Detroit Police Resist Policy Requiring Pat-Downs At Lockup: 'It's A Slap In The Face'
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A policy requiring officers to be frisked before entering the state-run Detroit Detention Center has been met with resistance from the city's police force.
Formerly the Mound Correctional Facility, the detention center is where Detroit officers take criminal suspects to await arraignment. Prior to a 2013 agreement between the state and city to house detainees at the former state prison, police took them to precinct lockups.
Assistant Detroit police Chief Steve Dolunt said at a recent meeting of police officials that being frisked is "a slap in the face."
"We're the cops," he said. "We shouldn't have to submit to being frisked."
Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz told The Detroit News that changes to the search policy happened in June and enforcement started just recently.
"We run tight prisons in Michigan so we have to have tight controls of our gates," he said.
Gautz told the newspaper that anyone who enters the facility either goes through a metal detector or is patted down, and officers aren't exempt.
"We don't ask the officers to go through the detector because they have a lot of things on their belts like handcuffs that would set it off, and it would be too cumbersome to have them remove them," he said. "So what we've said is either do the (metal) wand or the pat-down. They have not been amenable to that."
Officials are expected to discuss the issue on Tuesday.
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