(WXYZ) — After I heard from families who lost loved ones this summer during illegal block parties that turned violent, Detroit Police Chief James White wanted to sit down with them.
The parents of Imani Peterson, Phillip Arnold, Jr., Jordan Thornhill, Taylor Gladney and the grandmother of Keon'ne Tremble, all met with White to share the frustration they've been feeling about how DPD is handling the cases.
"If it was ya'll's child, y'all would be on it. Y'all would be on it," Cieria Joyce, the mother of Imani, said.
"What's crazy about it is, it's one of the base things for human beings is basic communication," Phillip Arnold Sr. said.
"The lack of empathy. Just a call. Pick up the phone and say, 'you know, we still here, we still working on your case,'" Monica Murray, Keon'ne grandmother, added.
You may remember, White was taken back in August when I came to him with the parents' complaints.
"Well, that would be shocking for me," White said back in August.
WATCH BELOW: Parents of block party shooting victims say DPD is not communicating with them
However, he said he soon realized there was truth behind their frustration.
"When this was brought to my attention, I was very concerned. I was very concerned about some of the things you had to say," White said during the meeting.
During the meeting, the parents expressed their frustrations with White, saying police need to act like it was their child, and in another case, Murray said she has had to contact the police because they haven't contacted her.
"They haven’t called us. No one has followed up with us," Venecca Thornhill said.
“I’m doing all the reaching out," Cieria Joyce added.
“I had to reach out personally to get any information. On anything. Any detective on the case," Arnold Sr. added.
"There are a multitude of reasons why we find ourselves not really communicating, to your point, as effectively as we can. And some of them are our fault, and we will own that and we are improving that," White said. "But when I look at the whole thing, one of the things that was clear to me is that we can do a better job.”
So, White said starting Monday, the department will have a select group of officers and civilians who are dedicated to communicating with the families of crime victims.
White said, "Their whole day consists of coming into work and making contact with families and keeping you updated on things you need to know about your case. That’s their job.”
Deputy Police Chief Kari Sloan, who heads up the homicide division, presented a PowerPoint presentation to provide the families with an overview of how the unit will work.
"Our objective here is to have a goal where everybody feels comfortable with the level of information that they’re getting and the frequence of the contacts from DPD,” Sloan said.
Detroit police said family support specialists will also be involved.
"So this is just an ideal schedule that we would like to see occur in every single case. So the homicide OIC (officer in charge) would make initial contact with the family, have additional contact seven days post-incident, and then every 30 days for six months," Sloan said.
There will also be checks and balances along the way so that victims' loved ones know that they matter.
"We have other families out here in the community who have not been contacted by DPD either. And my concern with them is that their not get answers either," Murray said.
WATCH BELOW: Detroit Police asking community to speak up about block party shootings
White said he'll be measuring the progress.
"I just have to ask this for transparency, if you leave, how do you ensure these families and other families that you put together and that you are rolling out demanding that they make some changes, how do we ensure that they’re gonna follow this?" I asked.
"As a chief, I am able to implement policy for the department, so these directives are not being pushed up by anyone but me, they’re being pushed out and they will become memorializing policy," White said.
After meeting with the chief, each family met with the detective handling their child’s murder case.
I then asked them if they were satisfied with the outcome.
“I do. I feel like they are trying to show transparency," Murray said.
"This is the first time I have spoken to them in a couple months. Couple months and the only reason they called today was because y'all lit that fire under they ass," Tyrell Gladney said.
"Clearly, this is how they been doing, for years and years by not contacting these families. But it became more of an issue and it's became more blatant. Because they never had a mass shooting like this where it's became so many families at one time," Gamerise Young said.
I also asked if they feel the department understands what they mean by treating their children as if they were their own.
"To be completely honest, no. Because if they didn’t understand that before, why would you understand it now?" Young said.
But, they are open to giving Detroit police a chance to regain their trust, for the sake of the children they’ve lost.
"When he say 'I wanna see ya'll in 30 days,' guarantee you I will be there in 30 days with my list of families that I have," Murray said. "And although they may not come to the meeting, I’m gonna have my list of families and I'm gonna see if they contacted these families."
I assured them that they are not in this fight alone and there is still hope for justice, because there has to be.
The phone number for the new unit: 313 596-2260.
