by Patricia Lesko The Project Team at consultant Hillard Heintze, a Chicago-based security consulting firm hired in Mar. 2017 by City Council, and who is being paid $200,000 to review the Ann Arbor Police Department, is seeking feedback …

Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team At its Feb. 21, 2017 meeting, Council members voted to allocate $200,000 to hire Chicago-based consulting firm Hillard Heintze LLC to conduct an independent review of the city's police department. The…

ON NOV. 10, 2014 Aura Rosser, a local African American artist and mother of three, was shot and killed by AAPD. Her death, and the nation-wide pattern of state violence directed at Black Americans, continues to push our group, Ann Arbor to…

A KNIFE COST both Baltimore resident Freddie Gray and Ann Arbor resident Aura Rosser their lives. In Gray’s case, Baltimore police officers alleged that the small, spring-assisted pocket knife Gray was carrying was illegal. The debate over…

AURA ROSSER WAS mentally ill, perhaps with Bipolar disorder, according to statements made by her relatives and evidence presented in a 12-page memo released by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie. The night she was tasered by one…

by P.D. Lesko Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie posted to the county's website a 12-page memo explaining his decision not to bring charges against Officer David Ried, a 15-year veteran of the Ann Arbor Police Dept., who shot and…

On Jan. 16 City Administrator Steve Powers, in response to a request for comment, responded via email: “The Michigan State Police  have completed their investigation and it was turned over to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office. Until…

THE INVESTIGATION INTO the police shooting of Aura Rosser is complete and the Michigan State Police have handed their findings over to the City of Ann Arbor as well as the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office. County Prosecutor Mackie will…

by P.D. Lesko ON DEC. 18, The Ann Arbor Independent turned to the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Knight Foundation’s FOI Fund for financial support to fund an open records lawsuit against the City of Ann Arbor and the…

SINCE NOV. 9, The Ann Arbor Independent has filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests in an effort to disseminate public records about the shooting of 40-year-old Ann Arbor resident Aura Rosser’s Nov. 9 shooting. The newspaper…