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On the morning of May 21, the University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security forcibly removed the pro-Palestine encampment on the Diag. According to Ann Arbor Police Department dispatch records, the University called AAPD to request “a unit or two to help clear out” the encampment at 6:34 a.m.
The encampment sweep followed repeated instances of police violence against pro-Palestine protesters on campus, including during a sit-in at the Alexander G. Ruthven Building in November and a demonstration outside of the University of Michigan Museum of Art in early May.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, The Michigan Daily obtained body-worn camera footage from 15 officers who assisted DPSS in the sweep.
In one video, AAPD officers drive on State Street toward the Diag before running over a curb and parking on the grass. A police officer reports over the police scanner that the Diag is “stable.”
One officer in the car says to the other, “This is the best-case scenario, we’re leaving.” The other responds, “Now they’re just going to fucking walk through the city now.”
The officer with the body-worn camera says, “Oh shit — camera,” before the video cuts off.
Chris Page, AAPD strategic communications manager, wrote in an email to The Daily that the officer in the video did not violate AAPD policy.
“The officer was not taking enforcement and not interacting with anyone so there was not a policy violation,” Page wrote.
The fourth point in Article IV, Section A of AAPD’s body-worn camera policy states that should an active-duty officer deactivate their body-worn camera during a call for service, they must first “verbally indicate their reason” for doing so. Body-worn camera videos obtained by The Daily show AAPD officers directly violating this policy. The city of Ann Arbor allocated $900,000 for body-worn cameras and tasers in 2021, an investment Ann Arbor City Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1, said would “provide better safety and better transparency” in a June 2021 City Council meeting.
The Daily also requested DPSS’ body-worn camera footage and incident report from the morning of the encampment sweep. The University’s FOIA Office denied The Daily’s request, saying it would “(i)nterfere with law enforcement proceedings” and “(c)onstitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
As a result of the University’s denial, The Daily could not confirm if DPSS officers recorded the sweep using body-worn cameras or produced an incident report.
Between April and June, pro-Palestine student activists across the country set up more than 100 protest encampments demanding their colleges and universities divest from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Within weeks, protesters faced violent police sweeps that ended their encampments and resulted in mass arrests, including at Columbia University, The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Los Angeles.
The University of Michigan’s encampment was one of the longest lasting, remaining untouched by law enforcement for 30 days. In a statement released the morning of the encampment sweep, University President Santa Ono said the University decided to remove the encampment after a May 17 inspection by the U-M fire marshal, who declared it a safety hazard.
Videos of the encampment sweep posted to Instagram by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality show police using chemical spray on protesters, forcing them to wash their faces and eyes.
According to AAPD policy and procedural order 041-044, “(Body-worn cameras) allow for accurate documentation of police interactions in the public, to facilitate reviewing of use of force incidents and personnel complaints; and serve as evidence for investigative and prosecutorial purposes.”
If and when a body-worn camera is turned off during an active call for service, the officer must list the reason for deactivation in an incident report, as described in Article IV of the policy. Incident reports typically contain police officer narratives about the call for service they responded to and may contain documentation of why the body-worn cameras were deactivated or not activated at all.
The Daily requested AAPD’s incident report from the encampment sweep in a FOIA request but did not receive one. Page said responding officers did not produce an incident report because AAPD was acting as an assisting agency to DPSS.
Incident reports are best practice in policing, explained Jim Bueermann, president and founder of the Future Policing Institute. In an interview with The Daily, Bueermann said it is common for police officers to record what happened during a call for service, including by writing an incident report, in order to have documentation if the police department is sued. He added that an incident report is not necessarily a requirement or legal obligation.
The body-worn camera footage The Daily received features police officers patrolling around the Diag during and after the encampment was ended by law enforcement, mainly directing foot traffic for protesters. According to Page, AAPD did not clear protesters during the encampment sweep or make any arrests following the incident.
Another body-worn camera video obtained by The Daily features a conversation between two officers patrolling around the Diag in a police car. One officer says, “How do you feel right now? All amped up, right?”
The officer goes on to say they did not know why the University had called in AAPD to support DPSS officers during the encampment sweep.
“We don’t even know what the fuck’s going on, that’s why, these idiots — it needs to be one person telling them what’s going on,” the officer says. “Because you have two completely conflicting stories from (the University) right now. One of them’s like, ‘We’re being overtaken,’ and then, I’m like, ‘What are they overtaking? What are they overtaking?’”
The officer reaches for their body-worn camera and deactivates it, ending the footage.
Stefani Carter, chair of the Ann Arbor Independent Community Police Oversight Commission, confirmed in an email to The Daily that the commission is not currently looking into AAPD officers deactivating their cameras during the encampment sweep. Carter also wrote that the commission could treat The Daily’s email for comment as a complaint and initiate an investigation into the use or misuse of body-worn cameras by the AAPD.
“We can certainly accept your email as a complaint regarding use/misuse of (body-worn cameras) and pass that over to the Department for initial investigation,” Carter wrote. “After that investigation is complete, we will review the incidents and any facts as they are presented. I can assure you that ICPOC’s review will be thorough.”
In its mission statement, the ICPOC states that it hopes to “enhance communication and sharing of information between the AAPD and the community.” Former President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force — listed as a resource on the ICPOC website — says that correct use of body-worn cameras can “significantly reduce both officer use of force and complaints against officers.”
“When police officers are acutely aware that their behavior is being monitored (because they turn on the cameras) and when officers tell citizens that the cameras are recording their behavior, everyone behaves better,” the report reads.
Bueermann said he believes the public can no longer judge for themselves what transpired when body-worn cameras are deactivated or go unused, affecting trust and confidence in the police.
“The whole purpose of having body cameras on police officers is to record as accurately as technologically possible, in an unbiased way, what actually occurred in a contentious incident,” Bueermann said. “That’s why you record these things, to record what really occurred, to protect the officer and, in the case of police misconduct, to ultimately protect the citizens the police are paid to protect.”
Focal Point Managing Editor Sophia Lehrbaum can be reached at lehrbaum@umich.edu.
If you are a survivor on campus who’s faced challenges in reporting, if you’ve faced discrimination or if you have information on any issue relevant to Ann Arbor or the University of Michigan, please consider sending us your story. You can reach us at tipline@michigandaily.com. This is a private tip line viewable by a small team of reporters committed to this work.
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