Farmington Hills Police Chief Jeff King asked for forgiveness after revealing that the department used images of Black men as targets at its shooting range.
WXYZ Detroit reported residents of the area said the images were discovered during a Boy Scout troop’s visit to the Farmington Hills Police Department (FHPD) headquarters.
“I’ll take this one on the chin. I apologize to each and every person in this room, this community, my department, my city council, my city manager; I can’t overlook this,” King said at a city council meeting on June 27.
Farmington Hills Mayor Vicki Barnett assured the community that all the targets inside the shooting range, located in the basement of FHPD’s building, have since been removed. The city also planned to conduct a legal review and see how other police departments trained their officers.
Councilman Michael Bridges said that twenty percent of Farmington Hills’ demographic is African American. As such, he expressed that images of silhouettes would have been “most appropriate” than using actual pictures of Black people.
“Silhouette would have been most appropriate; I don’t see a good reason to use those targets, I don’t really at all,” Bridges said.
However, Farmington Hills police officer Kevin Clark insisted that the department used a diverse range of targets, including Black, white, and gray tones, to prevent bias.
“I have never been trained to shoot at any particular race, gender, age, or anything of this nature,” Clark said.
Councilmember Ken Massey revealed that 185 of 2,300 images used in shooting practice are Black men.
An attendee of the council meeting noted that the disturbing discovery at FHPD could’ve motivated other police departments in the city to possibly evaluate their own shooting practices.
“I’m sure all the other cities in this area and the cities that heard this story went downstairs in their basement to check what their dummies looked like; that’s the good thing that comes out of this story,” he said.
