William Melendez
(Michigan Department of Corrections photo)
Of all the brazen examples in Metro Detroit, Inkster cop William Melendez stands out.
In January 2015, he pulled over motorist Floyd Dent in Inkster for a traffic stop and shortly after pinned him to the ground, even though he showed no resistance, and pounded him with his gloved right fist 16 times. Melendez, who had come from the Detroit Police Department, was known as "Robocop."
The video of the confrontation went viral. Melendez was fired, but continued to work as a cop for Highland Park for a while.
Before coming Inkster, Melendez had a questionable past as a Detroit officer. He was accused by citizens of misconduct. And in 2003, he and 16 fellow officers were indicted on allegations that they planted evidence, falsified reports and stole cash and property from suspects.
A jury acquitted them, but he eventually was forced out of the Detroit Police Department only to continue his career in Inkster and Highland Park. In 2016, he was sentenced to 13 months to 10 years for the Inkster beating of Dent. He was paroled this past January.
A Detroit Free Press investigation by Jim Schaefer and Gina Kaufman found he’s a prime example of how lax oversight of police officers in Michigan's urban and suburban departments puts citizens at risk by allowing cops to slip from community to community despite alarming conduct, criminal histories and lawsuits that cost taxpayers millions.
It's hard to pinpoint how many cops like Melendez are out there because no one keeps track, the paper says.
Its investigation finds:
- A stunning recurrence of problem cops left on the street because they are protected by a system of city officials, labor arbitrators or sympathetic chiefs who don’t end officers’ careers when given the chance. This allows them to move to other communities with no state intervention.
- Police officers are among the most protected public employees in the state. Laws, unions, judges and city leaders where the cops work often shield their disciplinary records and, in some cases, basic information like their names. Judges overseeing civil lawsuits routinely agree to seal records.
- Poor communities, some with heavily minority populations, are magnets for problem cops. In competition with more affluent communities, these departments lose out, in part, because jobs are sometimes part-time and lower paying. The Detroit enclave of Highland Park, for example, has employed a litany of these types of officers.
