East Lansing City Council

On May 12, during budget discussions for the 2027 fiscal year, East Lansing City Council amended proposed budget cuts to the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC), who oversee incidents involving human rights concerns and police brutality in the area.

The agenda item report explained that “these costs have been budget for previous years and not expended.”

After proposing to gut ELIPOC’s budget by $42,000 on April 28, the city council approved adding $6,000 back into it for their annual use-of-force analysis, which uses reports from the East Lansing Police Department. The city council also amended the Human Rights Commission budget to return the total of $2,000 in proposed cuts to their budget.

On June 16, the city council unanimously approved amendments stripping the HRC of their investigative powers — despite commissioners and community members calling for the vote to be delayed. Lead City Attorney Carlito Young said that the 60-year ordinance unlawfully bestowed the HRC with judicial powers, and that since the city council doesn’t possess such power, it cannot be extended to its commissions. Notably, the revisions protect the city and all of its departments and officials from any complaints filed against them by the HRC.

While the city council cited the need to comply with state laws, some viewed the amendment adoption as “rushed.” The revisions came soon after the HRC issued corrective actions to the city on May 27 for a 2025 Michigan State University Welcome Week pepper spray incident.

The city council also unanimously approved a proposal from the East Lansing Police Department to implement Municipal Parking Services (MPS) SafetySticks to curb illegal parking on July 21. The sticks use a 24/7 high-definition motion detection camera system and radar vehicle detection to read and capture images of license plates of vehicles that are parked in a zone for longer than 90 seconds. The sticks will be active in various no parking zones downtown pending state court approval.

East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC)

Previously, ELIPOC commissioners were able to view police body-worn camera and Fleet footage using a secure password-protected drop-box.

In May 2024, ELPD then-interim Police Chief Chad Pride told ELIPOC that they needed to come to the police department to view footage after consulting with a city attorney. Since, the commission has been attempting to work out a new footage viewing agreement, since the new rule places significant logistical strains on their ability to review incidents. ELPD now offers that commissioners view footage at City Hall instead, but the commission plans to discuss the agreement further at their Sept. 2 meeting.

The commission has also voiced concerns about the data included in ELPD’s use-of-force reports, which ELIPOC uses to create its annual reports. The ELIPOC use-of-force subcommittee is currently drafting their 2025 report, and have found at least four different “formats” ELPD used for recording their data. Some reports now omit certain incident descriptions that were typically included; commissioners pointed out that the April and May 2026 reports omitted officers' race and gender. ELIPOC said this information is crucial to its use-of-force reports, which they plan to provide updates about at their Sept. 2 meeting.

Human Rights Commission (HRC)

The HRC issued corrective actions to the city for a 2025 MSU Welcome Week pepper spray incident at their May 27 meeting. The action advocated that the city pays the two young men involved $50,000 each for reputational harm and other damages, and that the city covers any ongoing medical, psychological and legal costs.

HRC has been discussing the “sweeping structural changes” to its ordinance that were passed by the city council on June 16. Under the new ordinance, commissioners have concerns that submitting a complaint through the HRC may harm some individuals’ cases due to time constraints on reporting to bodies like the Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR), which requires that cases be submitted to them no more than 180 days after the alleged incident occurred. 

Notable use-of-force incidents

On May 15, ELPD released the body-worn and Fleet camera footage from the officer-involved shooting of MSU senior Isaiah Kirby after continued calls for transparency from the NAACP and community members. The fatal officer-involved shooting originally occurred on April 15 when officers responded to reports of retail fraud at Marco’s Pizza and the alleged stabbing of Douglas Mielock in a parking lot near Abbot and Lake Lansing Roads. 

The Kirby case moved to the Michigan Attorney General’s office for independent review on June 2.

A young woman, Myana Collins, was detained by police outside of Harper’s Restaurant and Brew Pub on Aug. 2. A bystander recorded and circulated a video on social media, renewing scrutiny of ELPD’s use-of-force policy and calls for Police Chief Jennifer Brown to resign or be removed from her position.

Other East Lansing news you missed

On May 9, an apartment fire ensued at The Village at Chandler Crossings Apartment Building 9, displacing a total of 46 residents across 12 apartment units, many of them students at MSU. The fire originated from the "careless discarding of smoking materials which traveled through the attic area," according to authorities. 

Xin Tong, who was charged with possessing chemicals used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine at Wells Hall in April, was referred by the 54-B District Court for a competency exam on June 5. On Aug. 14, Judge Lisa Babcock said that although the competency exam report found that Tong was incompetent to stand trial, he is “likely to attain competence.”

Tong, 31, faces felony criminal charges for malicious destruction of a building over $20,000 and operating or maintaining a lab involving methamphetamine. His competency review hearing is scheduled for Nov. 13 with Judge Hennessey Greenwalt.