It's time for new Detroit Police Department leaders, knows the mayor, who appointed two assistant chiefs Thursday in a shakeup after a series of embarrassments.
Mayor David Bing brought back a retiree and promoted a deputy chief, Christine Ferretti reports in The Detroit News.
Retired Deputy Chief Janice Butler will serve as assistant chief of administration and Deputy Chief Paul Welles is appointed to the rank of assistant chief of patrol and investigation. The appointments must be confirmed by the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners.
"I want to start at the top," Bing said. "We feel confident that leadership (of the department) is intact." . . .
Butler, a retired 25-year veteran, formerly worked in the management services bureau and fiscal operations. She had retired in July. Welles has been with the department for 27 years and is deputy chief of the investigations bureau.
The Board of Police Commissioners, which must approve the changes, too issue with Bing's process.
"We were disappointed that a press conference was called about this without us being able to deliberate," Jerome Warfield, the chairman of the board, told WDIV-TV.
Chief Chester Logan also announced Commander James White will now serve as a deputy chief and the reassignment of deputy chiefs Morris Wells and James Tolbert. Both will continue being deputy chiefs but Wells will move from the bureau west patrol operations to the criminal investigations Bureau and Tolbert, who was deputy chief of administrative services, will now oversee bureau west patrol operations. . . .
The changes come weeks after chief Ralph Godbee Jr. retired in the wake of a sex scandal and Detroit Police internal affairs launched an investigation into unrelated allegations that supervisors failed to act two years ago when a lieutenant reported that officers might be working for a sex club that illegally sold alcohol two blocks from Central District headquarters.
