Note: This article was made possible by the Ann Arbor Independent’s FOIA Fund. To donate to the FOIA Fund, click here.

by P.D. Lesko

On Tuesday, August 15 the Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees’ meeting agenda included Resolution 2023-10:

“Resolution requesting the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to immediately strike from the contract awarded to the Supreme Felons, Inc. on January 19, 2023…which was signed and recorded with the Washtenaw County Clerk’s Office and provision contained on paragraph 5(3) that authorizes and sanctions the Supreme Felons, Inc. to ‘establish a regular dispatch and patrol system for four neighborhoods in zip codes 48197 and 48198.’ Two of which were subsequently identified by the Washtenaw County Administrator in an email dated May 3, 2023 as targeting the Appleridge and Sugarbrook subdivisions.”

Ypsilanti Twp. Clerk Heather Jarrell Roe was elected as a Township trustee in 2016 and in 2020 was elected as the Clerk. She has a website, the Roe Report, which was last updated in Feb. 2021. Her campaign Facebook page is titled “Residents First.” That page was last updated in July 2020.

Jarrell Roe’s comments at the contentious Aug. 15, 2023 meeting of the Ypsilanti Trustees triggered criticism and accusations of political pandering and grandstanding.

Jarrell Roe’s colleagues on the Board are not the first to criticize what they called her “political machinations.” Her actions in the 2020 Democratic primary earned her a public resolution of condemnation from the Washtenaw Democratic Party.

At that Aug. 15 meeting, after dozens of comments from the public, including comments that were threatening, Resolution 2023-10 was tabled for 30 days. After the agenda item was tabled, Jarrell Roe announced to the over 100 members of the public in attendance that she had not intended to vote for Resolution 2023-10. Roe added that she would not vote in favor of Resolution 2023-10 when it came back for consideration.

One Township official complained Jarrell Roe’s comments at the Aug. 15 meeting hung the other Trustees out to dry. “She signed the April 4th letter to Greg Dill,” said the official. “Then, she proceeded to pander to the public.”

What Defines a Neighborhood Watch Group?

At the heart of the criticisms of the Ypsi Twp. Clerk is whether the County Administrator and County Commissioners have the legal right to force the neighborhood watch/dispatch and patrol “services” of Supreme Felons, Inc. on Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. residents. A former Ypsi Twp. trustee says in doing that, the County Administrator has acted in violation of Michigan law. Also at issue is how neighborhood watch groups are formed, who controls them, and how local law enforcement is involved.

Jarrell Roe, in an email, said she based her Aug. 15 comments and her explanation of how she would have voted on Aug. 15 on information provided by County Administrator Greg Dill in a May 3, 2023 letter in response to the Trustees’ April 4, 2023 communication to him.

“In regard to the letter dated April 4^th, it states ‘Our board strongly recommends that we only use MCOLES certified deputies for patrol in of our community and not utilize Supreme Felons for these services’ The Board set out to understand what ‘patrol and dispatch’ meant and to clarify that we contract for MCOLES deputies. We received clarification about that May 3^rd, 2023 from Greg Dill that ‘SFI are akin to a traditional neighborhood watch program’ and that ‘Supreme Felons, Inc. is NOT a law enforcement agency‘” [Jarrell Roe’s emphasis], wrote Jarrell Roe.

Ypsilanti Twp. has a full-time neighborhood watch coordinator.

It’s unclear why Heather Jarrell Roe, as a former Trustee and current Township Clerk, does not understand how neighborhood watch groups actually work, have been set up and are run in her Township.

At the Aug. 15 meeting, Bryan Foley, a member of Supreme Felons, Inc., in a public comment claimed that the non-profit was unaffiliated with any Washtenaw County policing agency. Foley went on to parrot Greg Dill; Foley purported Supreme Felons, Inc. is simply a “neighborhood watch group.” Any description of the “services” provided by Supreme Felons, Inc. as a “traditional neighborhood watch program” twists the truth, and misdefines the work of such programs, according to experts.

For example, the Jackson, MI Police Department Patrol Operations Commander described the goals of that city’s neighborhood watch program. “Neighborhood Watch fights the isolation that crime both creates and feeds upon. It forges bonds among area residents, helps reduce burglaries and robberies, and improves relations between police and the communities they serve.”

Greg Dill’s May 3, 2023 letter in response to the Ypsi Twp. Trustees’ April 4 communication was what Heather Jerrall Roe said she relied on to determine her vote on Resolution 2023-10. In his May 3 letter, Dill states Supreme Felons, Inc. have no connection to local law enforcement. Dill also told Ypsi Twp. trustees that “SFI is akin to a traditional neighborhood watch program.”

According to U.S. Dept. of Justice officials, neighborhood watch programs involve residents who team up with local law enforcement.

DOJ officials explained that neighborhood watch programs are initiated, led and controlled by residents living in a neighborhood. Those residents meet regularly and share information.

“Traditional neighborhood watch programs” are not “unilaterally imposed on cities, townships and their neighborhood residents by County Commissioners or County Administrators.”

Despite Dill and Foley’s assertions to the contrary, Supreme Felons, Inc. “dispatch and patrol” activities don’t conform to best practices for neighborhood watch programs as outlined by the U.S. Dept. of Justice in its Neighborhood Watch Manual:

A Neighborhood Watch program is a group of people living in the same area who want to make their neighborhood safer by working together and in conjunction with local law enforcement to reduce crime and improve their quality of life. Neighborhood Watch (NW) groups have regular meetings to plan how they will accomplish their specific goals and assign responsibilities to group members.

Nowhere in the DOJ’s Neighborhood Watch Manual is it recommended that neighborhood watch programs be staffed by anonymous, unsupervised, untrained felons who keep no public records of their activities, while being paid by the public.

“Dispatch and Patrol” Done by Unaccountable, Anonymous, Unsupervised Felons

Public records obtained by the Ann Arbor Independent show that Supreme Felons, Inc. invoiced Washtenaw County between Feb.-July 2023 for $3,341 per month to pay four anonymous “Dispatch patrol members” to work 9 hours per week.

The newspaper used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to try to obtain the names of individuals employed by Supreme Felons, Inc. and paid with public money to patrol in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. The FOIA also asked for copies of all “reports of crime” generated by those individuals whom Supreme Felons, Inc. dispatch to patrol public streets.

The County responded to that FOIA and claimed there are no records of the names of the felons dispatched and paid to patrol County neighborhoods.

The FOIA response provided by Washtenaw County also claimed the felons being paid to provide dispatch and patrol services are keeping no records of their contacts with residents, no records of crimes reported by residents, and no records that indicate if Supreme Felons, Inc. employees are reporting any suspicious activities or crimes to the Washtenaw County Sheriff.

In practical terms, according to County officials a Supreme Felons, Inc. employee dispatched to a domestic violence call in the 48197/48198 zip codes keeps no public records of having been dispatched to the incident. There are no public written records, audio or video evidence of the actions of the felon who responds to the call, or that individual’s actions at the scene of a crime.

According to Michigan law, all law enforcement and government agencies are required to report felonies and serious misdemeanors to Michigan’s ICHAT system which lets the general public search if someone has a criminal record.

Lauren Bonds is the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, which advocates for more transparency. If sworn officers are accountable for their conduct, can Washtenaw County pay felons to patrol neighborhoods and keep no records?

“Misconduct records should be available to the public in most situations, if not all situations.” Bonds continued, “The stakes are just so high when there’s a police officer who’s got a lengthy record of misconduct.”

Unlike a police officer who may have no record of misconduct, felons, by definition, have records—sometimes lengthy—of not only misconduct, but of serious and violent crimes.

On May 15, 2023 the IRS automatically revoked the non-profit status of Supreme Felons, Inc. While County officials have claimed the non-profit’s status has been reinstated, officials from the IRS Charitable Division confirmed that Supreme Felons, Inc. non-profit status has been revoked for almost five months and remains revoked.

Around the same time the newspaper sought the Supreme Felons, Inc. invoices and records, the newspaper used FOIA to request copies of invoices and records documenting work done by a PR firm hired by Community Mental Health. The invoices from that contractor to the County include the names of the contractor’s employees who performed individual tasks, such as the design of marketing materials, or the production of a marketing plan. The records included how many hours each named individual worked, the hourly rate and the total paid to the contractor for the work.

Other elected officials in the County have expressed concerns about the funding of Supreme Felons, Inc., the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the County Sheriff, County Administrator and the County Commissioners. Jerrall Roe’s colleagues on the Ypsi Twp. Board of Trustees are concerned about issues of liability and public safety for the Township’s 57,000 residents. Her “grandstanding” at the Aug. 15 meeting was described as “putting residents last.”

Heather Jarrell Roe says such concerns are “heartbreaking.”

The Ypsilanti Twp. Clerk said in her email: “Lastly, I would like to express my deep sadness that SFI continues to be the topic of discussion, as well as the main topic of news that the Ann Arbor Independent continues to produce.” Jarrell Roe went on to say, “I believe in redemption, and restorative practices and know that this work is needed, from a very personal space.”

Heather Jarrell Roe’s Ypsilanti Twp. neighborhood is not among those being “serviced” by the “dispatch and patrol” activities of Supreme Felons, Inc.

The agenda for the Sept. 2023 meeting of the Trustees has not yet been posted to the Township’s website.