Kym Worthy investigating after Detroit police officers found working without licenses

The Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney is investigating the cases of 34 Detroit police officers who were working without active law enforcement licenses.

The Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) reported in November that the Detroit Police Department violated state law by hiring several officers without activating their law enforcement licenses. The department placed the officers involved on administrative duty until their licenses are reinstated.

MCOLES Executive Director Tim Bourgeoise said Detroit Police have failed to request reactivations for some of their returning officers between 2019 and 2024. He noted that the number of officers whose licenses weren’t renewed is low, relative to the 2,500 officers working for DPD, but emphasized the importance of maintaining law enforcement regulations across the board.

“It’s concerning anytime any individual officer is working and is not properly licensed, because state law requires an individual to have an active law enforcement license,” he said.

Licenses for active officers are deactivated every time they change jobs, and must be reactivated for their new agencies. It’s illegal to work in the field otherwise. The rules require agencies to audit their rosters every January.

Darryl Woods, chair of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, says the error was due to a lapse in communication between DPD and the law enforcement commission, calling it an “administrative snafu.”

He said the department is making structural changes to prevent those mistakes in the future, primarily by streamlining hiring responsibilities to the human resources department.

“There were some miscommunications that occurred that led the department to understand that these officers were good to go,” Woods said. “I don’t want to get into the blame game…but you know MCOLES needs to make sure that their stuff is strengthened as well.”

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is examining the case in Detroit. Earlier this year, a deputy in Branch County was found working without an active license. That led to 57 civil infractions and three felonies being dismissed.

Branch County Prosecutor Zachary Stampien said there are specific tasks that are illegal for officers to perform without an active license, such as enforcing motor vehicle laws.

“All speeding tickets issued by him were technically issued without authority and void,” Stampien said. “You know, if there was a traffic stop that led to the discovery of drugs, that traffic stop would not have been legitimate, because a normal citizen cannot effectuate a traffic stop for speeding.”

Stampien added that search warrants carried out by the deputy were nullified as well.

“The search warrant said very plainly on the beginning of it, ‘I’m a peace officer of the State of Michigan. This is my training and experience.’ But because none of that was actually true, that would have been problematic if we pushed forward with the cases.”

In the Branch County case, citizens were allowed to claim refunds for any fines they paid. The same thing could happen in Detroit, Stampien says, but the process would likely be more complicated because of the higher number of cases involved.

Still, Stampien said an officer being unlicensed doesn’t necessarily invalidate all cases they worked on involving different crimes like shoplifting or homicide.

“It would really depend on the facts and circumstances of their investigation, and that’s what Ms. Worthy will have to really look at is, what does the lack of legal authority do for their investigation? Does it make their investigation illegal, or is it just a fact that we have to work around? And I think that’s what you’ll have to look at in each case.”

Worthy said she needs to collect more information before deciding how to proceed.