of changing the department is not much different than what was there before Barren took the top post as Chief of Police. Regardless of what Bing’s decision is and what his reasoning might be, it is clear that Detroit’s top brass is out.
The truth is some will look at Bing’s decision as a campaign promise broken but to be fair and honest it isn’t. Bing didn’t promise the citizens of Detroit that he would keep Barren as chief no matter what. Bing simply said he would keep Barren as long as his performance is good. However as I mentioned in an earlier blog entitled Bing’s Silence a Different Approach But Is it the Right Approach, where I said that Bing’s silence is an example of how Bing will allow us the citizens to judge certain department heads on their departments. In the article I spoke of how Bing is allowing the Detroit Police Department and its top brass to address the issue of misreporting homicide in Detroit. However the Police Department has been quiet on that issue and has not really given any definitive reason for why this misreporting has been occurring. Therefore Bing’s decision to fire Barren is more geared towards that and other issues than simply the recent shooting near Cody High School.
Thus, Bing didn’t break a campaign promise but merely he is showing us the citizens of Detroit how he will evaluate department heads and he is demonstrating to Detroiters that he is watching how his department heads is responding to issues that are brought their way and how he will not tolerate a half job or half performance on key issues. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing might be quiet on the firing of Barren but if it is true than on Monday we the citizens of Detroit will find out. However for now, it should be put to rest that Bing broke a campaign promise because he really didn’t. He said he would evaluate Barren and other key department heads so that is why exactly what Bing did and has done with allowing Barren as well as Detroit Police deal with the issues pertaining to police and law enforcement in the city.
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