Increased police presence at Ann Arbor City Council meeting sparks controversy

The increased police presence at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Monday evening has raised concerns among residents and prompted discussion about why the city felt the need to deploy them. 

At the city council meetings, there are typically two armed police officers, but on Monday, there were five, and some residents are not happy about it. 

"To have two police officers flanking council in an intimidating manner is not in line with the culture of Ann Arbor," former Ann Arbor City Councilmember Kathy Griswold said during public comment.

Griswold is a regular during public comment on the first and third Mondays of every month in City Hall, but seeing a heightened police presence this Monday night rubbed her the wrong way. 

"And I found that to be very intimidating and a complete inappropriate use of our police services," Griswold told CBS News Detroit on Tuesday.

Soon after Griswold's public comment, Ann Arbor Police Chief Andre Anderson posted on social media, "There's been an increase of issues at public meetings across the country."

"Given the current climate, I have increased the security presence at these meetings," Anderson said. "This is a standard proactive measure. Civic engagement should never overlap with intimidation, and keeping our community safe remains my highest priority."

After public comment concluded, Councilmember Dharma Akmon responded to Griswold and defended the extra police, saying that council members had faced serious threats.

"I certainly do not want our community feeling intimidated by the police, also want people to be aware that Ann Arbor is not immune to the kind of political violence that is being threatened on public officials constantly," said Akmon.

While CBS Detroit wasn't able to verify the nature of the alleged threats toward Ann Arbor officials, other local cities have had similar issues. In May, a Saline Township treasurer announced that she was resigning from her position after she said she received numerous death threats over the development of a data center. 

On Tuesday, Griswold said that when she was on the city council, she had received threats herself and the city had already taken measures to protect everyone during meetings.

"This area has a bulletproof shield behind it, so council members are seated a little bit lower and totally protected, and so a number of security measures were already in place, so there was no need to have two police officers looking at us," said Griswold.

CBS News Detroit reached out to all city council members and the mayor for additional comment, but has not yet heard back from any of them.