Former Detroit fire dispatcher accused of tipping off family of search warrant
A former dispatcher and lieutenant for the Detroit Fire Department is accused of alerting her family of an impending search warrant last year and lying to authorities about it.
A 15-page federal criminal complaint states that the woman tipped off her family after learning that Detroit police submitted a "call for service" at 3:10 a.m. on March 5, 2025, to assist in executing a federal search warrant at 4 a.m. at a home on Turner Street. The complaint charged the dispatcher, who had worked for the department since 2001, with making false statements or representation to an agency of the United States.
The complaint alleges that three minutes after the "call for service" was initiated, the dispatcher called a phone number used by her mother, then entered her username into the system to view the "call for service." The complaint alleges that the dispatcher then called her mother multiple times before the search. The complaint states that the woman's mother was living in the home at the time.
The FBI, Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General and local agencies, including the Detroit Police Department, were executing search warrants in Metro Detroit as part of an investigation into unemployment insurance fraud and bribery.
The complaint states that the agencies executed the search warrant at the Turner Street home and found the lights to be on and people moving around inside. Investigators seized a phone belonging to a person identified in the complaint as the dispatcher's sibling and uncovered a Facebook Messenger conversation between the sibling and another person. According to the complaint, the sibling said they "got connections" and knew a raid was coming.
Investigators also uncovered publicly viewable messages on the sibling's Facebook page shortly before the search warrant was executed. According to the complaint, one message at 3:41 a.m. said, "I'm setting up traps now so if anyone comes in this house unannounced that's on them." Another message one minute later said, "I'm up I'll be waiting."
Investigators believe the sibling was posting on social media while the dispatcher was contacting her mother.
Cellphone records showed that the dispatcher was texting her mother beginning at 3:23 a.m. on March 5, saying, "It suppose to start at 430," according to the complaint. Records show that when her mother asked whether authorities would knock down the door, the dispatcher allegedly said, "Yes."
On Jan. 30, 2026, federal investigators interviewed the dispatcher, who claimed that she did not know about the search until after she was off work and denied entering her username in the system, according to the complaint. She also claimed that other employees with the same last name as hers had accessed the system.
According to the complaint, investigators confirmed that the username was assigned to the dispatcher and that no one else within the Detroit Fire Department had the same last name.
