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What exactly do taxpayers receive for their dollar when the Justice Department assigns a federal monitor to oversee police reforms? In Detroit the answer is murky at best. Detroit officials recently released 1,100 pages of fees and expenses for ex-Detroit Police federal monitor Sheryl Robinson Wood and her staff. The money was allegedly spent to oversee mandated reforms since 2003. But there is little information to be gleaned by scouring the pages in terms of where funds went, for what and who spent them.
For instance there were no receipts to justify the reimbursements for air travel, lodging, meals, ground transportation or parking. Wood submitted "summaries," as opposed to receipts. If Wood's expenditures are murky, the spending of her staff is a total mystery as the documents fail to show how many hours Wood's team members worked or what they did. "She never had to itemize her services," said one person familiar with Wood's billings to the Detroit Free Press.
This person, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, was critical of the government for not demanding specifics. The Free Press requested the documents after U.S. District Judge Julian Cook, forced Wood to resign after he concluded that she had an inappropriate relationship with ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Judge Cook is now overseeing the reform efforts previously assigned to Woods. Critics say there's no "smoking gun" here but rather a pattern of questionable spending and a total failure to keep the books. For instance Woods spent $852.65 on "office supplies."
Another $840.40 went for a single airplane trip. Based on the vague nature of her expense reporting, some Detroit city officials have called for a review of the more than $13 million paid out to her group during the six years she oversaw court-ordered reforms in the department. Detroit entered into the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice in June 2003 to avert a civil rights lawsuit over questionable shootings, illegal dragnet arrests of potential homicide witnesses and mistreatment of prisoners in lockups.
The original deal with the Justice Department required the city to "bear all reasonable fees and costs of the monitor." But the agreement didn't spell out any level of detail the monitor was to provide in expense reports. Gerald Chaleff, a civilian employee with the Los Angeles Police Department, who oversaw the LAPD's consent decree from 2003 to its conclusion this year, said the handling of expenses depends on what the contract requires of the monitor. "You can't blame somebody for something that's not required," he told the Free Press.
But one city official familiar with the federal oversight of the Police Department said there were no surprises in the documents the Free Press received Thursday. "At every turn, she refused to provide the detail that we wanted," the official, who asked not to be named because the official is not authorized to speak about the case told the Free Press. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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