Post by KC on May 17, 2006 19:46:30 GMT -5
May 17, 2006 - DETROIT -- The city pays nearly $120,000 a month, plus hotel, travel and meal expenses, for a team of monitors tracking how Detroit implements a federal decree aimed at cleaning up its Police Department.
According to invoices obtained by The Detroit News, the bill from the monitors, New York City-based Kroll Risk Associates, totaled $3.95 million from June 2003 to this past February. But the monthly monitoring invoices, about $1.4 million annually, are a fraction of the financial burden forced onto the city as part of the settlement.
Altogether, the city has paid more than $10 million and plans to spend at least $55 million more to comply with the decree, to which it agreed after a federal probe of the department. That sum includes updating or getting a new police holding cell by mid-July.
"It's a lot of money," department spokesman James Tate said Tuesday.
About 30 Police Department employees are assigned to ensure the consent decree is enforced, he said.
Despite the money and manpower, Kroll continues to give the department failing marks on its progress.
In its most recent report, covering Dec. 5 through Feb. 6, the monitoring team found the department had corrected just nine of 79 areas targeted for improvement.
"They're just slugging us," Tate said, but added that on some areas, the department had fulfilled 93 percent of the objectives. "They want 94 percent."
Tate said the department's success in improving its policies is evidenced by the fact no prisoner has died in custody during the past two years.
Still, the city was criticized for lacking policies on how to report officer misconduct or guidelines to ensure prisoner safety.
The department received kudos for eliminating officer discipline backlogs, implementing a smoking policy and improving the way it runs holding cells.
Police officials did not return phone calls seeking more detailed comment. Kroll spokeswoman Jodie Rosenblume said the company does not comment on its cases or clients.
The city agreed to pay the monitoring cost as part of a deal with the U.S. Justice Department in June 2003 that ended a 30-month federal investigation that found widespread problems in the way officers used force, detained prisoners and questioned witnesses.
As part of the contract, Detroit also must pay the expenses of the monitors, most of whom are based in Washington. In response to a Freedom of Information Act Request, the city supplied limited records of the expenses filed by the monitors.
The highest expenses were filed in December 2003, when seven monitors asked to be reimbursed for $15,808. That tally included $7,955 for books and periodicals, which includes online data services; $1,210 for meals; $2,196 for air travel; and $805.75 for phone bills.
According to invoices obtained by The Detroit News, the bill from the monitors, New York City-based Kroll Risk Associates, totaled $3.95 million from June 2003 to this past February. But the monthly monitoring invoices, about $1.4 million annually, are a fraction of the financial burden forced onto the city as part of the settlement.
Altogether, the city has paid more than $10 million and plans to spend at least $55 million more to comply with the decree, to which it agreed after a federal probe of the department. That sum includes updating or getting a new police holding cell by mid-July.
"It's a lot of money," department spokesman James Tate said Tuesday.
About 30 Police Department employees are assigned to ensure the consent decree is enforced, he said.
Despite the money and manpower, Kroll continues to give the department failing marks on its progress.
In its most recent report, covering Dec. 5 through Feb. 6, the monitoring team found the department had corrected just nine of 79 areas targeted for improvement.
"They're just slugging us," Tate said, but added that on some areas, the department had fulfilled 93 percent of the objectives. "They want 94 percent."
Tate said the department's success in improving its policies is evidenced by the fact no prisoner has died in custody during the past two years.
Still, the city was criticized for lacking policies on how to report officer misconduct or guidelines to ensure prisoner safety.
The department received kudos for eliminating officer discipline backlogs, implementing a smoking policy and improving the way it runs holding cells.
Police officials did not return phone calls seeking more detailed comment. Kroll spokeswoman Jodie Rosenblume said the company does not comment on its cases or clients.
The city agreed to pay the monitoring cost as part of a deal with the U.S. Justice Department in June 2003 that ended a 30-month federal investigation that found widespread problems in the way officers used force, detained prisoners and questioned witnesses.
As part of the contract, Detroit also must pay the expenses of the monitors, most of whom are based in Washington. In response to a Freedom of Information Act Request, the city supplied limited records of the expenses filed by the monitors.
The highest expenses were filed in December 2003, when seven monitors asked to be reimbursed for $15,808. That tally included $7,955 for books and periodicals, which includes online data services; $1,210 for meals; $2,196 for air travel; and $805.75 for phone bills.