Saginaw City Council Questions State Police on Use of Force Incidents
Michigan State Police Captain Greg Morenko spoke at the Saginaw City Council meeting on April 3 on allegations of excessive use of force.
Members of the council were able to ask Morenko about recent charges against State Police troopers for use of excessive force and what Michigan State Police are doing to prevent future incidents. Councilwoman Monique Lamar-Sylvia pressed Morenko on alleged incidents of force being used against people of color in Saginaw, asking “is there something going on?”
Morenko responded, “I can tell you that training-wise, all of our people go through de-escalation training. We’re about to go through de-escalation 2.0, or round two of it. We all get implicit bias training continually, resiliency training is another one that we’re working on. We’ve started to review our defensive tactics policies. The (Tri-City) Post received legal training, because, obviously, that’s the root of professionalism: what we do has to be legal.”
Morenko says even without the data of which groups are being targeted by police in front of him, he won’t accept any unprofessional behavior from state troopers. Demographics are being tracked in the areas that state troopers are patrolling in so the disconnect between troopers and residents of color can be measured and accessed.
