DETROIT – A former Detroit Fire Department dispatcher warned her family members, who were subjects in an unemployment fraud and bribery investigation, about an FBI raid and lied about it to federal agents, according to a criminal complaint.
Stephanie Steen was charged with making a false statement or representation to an agency of the United States. A criminal complaint filed against the former dispatcher was unsealed on Sept. 28, detailing the allegations.
Steen was a dispatcher and lieutenant for the Detroit Fire Department and had been with the department for more than 13 years. She retired in March. The fire and police departments share the same dispatch center at the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters.
Steen is accused of warning her sibling and mother about a search warrant that was scheduled to happen at their house on Turner Street in Detroit before police arrived in March 2025. When federal agents confronted her about the warrant leak, she allegedly denied her involvement.
Unemployment insurance fraud, bribery investigation
The FBI, Department of Labor, and other law enforcement agencies, including the Detroit Police Department, executed multiple federal search warrants in Metro Detroit on March 5, 2025, in connection with unemployment insurance fraud and bribery investigations.
One search warrant was planned for a home on Turner Street in Detroit at 4 a.m. because of the subject’s work schedule. The criminal complaint referred to the subject as C.B.
Law enforcement executed the search warrant as scheduled. Agents involved in the search warrant reported that lights were on at the home and people were inside, awake and moving around, before the search.
Federal authorities believe C.B. was aware of the planned search warrant based on their Facebook page and messages.
On March 6, FBI agents saw messages on C.B.’s publicly viewable Facebook page from March 5, shortly before executing the search warrant. The criminal complaint shows the following messages:
- 3:41 a.m. - “I’m setting up traps now so if anyone comes in this house unannounced that’s on them (three laughing emojis)”
- 3:42 a.m. - “I’m up I’ll be waiting (three laughing emojis)”
- 3:45 a.m. - “Let me call off now. Lawyer bail money and disconnect all the power before it’s to late I’m going to stand my ground (three laughing emojis)”
- 3:46 a.m. - “45 minutes and ticking. (laughing emoji)”
- 3:49 a.m. - “Move everything now you have 41 minutes everyone. Not sure all the locations but dance now.”
FBI agents looked through C.B.’s phone that was seized during the search warrant and found the following messages on Facebook Messenger, beginning at 3:36 a.m.
- C.B.: “They bout to raid my house at 4:30 bro”
- Friend of C.B.: “N**** why???”
- C.B.: “(three smiling emojis) I got connections there too ”
- Friend of C.B.: “Leave (two laughing emojis)”
- C.B.: “Idk probably someone called about that video”
- Friend of C.B.: “Omg”
- C.B.: “He a sex trafficking (three smiling emojis)”
- Friend of C.B.: “I told you not to share that (14 laughing emojis, one “100” emoji) "
- C.B.: “I’m setting traps now so they can hurt themselves”
- Friend of C.B.: “(five facepalm emojis) they gon check your phone too if they ever get it (seven laughing emojis)”
- C.B.: “(three smiling emojis) F*** them oil over the door Ice on the steps I’m gonna make sure they hurt themselves”
- Friend of C.B.: “So they bouta charge you with some s***?”
- C.B.: “Nope can’t probably looking for girls Hell they need to look in there own ranks I got them there too ”
‘Call for service’ in dispatch system tracked down
Detroit police told the FBI that on March 5, 2025, the police department’s “call for service” was entered into its dispatching system to execute the search warrant at the home on Turner Street.
A “call for service” is a Detroit Police dispatch request for police units to respond to a particular location. A call for service was created for the Turner Street search warrant so that the police department could provide a marked police car to help with the federal search warrant.
Records produced by T-Mobile in response to a federal grand jury subpoena showed that at 3:13 a.m., about three minutes after the call for service was created in the Detroit Police dispatch system, a phone call lasting 30 seconds was made from a phone number subscribed by Stephanie Steen to a phone number belonging to her mother, despite the number being subscribed to another relative.
After further investigation, federal authorities learned Steen is C.B.’s sister, and her mother lives with C.B. at the Turner Street home.
According to a Detroit Fire Department employee with personal knowledge of Steen’s role within the dispatch center, Steen worked her assigned shift from around 6 p.m. on March 4 until 6 a.m. on March 5.
About seven minutes after the call for service was created in the Detroit Police Department’s dispatch system, Steen’s unique username was allegedly used to view the call for service related to the search warrant at the home on Turner Street.
At around 3:17 a.m., Steen called the same phone number a second time, according to T-Mobile phone records; the call lasted about 2 minutes and 59 seconds. She then placed a third call at around 3:21 a.m., lasting around 62 seconds.
Steen placed another call to C.B., which federal investigators said was around the time C.B. began posting messages on his Facebook page.
At around 3:35 a.m., C.B. called the United Auto Workers Call-In Absence Line, and the call lasted about 7 minutes and 10 seconds. According to the FBI, C.B. was working at Stellantis in Warren at the time.
Steen called C.B. again at around 4 a.m., but it was unclear if the call went through.
Texts between Steen, her mother
FBI agents obtained Apple iCloud account information through a federal grand jury subpoena. On July 11, 2025, authorities executed a search warrant on Steen’s and her mother’s iCloud accounts and found several text message conversations.
Here’s a text conversation the criminal complaint showed:
- Steen: It suppose to start at 430
- Steen’s mother: Ok
- Steen: They will probably do it at 5 in the morning They probably come at 5 in the morning
- Steen’s mother: Do they knock the door down?
- Steen: Yes Sit on the porch at 445
- Steen’s mother: Ok
- Steen: They looking for a young boy Do everybody have they id
- Steen’s mother: Yes but they old
- Steen: So
- Steen’s mother: Ok
- Steen: Don’t tell them I told you
- Steen’s mother: I told cj not 2
- Steen: Where is Anthony
- Steen’s mother: Sleep
- Steen: Tell them you sitting on the porch waiting on uber eats
- Steen’s mother: [check mark emoji]
- Steen: They run through the house with gun
- Steen’s mother: Ok
- Steen: Is it lights in there
- Steen: I’m on the way [message sent at approximately 4:00 AM]
- Steen: The police will be there at 430 They outside I’m going to call you an ambulance
Steen denies search warrant leak
As part of a federal investigation into the search warrant leak, federal authorities interviewed Steen on Jan. 30, 2026. During the interview, Steen said she did not know about the search warrant at the house on Turner Street until after she left work for the day.
She was shown a police dispatch document showing the call for service that was created on March 5 regarding the home on Turner Street, which showed Steen’s sign-on name “STEENS121” in the log at the bottom of the page at 3:17 a.m.
The criminal complaint showed the following conversation that was said in the interview with Steen:
- Agent: Is that your login there? S...Steen S
- Steen: No it’s other people there with that name.
- Agent: With the last name of Steen?
- Steen: Yes sir.
- Agent: That’s not you?
- Steen: No sir it’s not.
- Agent: Okay who else there…
- Steen: I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know who else is there. I mean, I know like, when you. I know it’s other people there.
- Agent: Other people named...
- Steen: Steen.
- Agent: Named Steen, that, that would have access to dispatch...
- Steen: Yes.
- Agent: To calls for service...
- Steen: Yes.
- Agent: That can look into the system?
- Steen: Yes.
When asked whether STEENS121 was her username, she allegedly replied “no,” and later said she was out on medical leave for back issues and other issues when further questioned.
Agents showed Steen text messages between her and her mother. At the time, Steen said her mother was elderly, and it would be dangerous for anything to happen to her.
Agents confronted Steen about knowing about the search warrant, to which she replied, “I don’t remember anything back in March.” When agents pressed her further, she stated, “Nothing interfered with anything because you guys got…..nothing interfered.”
Agents told Steen the severity of disclosing law enforcement sensitive information before a search warrant is executed, and she replied, “I did not disclose any sensitive information.”
In February, the FBI and Detroit Police Department confirmed STEENS121 was assigned to Steen. The usernames are generated from employees’ last names and the last three digits of their pension number, making them uniquely assigned identifiers. Investigators also confirmed that no other personnel assigned to the Communications Division or any other division within the Detroit Fire Department carry the surnames “Steen” or “Stein,” with the sole exception of Lieutenant Steen.
“Based on evidence I described above - including DPD dispatch logs showing STEEN’s username reviewing the dispatch request to assist with the search warrant for C.B.’s residence that morning at 3:17AM, prior to the search warrant and while she was working at DFD, as well as her numerous text messages and calls that followed - I respectfully submit that there is probable cause to believe that STEEN was lying when (1) she denied that STEENS121 was her login name, and (2) claimed, in sum and substance, that she did not know about the search warrant until after she got off work,” the agent filing the criminal complaint stated.
Detroit Fire Department releases statement
The Detroit Fire Department released the following statement Tuesday morning regarding the federal investigation into Steen:
“The Detroit Fire Department is aware of the criminal complaint filed in federal court naming a former member of our Communications Division, who retired from the department March 27, 2026.
The department fully cooperated with the federal investigation and provided all requested assistance. As this is an ongoing criminal case, we defer any further comment to the investigating agency."
