Detroit police chief quits amid probe of gun

Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver, who came to Detroit 21 months ago promoting himself as a reformer for a troubled department, resigned Friday amid a scandal over a handgun and the possibility of criminal charges.

Oliver, standing next to his wife, Felicia, and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Friday afternoon, said his legal troubles had become a sideshow and were holding back the city.

"I'm a public servant," he said. "I'm here to serve the public and when it gets to be a sideshow I think it's important that the team becomes more important than any single individual.

"As an individual who was the focus of all these rumors and innuendo, I felt it was best that I approach the mayor and ask him to allow me to step aside."

Kilpatrick stood with a pained look on his face at the news conference, and said he doesn't know who will become interim chief. He said a decision will be made early next week. Many top officers say that Assistant Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings will take over the department permanently, becoming Detroit's first female chief.

Oliver became the focus of a criminal investigation by Wayne County prosecutors after an Oct. 18 incident in which federal authorities found a loaded, .25-caliber handgun in his baggage at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Oliver, 56, did not declare the weapon as required before checking the baggage for the Northwest Airlines flight to Philadelphia, where he was heading for a police chiefs conference.

The prosecutor's office received a warrant request from Metro Airport police Oct. 20 and is considering whether the chief should be criminally charged for failing to register the handgun in Michigan. Oliver was fined $300 by the federal Transportation Security Administration for not declaring the gun.

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan said he plans to announce a decision next week.

Unwanted attention
Oliver and Kilpatrick declined to comment Friday on the gun incident. But the chief said the attention surrounding the matter became overwhelming.

"The past two weeks have been extremely difficult and painful," he said. "Whatever mistakes I've made have sparked controversy in the press and given fuel to rumors and questions that question my integrity and my stature in this profession."

Setting aside the past two weeks, Oliver said heading the Detroit Police Department has been his greatest challenge in 32 years of law enforcement.

Kilpatrick said Oliver should leave feeling that he accomplished great changes. Oliver reorganized the police administration, tightened disciplinary procedures for officers and oversaw the first revision of a policy manual in 30 years.

Major crimes, particularly homicides, decreased under Oliver. He took on the police unions with a no-nonsense, unforgiving approach to punishing officers charged with crimes.

It was that zero-tolerance policy that eventually spelled the end for Oliver.

Difficulties inevitable
Kilpatrick said he always knew Oliver would be in for a tough fight in his reform efforts.

"When you're driving change and when you want revolutionary change in the department and demand the best out of everyone, you also have to make sure you surround yourself and armor yourself," Kilpatrick said. "Because the wolves and the sharks are going to be organized as well."

Oliver helped usher in the federal government, which is overseeing the department for five years as part of a court-ordered consent decree. The department must revamp its lethal force policies and prisoner care.

"I think it's mission accomplished, and I don't want him to leave here thinking he did anything less than that," Kilpatrick said.

The mayor cautioned: "This is a change in leadership, this is not a change in direction. We will continue the direction we're on. We will continue the strong disciplinary standards."

Oliver said later he has no immediate plans to leave the city and the home he recently purchased in northwest Detroit. He and his wife have three young sons.

"We've invested a significant amount in upgrading our house and we plan to be here," Oliver said. "We're just going to have to rethink what we're going to do here. The public life is very brutal and it's extremely inconsiderate of family."

Tough beginning
Detroit Police Commissioner Megan Norris said many of the department's 4,000 officers never gave Oliver a chance when he arrived in February 2002. Oliver immediately began suspending officers charged with misdemeanors without pay, which put him at odds with the police unions, which complained that past practices prevented that form of discipline.

Oliver's disputes with the unions landed in court. He canceled the promotions of all eligible officers and sergeants last year after a judge ruled that he couldn't hold back 10 of them because of their disciplinary histories.

Unions also bickered with the chief about contract language and the definition of "egregious behavior" by an officer.

Sgt. James Gawlowski, president of the Detroit Police Lieutenants and Sergeants Association, said he wouldn't kick Oliver when he was down.

"We wish him well," Gawlowski said. "Anyone who is chief of this department needs to be competent and understand how the department works."

"I think it's a big loss for the city and the department," Norris said. "From the moment of his arrival, the chief had people openly rooting against him and he hadn't been given a lot of room to make any kind of errors."

The anti-Oliver sentiment grew so large that Police Officer John Bennett posted a Web site dedicated to ridding the city of the chief at www.firejerryo.com. Oliver suspended Bennett this summer, claiming the site had gotten out of control.

Minutes after the departure announcement, Bennett, who is still suspended without pay, already had posted celebratory messages that Oliver was out.

Still, Oliver said he would stay around for a while to help Kilpatrick in the transition in new leadership. He was vague about what that entails.

"Given that this is so sudden and because I deeply care about the department and its well-being, I have promised the mayor I will assist in the leadership transition," he said.