GM suspends arrest powers for contracted private security force at Renaissance Center

General Motors has suspended the arrest powers for a private security police force the automaker contracts with after the Free Press reported its white officers were accused of harassing and abusing Black visitors at Detroit's iconic Renaissance Center for over a decade, a company official confirmed Thursday.

Officers can no longer carry handcuffs, according to Kevin Kelly, a spokesperson for GM. The number of officers allowed to carry guns has also been reduced, although some still carry weapons for protection against dangers like active shooters, he said.

“This was an immediate step” based on the company's ongoing internal investigation, Kelly said Thursday. "It was a specific request we made to them … that we require them to abide by."

More: Lawsuits: White officers at RenCen have harassed, assaulted Black visitors for years

The accusations, which date back as far as 2011, were first reported by the Free Press in November. Several federal lawsuits allege a pattern of white officers assaulting, targeting, harassing and unlawfully detaining Black people in a basement cell of the RenCen that has gone unchecked for years.

That includes one man who said white officers assaulted him so severely he suffered a brain injury, according to a federal lawsuit he filed in early 2023. He was detained in a basement cell for hours, denied use of a restroom, and was forced to urinate on himself, the lawsuit alleges. He was never charged with a crime.

It's the latest action General Motors is taking against Renaissance Center Management Co., the private security force that was created by the company to patrol Detroit's iconic riverfront RenCen. GM contracts with G4S to provide the security services through the company, according to court records.

The company previously kicked white officers named in the lawsuits off its Detroit properties and mandated racial sensitivity and de-escalation training for officers a day after the Free Press' investigation was published.

The private security force is majority-owned by G4S Secure Solutions, an international security company based in Florida, according to court documents filed in 2022. Allied Universal acquired G4S in April 2021. GM, G4S and RCMC have each been named in various lawsuits.

A General Motors spokesperson previously said company officials were "disturbed" by the allegations and have "zero tolerance for harassment or discrimination."

Allied Universal and attorneys representing G4S and RCMC did not immediately respond to a requests Thursday for comment.

"Allied Universal has zero tolerance for discrimination and use of force of any kind," the security company said in a previous statement in November. "We were shocked and appalled upon learning of the incidents taking place at the Renaissance Center."

Renaissance Center Management Co. has a state license to operate as a private security police agency through the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards under Public Act 330, giving its officers the legal authority to carry weapons and make misdemeanor arrests.

Separate investigations by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) and Michigan State Police are ongoing.

"I was always praying that they got all of them — every last one of them," said one Black woman on Thursday who sued the security company late last year.

The woman, who the Free Press is not naming for her safety, has said a white private security officer struck her in the face and beat her following an argument over whether she could bring her bike inside the RenCen in August 2023.

The woman, 61, suffers from mental illness and needed to be hospitalized for a month after the alleged assault, she told the Free Press.

"They need to go to jail. Then they’ll know how it feels to have handcuffs on and feel helpless," the woman said Thursday. “I felt like I was losing my life, getting beat like that.”

Video reviewed by the Free Press shows the security officer slamming the woman into a concrete pillar before forcing her to the ground and punching her in the face repeatedly while on top of her. There is no audio in the video.

A Detroit Police Department official has said that the woman allegedly attacked a Renaissance Center officer with a tree branch. A court check found that no criminal charges have been filed against her as of late last year.

Kelly said Thursday that the company has requested additional support from the Detroit Police Department after the company suspended the private security force's arrest powers over the holidays.

The Detroit Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Kelly confirmed on Thursday that officers have completed mandated trainings.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at 313-264-0442 or asahouri@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM suspends arrest powers for private security force