by P.D. Lesko
Around 80 people crowded into the Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center on Washtenaw Ave., near the County Jail, on Nov. 15 from 6-8 p.m. to hear Sheriff candidates Alyshia Dyer, Derrick Jackson and Ken Magee answer questions about their qualifications, professional accomplishments and plans for the Sheriff’s Office. The event was sponsored by the Ann Arbor • Ypsilanti • Inkster Alumni Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Dr. Michael Mashif White moderated the event. Dr. White, who has a Ph.D. in Educational and Instructional Technology from Central Michigan University, is a Curriculum Manager at AT&T.
The event was well-organized and questions came from the AAYI Kappa Alpha Psi members, as well as the audience. The audience included elected officials from Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp., employees of local policing agencies, residents, members of the AAYI Kappa Alpha Psi Alumni Chapter, Washtenaw County and Sheriff’s Dept. employees.
The three candidates kicked off the forum with opening statements. Former Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Deputy Alyshia Dyer told the audience she is “home grown.” She went on to say that, “I believe we need change [at the Sheriff’s Office].”
Derrick Jackson, who presently works for the County Sheriff as the Dir. of Community Engagement, began his opening statement with a lie he has repeated since at least 2016. “I am a social worker who became a police officer,” claimed Jackson at the Kappa Alpha Psi forum. In a 2016 TedX talk, Derrick Jackson opened that presentation: “I am a social worker who runs a police agency.”
It’s a lie he repeats on his campaign literature: “As a social worker who became a police officer….” It’s a lie he repeats on his Washtenaw County bio.
Derrick Jackson has never worked as a licensed social worker in the State of Michigan. He earned a degree in social work from U-M.
During the event, Derrick Jackson told the audience, “The biggest predictor of someone’s behavior is what they’ve done in the past.”
Alyshia Dyer has a social work degree and is licensed as a social worker by the State of Michigan. She is presently completing her supervisory work and is employed as a clinical social worker.
Throughout the evening, even as his answers to several questions demonstrated he had a tenuous grasp on the truth, Derrick Jackson encouraged those in attendance to “factcheck” his opponents.
In Jackson’s opening statement, he challenged his opponents: “What have you actually done in years past that will allow you to achieve what you say you will?”
Ken Magee has run for County Sheriff twice before, once as a Republican. In answer to the question about his experience, Magee said, “I’ve been a chief of police, and I come with 30 years of experience.” Magee is the only candidate with experience supervising a workforce as large as the Sheriff’s Office.
Alyshia Dyer outlined her “10 years” of “front-line” experience as a full-time patrol officer and a part-time marine patrol officer. She talked about the importance of having a Sheriff who has worked as a patrol officer. Alyshia Dyer has never supervised other Sheriff’s Dept. employees. She took the exam required to be promoted to sergeant, and said she did very well. As to why she was not promoted, Dyer explained that “per policy” the Sheriff had the right to reorder the list of people who took the exam. She suspects this why she was not promoted.
Alyshia Dyer’s personnel record, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows she worked full-time as a patrol officer 6.3 years. Dyer’s records from the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), confirm her full-time patrol and part-time marine patrol experience.
When asked about the discrepancy of her assertion on her campaign website that, “[s]even years of her time at the Sheriff’s Office was spent working the frontlines as a road patrol deputy,” Dyer admitted she had “rounded up.”
Derrick Jackson was hired as the Sheriff’s Dir. of Community Engagement in 2009. Jackson, unlike Magee and Dyer, has no “frontline experience.” He has never arrested anyone and has never filed a police report. His job includes supervising three Sheriff’s Dept. employees, including one deputy and a community outreach coordinator. Jackson’s outreach coordination is under investigation by the Michigan AG for witness tampering/intimidation.
One of the questions posed to the candidates asked about their plans for the first 100 days in office, if elected.
Ken Magee said, “I’m going to meet every employee.” Magee added that he would “analyze” the Sheriff’s Dept. budget and reign in the costs of upper-level management by reducing the number of high-paid under-sheriffs and employees who “insulate” the Sheriff.
Alyshia Dyer said she would kick off her first 100 days in office with a “community listening tour.” She also said she would launch a “Sheriff’s Advisory Committee to see what’s working and what’s not.” The Sheriff, she said, “is a public leader in the community.”
Derrick Jackson, rather than focusing on community outreach, said his first 100 days would target recruitment within the Sheriff’s Dept. Somewhat oddly, Jackson added, “I ran college track, I know how to recruit people.”
To kick off the forum, moderator Dr. Michael White reminded the candidates to refrain from personal attacks and to address each other politely. Nonetheless, during the two-hour forum, Derrick Jackson repeatedly referred to his former colleague Alyshia Dyer as “Dyer.” Members of the audience expressed their disapproval of Jackson’s lack of courtesy and respect to his opponent.
Jackson also repeatedly took jabs at both his opponents, urging repeatedly that their answers to the questions be “factchecked” by voters.
Diversity came up as a topic with Alyshia Dyer pointing out, correctly, that the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office staff is “primarily white and male.”
“Diversity is important to me,” said Dyer. She went on to say that she would work with police academies statewide to help diversify academy candidates.
Magee, a white man, told those in attendance that “a police department should be a mirror of the community it serves.” He pointed out that he had earned awards for “diversifying a workplace.”
The predominantly Black audience took a keen interest when the subject of automatic license plate readers came up. Alyshia Dyer was the only candidate who came out as opposed to the use of automatic license plate readers. “I do not like license reader technology,” Dyer said. “I don’t believe we need to create mass surveillance.”
Ken Magee said he is “for license plate readers.” In support of his position, he said, “The community wants crimes solved.”
Derrick Jackson didn’t answer the question. Instead, he suggested that the Sheriff’s Dept. “put out the facts [about automatic license plate readers], educate the community and then listen to the community.”
Jackson, who ran for a position as an Ypsilanti Twp. Trustee and lost, repeatedly claimed over the course of the evening that he “never thought” he would run for Sheriff. Nonetheless, he formed his Elect Derrick Jackson Sheriff campaign committee on Aug. 12, 2022, more than two years before the August 2024 primary election. Alyshia Dyer formed her campaign committee in Sept. 2022.
Another of Derrick Jackson’s persistent and puzzling public lies is that when he ran for Ypsilanti Twp. Trustee in 2004, “he would lose by one vote.” The County’s election results are public and contradict Jackson’s claims.
Alyshia Dyer repeatedly referred to Jackson’s candidacy as “pass the baton politics.”
Ken Magee was the only one of the three who focused comments on the opioid crisis in the County, a crisis that impacts the Black community particularly hard.
Jackson repeatedly dismissed Magee’s concerns by saying that Washtenaw County did not need a Sheriff who would launch a war on drugs.
Magee clarified his proposed strategy to combat the opioid crisis: “Stop arresting drug users,” he said. “Arrest the drug dealers.” Magee also said he would turn part of the County Jail into a drug treatment facility. “The goal,” said Magee, “is to make data-driven decisions.”
Former candidate for Washtenaw County Prosecutor, Hugo Mack, asked the three Sheriff’s candidates about their positions on qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is a judicial doctrine that shields public officials, like police officers, from liability when they break the law. Some states have done away with qualified immunity.
Derrick Jackson didn’t answer the question. He said: “Let’s educate each other about what exactly qualified immunity is.” In response to a question about his stance on the use of automatic license plate readers, Jackson said: “Put out the facts. Educate the community.” He added that he “was not going to politically sway with the wind.”
Alyshia Dyer attributed the creation of qualified immunity to racism and said she has worked on campaigns to end it.
During the candidate forum, Ken Magee spoke repeatedly about the lack of transparency and accountability within the Sheriff’s Dept. He spoke in favor of qualified immunity and at the same time promised to root out bad cops.
“Accountability and transparency are abysmal in the Sheriff’s Dept.,” said Magee.
Since 2015, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton has run his own multi-million dollar business, the Cardinal Group II, using county resources, including offices, computers and staff. One member of the audience asked the candidates if, unlike Clayton, they would devote themselves full-time to the job of Sheriff. All three said yes.
Magee pointed out that Derrick Jackson had worked for the Cardinal Group II.
Google Wayback, a web archive, shows that Jackson was listed as a member of the Cardinal Group II “Team,” until August 2022, when his participation with the Sheriff’s business was scrubbed from the Cardinal Group II website. August 2022 was the same month Jackson formed his campaign committee to run for Sheriff.
None of the candidates was asked about or spoke about the sharp spike in weapons crimes, shootings and murders in Washtenaw County.
These are excerpts from the candidate’s closing statements:
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.