Amid controversy around recent East Lansing police actions and calls for ELPD Chief Jen Brown to resign or be removed, the East Lansing City Council passed amendments that weaken the powers of the city’s police oversight commission.
The ordinance amendments were presented in August as a way to pull the oversight commission into compliance with an administrative law judge’s ruling and the collective bargaining agreement the city reached with a union representing ELPD patrol officers. Changes to accommodate the bargaining agreement have been in place since the spring, but they were officially installed in the ordinance at this week’s council meeting.
For months, commissioners have said that some of the ordinance changes go beyond what is required in the text of the agreement and judge’s ruling, and changes hurt police accountability and transparency…