'Significant racial disparities' found in use of force incidents by East Lansing police

EAST LANSING — East Lansing police demonstrated “significant racial disparities” in use-of-force incidents last year, according to an inaugural report that showed 56% of the 167 members of the public involved in such encounters was Black.

Furthermore, in a nine-month period between April 2022 and December 2022, African Americans comprised 34% to 38% of all individuals stopped, mainly for traffic stops, by East Lansing police.

The department in the campus town of about 50,000 residents has an African American population of about 7%, according to Census data that accounts for Michigan State University students who live in the city most of the time. MSU's student population was 6.5% Black in fall 2022, and East Lansing Public Schools' student population is 16% Black, as reported by MISchoolData.

Chris Root, vice chair of the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission, did not shy from the data when presenting the commission’s first annual report during City Council’s regular Tuesday session.

“ELPD officers used force against many more Black people than white people – 93 Black people compared to 61 white people,” Root said. “We had to count by hand 23 individuals who had force used against them when there was more than one person involved in the incident.”

“Had we not done this, 14% of the people against whom force was used (in 2022) would have been left out from the data. But counting by hand is not really a solution to data management over time.”

She recommended changes for recording data that would better analyze the number of incidents involving use of force, individual people subjected to use of force and individual officers using various types of force.

Police Capt. Chad Pride said police officials are declining to comment about the commission's report.

The report included an entire section on the April 25, 2022, shooting of DeAnthony VanAtten, a Black man, by police officers outside the Meijer store on Lake Lansing Road. The commission detailed media coverage and concluded "the incident at Meijer may have been preventable."

The shooting happened after officers responded to a report of a man with a gun at the Meijer store on Lake Lansing Road. A caller said she saw a man get out of a vehicle, run toward a store entrance, then return to the car to get a gun before running back to the store, according to information released by East Lansing police.

According to the commission's report, "bringing a gun into a store in Michigan is not a crime. The dispatcher did not suggest that immediate action was necessary. The police may have had time to respond in a more intelligent way, that is, to gather more information before taking action. The police might have used approaches that kept the situation under more control - to avoid sending officers into situations where thy might feel they need to shoot somebody."

Immediately after the shooting, East Lansing and Michigan State police agreed state troopers would manage the investigation.

"MSP then instructed the East Lansing officers not to submit their customary end-of-shift reports regarding the incident," the commission report said. "The instruction not to generate end-of-shift reports following the April 25th incident conflicts with the police department's policy (35-14) requiring officers to file end-of-shift reports whenever they use force during a work shift."

Ultimately, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel cleared Officers Jose Viera and Jim Menser of any wrongdoing. VanAtten awaits trial on felony charges that include four counts of assaulting or obstructing police and one count each of carrying a concealed weapon, receiving and concealing a stolen firearm and felony firearm possession. He also faces one count of third-degree retail fraud, a misdemeanor, the records indicate.

The commission wants to promote advocacy for laws governing how officer-involved shootings are conducted and review the Meijer incident to prevent similar incidents. It also recommends in the report that City Council specify by ordinance that police officers write end-of-shift reports describing their encounters with civilians and should not be relieved of that duty if an incident or officer becomes part of an investigation.

Mayor Ron Bacon, Interim City Manager Randy Talifarro and Councilmember Dana Watson – all African Americans – commended the commission’s work during City Council's Tuesday session.

"Me, as a Black mother, as a Black person, I want to see better," Watson said. "We deserve better. We exist here, too. I appreciate the work that our EL IPOC commissioners are doing.

"I also believe to this day that the Meijer incident would have been worse for our community if it wasn't for the EL IPOC commissioners being in place because, again, they represent diverse voices and they represent thoughts and feelings of our community. Our community had multiple places to go to process that day and express themselves as well.

Talifarro was concerned that distorting factors like certain events or certain addresses where people with known mental health problems reside might be driving the disparities.

According to the inaugural report, 24% of the 144 use-of-force incidents involved people experiencing a mental health crisis.

“Our police officers have a very very difficult job and have to make extremely tough decisions quickly and often without a full array of information," said Talifarro, a former Lansing and East Lansing fire chief. "Those of you that sit on that commission have a very, very difficult job.

“I really appreciate that your recommendations are some things that perhaps can be done immediately and be impactful. I encourage you to continue to offer feedback and oversight."

East Lansing created the commission in July 2021, a few months after the VanAtten shooting to increase accountability in the police department and build trust between the police department and the community.

That same year, in October, City Council appointed 11 commissioners, composed of a majority of minorities. According to the ordinance, no more than two of the commissioners can live outside East Lansing and none can be city or police employees.

The independent oversight commission is an advisory panel and has no decision-making authority. Any disciplinary decisions or changes in policy would be handled by the police department, city manager or the elected City Council.

The formal oversight commission was created after a temporary committee was established following protests over some high-profile excessive-use-of-force arrests in 2019.

"We've been working on this for several months," commission Chair Erick Williams told council members on Tuesday, also mentioning that he's been reviewing the U.S. Department of Justice's scathing Friday report of the Minneapolis Police Department's use of excessive force and practice of discrimination. "I was very impressed and glad to see that our complaint system in East Lansing is a lot better than what they had in Minneapolis.

"We've got a much more rational process. We can be proud of our ordinance and our process."

He said the police department gets about 10 complaints a year. Typically, recommendations spring from about half and the others require no action, he said.

Contact reporter Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 'Significant racial disparities' found in use of force incidents by East Lansing police