Detroit police chief now says he won't fire officers who called Border Patrol

DETROIT (FOX 2) - After the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) voted to suspend two officers without pay for violating department policy by calling Border Patrol, Chief Todd Bettison said he will not move to have them terminated.

During last week's BOPC meeting, Bettison requested that the board suspend the officers without pay, and said that he intended to fire them. However, on Friday, he said he was satisfied with the BOPC's decision to suspend the officers for 30 days without pay and will no longer pursue termination.

"I support the actions of the board as the ultimate discipline for these officers. The Board had the opportunity to review all the video and consider all the facts and circumstances in their decision," Bettison said in a statement. "The role of the Board is to serve as an oversight body and a check and balance for the police department and I fully respect its role. Therefore, I am satisfied with the Board’s decision and I will not be pursuing termination of these two officers."

Bettison made a public appearance announcing the arrest of a suspect in a triple homicide Friday and made more remarks about the decision.

"Looking at the totality of the circumstances after the board reviewed the video, they're my oversight board," he said. "I respect their roles and their opinions. And when they issued or, agreed to suspend the officers for, for 30 days without pay, I thought that was sufficient. I support them, and I'm satisfied."

The backstory:

According to Bettison, one of the incidents, which happened in December 2025, was discovered while reviewing body-worn camera footage, a practice in the department.

The chief said that an officer who was investigating a person on a felony warrant called Border Patrol because the officer believed the person was undocumented. Border Patrol responded and detained the person.

The other incident happened on Feb. 9. During this case, Bettison said an officer performing a traffic stop contacted a sergeant because the person pulled over did not speak English. 

The sergeant arrived and contacted Border Patrol for translation services, a violation of deportment policies, Bettison said. Border Patrol agents determined the person was not a United States citizen and detained them.

"Contacting Border Patrol, ICE, or other federal agencies for translation services is strictly prohibited, as it invariably subjects individuals to extreme scrutiny, unrelated to any offense," Bettison said while speaking to the BOPC last week. "PD holds contracts with certified translation services that can be contacted 24 hours per day, seven days per week. There is absolutely no reason to contact federal law enforcement agencies to assist with translation services."

He said he would be looking into how frequently officers are utilizing the language translation service that the department pays for.

Bettison spoke about the relationship with federal agencies.

"We have an excellent working relationship with our federal partners, I would say one of the best in the country," he said. And we will continue to do that. 

"And so, it's important for our officers, whether it's a pursuit policy or another policy or any organization, when it comes to our policies, our officers can't pick and choose per se which policy. And so we all have to walk that fine line and follow the rules policies of our organization."

Bettison stressed during the board meeting that Detroit police officers do not do immigration enforcement. He said that even if a person had an immigration hold that appeared in DPD's system during a traffic stop, that person would not be detained solely because of the hold.

"It would have to be an offense where they violated one of our local ordinances or state law. That's the only thing that the Detroit Police Department and our officers are authorized to enforce," he said.

Bettison said he has reiterated the department policy with leadership, and has instructed them to communicate it to subordinates.

Dig deeper:

The sergeant who was suspended, Denise Wallet, filed a lawsuit Thursday, before the chief reversed course on firing the officers.

Wallet's attorney, Solomon Radner, said Border Patrol was contacted to help identify the person after a fingerprint scanner didn’t work, something which the lawyer said is not against policy.