Paramilitary Tactics Backfire for Detroit's Top Cop

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Carlos Osorio / AP

Detroit chief of police Warren Evans, left, talks with officer George Moore on patrol in Detroit

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With at least one lawsuit filed against the police department in the wake of the May 16 shooting, Evans has remained out of public view in recent days, except for last Sunday's television interview in which he defended his department's paramilitary strategy. "No big city can do without a Special Response Team," he said, describing the SRT as "a specialized unit that's very well trained. Their job is to get into places where there's a significant potential for danger." So far, however, his department has refused to clarify its rules for deploying the squads — or the use of flash grenades. He declined to be interviewed for this article, and the department has not yet publicly commented on the lawsuit.

Adding fuel to the debate is the marriage of police work and show business. Detroit loathes its reputation for crime, but seems to have marketed itself as a fixture for crime-related reality-TV shows. The debate about the influence of TV cameras cuts two ways. On the one hand, cameras may provide a watchful eye and prevent abuse. But the presence of a video crew from the TV show The First 48 on the scene of Aiyana's shooting has prompted questions about whether the cameras incited police to become more aggressive.

The police chief compounded the issue by appearing in a promotional video for a prospective reality-TV show called The Chief. The video reportedly showed him standing in front of the abandoned Michigan Central Station holding a semiautomatic rifle. Mayor Bing said Monday that he has banned TV crews from Detroit police patrols.

Even in a city desensitized to violence, the mood is tense. "How do you think people are supposed to live on the streets when the police are violent like that? They're causing more problems, not solving them," says Gerald Evans (no relation to the police chief), 44, who claims he was attacked by several Detroit police gang-squad members without cause last March. Ron Scott, head of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, says his warnings to Bing and Evans that the paramilitary strategy may prove to be counterproductive "have fallen on deaf ears."

The police chief's next moves will be watched closely. "I don't think the chief is out there like some crazy guy who doesn't know what the hell he's doing," Bing told the News. "I think among the criminals that are out there, there is some fear about this chief and what he's attempting to do." The chief may have the criminals on the run, but now his job is to make sure the law-abiding residents of Detroit are standing behind him.

With reporting by Kristy Erdodi / Detroit

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