An electronic billboard, funded by the Livonia Citizens Caring About Black Lives Facebook group, warns drivers about racial profiling.
What We Know:
- A new electronic billboard in Livonia, Michigan reads, “Driving while Black? Racial profiling just ahead. Welcome to Livonia”. The billboard can be seen just south of I-96 on Telegraph Road in Redford Township. Many people are not fond of the billboard and accused the Facebook group of making accusations without having evidence on local police racially profiling when conducting traffic stops.
- “Now we have people born and raised here who are speaking out about witnessing or hearing about this practice in candid discussions with law enforcement friends and family members about DWB, NIL, or Darkey in the Valley,” Dilisha Upshaw, organizer of the Facebook group, said.
- Livonia Police Chief Curtis Caid said in a Facebook post that he is taking the allegations about the Livonia Police Department racial profiling “very seriously”.
“The Livonia Police Department is a Constitutional law enforcement agency,” Caid said. “Livonia Police officers do not target their enforcement actions to individuals based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, etc. Racial profiling is a serious allegation and is not tolerated. We are proud that Livonia has been consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in the region.”
- LCCABL believes the answer is to build trust between Livonia law enforcement and its citizens. To gain that trust, they are requesting traffic stop data and created a GoFundMe to raise $13,084.50 to get “all written records of traffic stops conducted by the Livonia Police Department” from July to December of last year.
The campaign was created on July 7, 2020, and the group has only raised a little over $1,645. According to the GoFundMe page, the Mayor and Chief elected a sergeant (Office of Professional Standards) to manage the data being recorded and to provide recommendations.
