Cmsr. Byrd, Frisked By Police, Pleads For Better Relations

Cmsr. Byrd, Frisked By Police, Pleads For Better Relations

By Glen Harris
(County Government Reporter)

A county commissioner, who was stopped and searched by Ann Arbor police as a possible bank robbery suspect, made a personal plea yesterday for better police-community relations.

Ann Arbor Cmsr. David R. Byrd told members of the Board of Commissioners’ Property Committee that the need for better police public relations was evidenced to him Monday in a very dramatic way. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my life,” Byrd said.

The commissioner, chairman of the Property Committee, said he was driving south on S. Industrial Highway Monday when he was forced to stop by a city patrol car. An officer then told him he fitted the description of a Flint bank holdup suspect, and he was asked for his driver’s license and identification, Byrd said.

Despite the fact Byrd said he had identification signed by Sheriff Douglas J. Harvey confirming that he was a county commissioner, plus proof that he was a Washtenaw Community College instructor, Byrd said he was forced to stand spread-eagled beside his car with his hands on top the car while he was searched for weapons.

“I support law enforcement and I won’t be filing any formal complaints against the officers, but that situation does dramatize the complaints I’ve heard about treatment by police,” he said. Byrd said the officer later admitted he had no real description of the holdup suspect, “and I suspect he was stopping every black who drove by.”

Byrd said during the questioning and search the officer conducted himself in such a way that he would have provoked many militant blacks. “You can’t tell me all the police officers in this city and this county act with humaneness. And these were Ann Arbor police; they’re supposed to be among the best in the country.”

“I’m telling you this to show you that while you may not have problems like this, there are a lot of people who do,” he told committee members.

Byrd urged immediate steps be taken to get a program started at the Southeast Michigan Regional Training Center that will help eliminate incidents such as the one that happened to him.

County Administrator K. Ross Childs said the county has received a federal grant to establish a police-community relations program at the training center, located at the County Service Center.

Deputy Police Chief Harold E. Olson, who handles the investigation of complaints against police filed with the city’s ombudsman, said yesterday a probe of Byrd’s charges is under way. He said the officers involved will be interviewed and an attempt will be made to obtain more detailed information on the incident from the commissioner. When his investigation is completed, he said, results will be turned over to Police Chief Walter E. Krasny for release to the public.