by Geralda Miller, Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) - A lapel pin the new police chief has asked police officers to wear has drawn criticism from the City Council president and some residents.
Detroit police Chief Jerry Oliver distributed the light blue button which reads “Mind’N Our Business” to various precincts this week, Sgt. Ricardo Moore said.
“The chief wants to build a positive image and a positive reputation for the city of Detroit,” Moore said. “The button `Mind’N Our Business’ is a means for police officers to be mindful of our business, which is policing.”
City Council President Maryann Mahaffey said a button that is grammatically incorrect, confusing and made by a company in Richmond, Va., delivers the wrong message about the city.
Oliver, who was the police chief in Richmond, started running the 4,175-officer Detroit department a month ago.
“We’re trying to present ourselves as an educated town and we are concerned with improving it and this button is grammatically incorrect,” Mahaffey said.
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was aware of pin and Oliver’s slogan, said spokesman Bob Berg.
“There are a lot more important issues to worry about in the city of Detroit and some folks apparently have way too much time on their hands,” Berg said.
Mahaffey said, in her first full week back to work after being hospitalized with asthma and pneumonia, she presented a copy of a memo she wrote to Oliver at a council committee meeting Thursday and has asked for a reply within a week.
Some of her questions to Oliver are:
-To whom does the “our” in the slogan refer?
-Whose “business” are the Detroit police officers “Mind’N?”
-Why put a pin with grammatically incorrect language on police officer’s uniforms?
-Are police officer subject to discipline if they refuse to wear the lapel pins?
-Why was money spent on lapel pins rather than addressing more pressing issues in the department?
“I look at it and I have lots of questions,” she said.
Ruth Seymour, who teaches grammar to journalism students at Wayne State University, said the apostrophe did not bother her but she was not “sure that the meaning is crystal clear to the residents on the street.”
“I think it’s unclear, and I think on first glance it suggests that we’re watching businesses instead of residents,” she said.
Her second thought about the slogan was that it separates the department from the community it wants to serve.
It says “I won’t get in your way if you don’t get in mine,” she said.
Moore said the department received about 40 calls from residents Thursday concerned about the button.
“They support the mission - the fresh air that the Detroit police department has taken,” he said. “But they feel that this slogan isn’t appropriate.”
Officers can choose to wear the button or not, he said.
The bid by the Richmond company was lower than two bids by Detroit companies, Moore said.
However, Mahaffey said she wants to know why a general bid did not go out alerting companies through business publications that there was potential business.
“City money can not be spent unless the council approves the contract,” she said. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything. I just want answers. I think we all deserve answers.”