Eric Jones
Detroit's new fire commissioner is off to a good start with the rank and file.
Eric Jones has rescinded his predecessor's recommendation that Detroit firefighter William Harp be fired for talking to the media about faulty equipment.
Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker, who has done extensive reporting in the past year on problems plaguing the department, posts that Harp was harassed and intimidated for months after launching complaints that the fire administration was violating state and federal safety laws by forcing firefighters to use dangerous, outdated equipment and asbestos-tainted firehouses.
On Friday, the last day of Executive Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins’ career with the Fire Department, his administration filed three charges against Harp and recommended his termination.
His charges? Discrediting the Fire Department by “deliberately and maliciously” making statements to the media “to mislead and create fear in both citizens and other Fire Department personnel.”
What Harp actually did was bring attention to the fact that firefighters were forced to use uncertified air bottles in violation of state and federal safety laws. As a result, the city took the air bottles out of service and quickly tested them before returning the ones that passed inspections, making firefighters safer.
When Jones heard Friday about the charges against Harp, he quickly withdrew them, Neavling reports.
