East Lansing officials have settled on a series of recommendations for preventing a repeat of last April's disturbances, including better methods for identifying police officers and communicating with MSU and the community.
On Tuesday, Deputy City Manager Jean Golden and police Chief Tom Wibert presented the East Lansing City Council with their reactions to 29 recommendations made by an independent review commission formed to investigate the incident. The council discussed the plans for about ten minutes at its Tuesday work session before accepting them without any significant objections.
Golden and Wibert said they are committed to making a number of concrete changes in the city's preparation, communication and police policies.
City staff said they will publish and distribute the plans to increase their visibility, but no plan for doing so was outlined.
"There's an assumption out there that we haven't done anything but talk about this," Mayor Sam Singh said. "We should distribute this wide and far."
Officials have said they plan to implement the majority of the 29 recommendations, although a number of key decisions still haven't been made— particularly whether the city or university will sponsor some kind of celebratory event this April.
Residents can expect to see a significant difference in the police presence at future "celebratory events," officials said.
All officers will wear Velcro-attached numbers on their uniforms to ensure they can be easily identified, and a videographer will accompany each platoon to document events.
"Any time chemical munitions are fired, it will be on videotape," Golden said, adding the police department will be "beefing up" their audio and video equipment.
In response to the complaint that many people never heard warnings to disperse last April before tear gas was released, the police intend to make repeated, regular warnings through loudspeakers in multiple locations.
Wibert is working with partner agencies to create a unified command structure and a standard policy for the use of force, and told council members he is confident those goals will be accomplished. Officers from all agencies will be briefed on the agreed procedures ahead of time, as Wibert said, "to make sure we're all singing out of the same hymn book."
Wibert said he wants to take a "softer" approach this year, waiting to dispatch officers in riot gear until they become necessary.
"It's important that we not appear that we're looking for a fight," he said. "If people never see an officer wearing a helmet this year, that would be a successful conclusion."
The city will also take steps to improve the communication of expectations and consequences ahead of time, using a variety of methods such as television and radio announcements, fact sheets or mass e-mails to students to get the message out.
"The goal is to be as transparent as possible," Golden said.
City officials want to strengthen their involvement in MSU's Celebrations Committee — which discusses and prepares for celebratory events — by requesting Golden be named a co-chairperson and several neighborhood representatives be added to the committee.
"We're completely open to having more people involved in the committee," said Ginny Haas, MSU's director of community relations and a member of the Celebrations Committee. "We've never considered this an exclusive MSU committee."
