The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is a veritable work-release program.
The board has not one… not two… but three ex-cons serving as civilian overseers of the Detroit Police Department.
Now I’m all for second changes. But six? Remember, these commissioners sit in judgement of the people who put them behind bars. The police.
I mean, you wouldn’t allow a troupe of pedophiles to work at a children’s circus, would you?
The vice-chair of the board, Darryl Woods, spent 29 years in the state penitentiary for first-degree murder. Gov. Rick Snyder granted him clemency in 2019 and Woods was appointed to the board in 2023 by then-Mayor Mike Duggan.
The second commissioner, Lavish T. Williams, has two convictions on his resume. One for shooting up a car with a guy in it, and another back in 2007 for running a chop shop. The man really likes tearing up cars, it seems. Williams is new to the board, elected last November when he ran unopposed in his district. He didn’t tell anybody about his priors, and nobody asked.
The third commissioner, Darious Morris, finds himself in the news for all the wrong reasons. He was also elected to the board in November, just nine months after he was released from probation for threatening to shoot a Warren cop during a traffic stop that had nothing to do with him. Body-camera footage shows Morris wearing a fake police badge that he purchased online.
Since nobody formally ran for the board to represent District 3, Morris ran as a write-in candidate. He garnered 518 votes. A total landslide. Morris never told anyone about his criminal history. And again, nobody asked.
Morris’s rap sheet doesn’t end there. He did time in 2009 after pleading guilty to forgery and impersonating a notary public.
In November 2021, Morris was caught playing dress-up again. That time he was pulled over by Detroit police officers who discovered Morris carrying a firearm and wearing a fake police chaplain’s badge. He tried to bullshit his way out of the felon-in-possession charge, but it didn’t work.
Morris must have delivered an inspired homily from the back of the squad car, because when Morris was hauled before the judge, his arresting officer was a no-show. Morris was kicked free and the charges were dropped.
That is, until Morris got elected police commissioner and was given a real badge. A nice badge. A golden badge. And the badge, it would seem, has gone to Morris’s head.
A few weeks ago, Commissioner Morris made a trip to the 9th Precinct on the city’s east side. The east side is a notoriously dangerous place, known by its macabre sobriquet: Zip Code 4820-DIE.
So when a real cop asked Morris to step through the precinct’s metal detector like every other nobody, Morris got butt hurt. Morris got angry. And naturally, Morris got on social media. He posted on Facebook personal information about the precinct commander and lieutenant.
That’s when the commissioner’s education into the Thin Blue Line began in earnest. Ross Jones of WXYZ got hold of the story. He rang-up Morris good, complete with an interrogation of Morris and an airing of all his prior body cam footage.
Then George Hunter of The Detroit News made inquiries to the Wayne County Prosecutor wondering why Morris’s gun charges were never reinstated? The prosecutor looked into it. And Morris was scared he was going back to prison. Until the prosecutor discovered that she could not reinstate the charges because the evidence—the handgun Morris was carrying that night—had since been melted down for scrap.
For his part, Commissioner Morris resigned from the board. Then Commissioner Morris abruptly un-resigned from the board.
And then, for whatever reason, Commissioner Morris called me. He said he wanted another interview. He said he wanted to set the record straight. So we set an appointment.
And then Morris ghosted me.
But I found him anyway, standing near the elevator shaft at police headquarters. Oddly, Morris was not wearing his nice, new golden badge.
Watch the video here:
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff
