Steve Dolunt on Investigating Kwame Kilpatrick

FAQs

• What happened after Steve Dolunt reported memos about Kwame Kilpatrick's staff?

  Dolunt said he combined the memos, about officers on Kilpatrick’s police staff and a party, into one memo and brought it to Gary Brown, who took it that night, he thinks, to the chief. About a week later Brown had been fired, and Dolunt was called to the chief’s office on a Saturday. That Monday he was denied access to his computer, and when he got it back some files were gone. He said he was transferred 12 times in two years.

• Does Steve Dolunt believe there was really a party at the Manoogian Mansion?

  Dolunt said he personally believes there was a party, while calling it conjecture. He said Mike Cox told him his investigation interviewed many people and not one said they were at the party, and that someone else told him the 911 calls were in order up to that date and scrambled after it.

• What does Steve Dolunt say went wrong in the supervisor's response when Officer McClain was shot?

  Dolunt said that when officers call for a supervisor, all the supervisor has to say is en route, set up a perimeter, stand by. He said that wasn’t said, and that if it had been, none of this probably would have happened. He said he was told that after shots were fired, Sergeant Kidd said nothing and was a block away, and it was his understanding none of those measures were taken. He said he doesn’t know the sergeant’s mindset.

• What's the difference between a "cop" and a "police officer," according to Dolunt?

  Dolunt said all cops are police officers, but not all police officers are cops. A police officer takes your report, gives you a card and moves on, doing what keeps the supervisor off their back. A cop delves deeper and goes looking for the suspect, and in a traffic stop is looking for drugs, a gun or whether you’re wanted. He said Officer McClain, who was killed that week, was a cop who went the extra mile.

• Does Steve Dolunt think Detroit is safer today than when he was on the force?

  Dolunt said he believes crime went down after Chief Craig arrived, though he would have to compare the stats with the population decrease. When he worked homicide, he said, the city had 500-plus homicides a year, about one and a half a day, versus 270 or 250 last year. He said some neighborhoods are really nice while in other parts people have given up, that he thinks Detroit is safer, and that the department needs to be bigger.