A Detroit police officer is facing criminal charges after prosecutors say he helped himself to a woman’s explicit photos and videos while she was under arrest, sending the files from her cellphone straight to his own number. The accusations are fueling fresh anxiety inside the department and in the neighborhoods it patrols about what really happens to detainees’ phones once they are in handcuffs.
Derond Martez Crawford, a five-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, was arraigned Friday and charged with using a computer to commit a crime and interfering with electronic communications. A judge set a $100,000 personal bond, according to Metro Detroit News. Prosecutors told the court the alleged abuse of the phone followed a traffic stop that ended with the woman arrested on a probation violation and taken to the city’s detention center.
Michigan law separately criminalizes using a computer or similar device to commit another crime. The computer-use statute, MCL 752.796, treats phones and other electronic devices as covered tools and can add penalties on top of the underlying offense. The legislature’s text and related case law make clear that prosecutors can pursue the computer-use enhancement when digital communication is used to help carry out other crimes, according to the Michigan Legislature…