SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – The Southfield Police Department is launching a number of new initiatives under its new chief.
Chief Elvin Barren grew up in the city of Detroit, served in the Navy, and served as the deputy chief for the Detroit Police Department. Now, he’s the new chief for the Southfield Police Department.
“This police department will continue to be a community-focused policing department,” Barren said.
In five months, Barren has launched several initiatives surrounding opioid addiction, traffic enforcement and mentoring the youth.
“In January, we’re having a mandatory training related to mental illness and mental awareness for our police officers. We’re also adding diversity training for our officers, and cultural awareness training for our officers. It’s important for us to understand these cultures because we’re responding to their homes. We’re responding to their businesses,” Barren said.
Next spring, the department will be adding body cameras.
“With body cameras, we’ll be able to show what happened, be very clear in our response to the encounter. They [body cameras] bring transparency. They set the tone for police officer behavior and citizen behavior when they encounter officers,” Barren said.
Barren said the patrol cars are all equipped with dashcams right now, and the cameras have been utilized.
“I had a citizen’s complaint. The complaint was that the officer’s conduct was inappropriate. I was able to review the encounter and saw quite the opposite. We’re also able to hold members accountable if we venture down a path of unprofessional behavior, and change those behaviors so it goes both ways,” Barren said.
The department has been testing body cameras in preparation of the launch next March or April. The city of Southfield has already budgeted for the cameras. Every officer will be issued a body camera, including Barren.
“The body cameras will help us show that we acted appropriately or if we acted inappropriately, how can we do better? We were testing the body cameras for durability, functionality and also how the officers feel with the mounting of the device,” Barren said.
Officer Jordan Woodside believes the body cameras will be a good tool.
“A lot of times, things go kind of haywire, and you forget necessarily what exactly happened, and it’ll be good to have that resource to refer back to,” Woodside said.
The department will eventually look into obtaining grants for the sustainability of the body cameras.