Detroit police chief announces retirement effective June 1
DETROIT (AP) — Detroit police Chief James Craig announced Monday that he will retire as head of the city’s police force, but he did not immediately reveal his future plans, which could include a run for political office.
Craig, who has had the longest tenure of any recent Detroit police chief, said his retirement is effective June 1 and is voluntary.
The Detroit native was hired in 2013 by an emergency manager after the state assumed control of the financially broken city. Craig, who is Black, immediately set out to restore residents’ confidence in the Detroit Police Department, which had a history of civil rights abuses by officers against the city’s mostly Black population.
Mayor Mike Duggan told reporters that Craig has “brought professionalism to the department.”
Some Republicans have said they hope Craig challenges Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022. Craig said he is a Republican but that he has not made a decision about seeking political office.
“I’m not ruling it out,” he added.
Detroit has had about a dozen police chiefs since the early 1990s and five in the previous five years before Craig was hired. Several were forced out amid allegations of wrongdoing.
Before taking the Detroit job, Craig was Cincinnati’s chief starting in 2011 after being hired in 2009 to lead the Portland, Maine, Police Department. Craig served 28 years in Los Angeles after starting his police career as an officer in Detroit in 1977.
Craig, 64, has railed against the numbers of illegal guns on Detroit streets while being an outspoken proponent of the Second Amendment. Following a number of justifiable shootings or those done in self-defense, Craig said in 2014 that Detroit residents had the right to arm themselves as a form of protection.
Michigan set to begin public hearings on redistricting
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s new redistricting commission is set to begin taking public comment as it weighs how to draw lines for 13 congressional and 148 legislative seats that will last for a decade.
The series of 16 hearings will start Tuesday in Jackson and end July 1 in Grand Rapids.
The panel — which has four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents — will create maps instead of the Legislature after voters’ approval of an anti-political gerrymandering constitutional amendment in 2018.
“The new redistricting process ensures that redistricting occurs in an open and transparent manner with the opportunity for statewide participation. Communities of interest for the first time are going to have a voice to prevent gerrymandering and to prevent the division of neighborhoods for partisan gain, which can harm communities,” said Rebecca Szetela, vice-chair of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The panel, voting advocates and other groups are encouraging residents to participate in the process, contending that the public had no meaningful opportunity to do so when lawmakers led efforts in recent decades. People can testify in person or virtually at the hearings or submit their thoughts separately online or by mail.
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