DETROIT – David Malhalab was a police officer on the tough streets of Detroit for a quarter of a century. He did it all: Worked the gang squad, chased killers, ticketed offenders, even the connected and influential, and won two lifesaving awards.
He became a sergeant, and the brass wanted to promote him to detective, but he always said no. “Too much paperwork,” he laughed. “I mean, I don’t mind paperwork — I have a college degree.
“But I wanted to work with people.” He says he was essentially forced to take a disability retirement in 2005, after he had been seriously injured when a car smashed into him when he was on duty.
He really didn’t want to retire, and misses being a policeman. His record on the job was fine, except for one thing: He always believed in giving open and honest answers to the press.
That didn’t sit well with several Detroit mayors, especially Coleman Young and the now-infamous Kwame Kilpatrick, who later was convicted of multiple state and federal felonies. Malhalab ignored gag orders, and talked to anyone who he felt had an honest question or wanted to understand how things work.
“For me, you got a question, ask me. That way you’ll know, and next time, you’ll feel more comfortable talking to me. That was my philosophy,” he said. Reporters came to know him as a go-to guy who wasn’t afraid to tell the truth about the department and policing issues, even when it was painful or embarrassing to do so.
Eventually, however, Kilpatrick and his police chief, Ella Bully-Cummings, forced him out, after suspending him for calling it “outrageous” that two police officers were disciplined for stopping the mayor’s mistress for speeding. “They’d had enough of me talking to the media,” the former sergeant laughed.
The Kilpatrick administration had forbidden police to talk to the media. Malhalab soon got revenge; he went to the ACLU, which used our First Amendment protections to force the department to drop its policy of not allowing police to talk to the press.
Weeks later, Bully-Cummings resigned, minutes after Mayor Kilpatrick did too, pleading guilty to the first of many crimes. David Malhalab had scored a victory for openness and freedom of speech, but he still misses police work. Now 72, “I’d still be working if it wasn’t for the bobbleheads,” he said over a corned beef sandwich, referring to the bureaucrats who forced him out.
Ironically, his police career started almost by accident. “I needed a job, and heard they were hiring,” he said. They were, but they bypassed him for months until he asked why, and learned they thought he lived in Dearborn Heights, not Detroit, even though his official residence was a family home in the city.
Much later, he would win a considerable settlement because of that. When he finally became a policeman, he began by walking a beat in Southwest Detroit, and was later assigned to various other jobs, some in the scariest parts of the city. When the economy took a downturn, he and hundreds of others were laid off.
His layoff lasted several years. He trained to work for the secretary of state, and was about to be sent off to run his own branch office in Marquette when the Detroit police department asked him if he wanted to return. He rejoined the force and never looked back.
David Malhalab never had children and was essentially married to the force. Today, he still keeps a keen eye on police issues. Last year, the Detroit police department, already more than 200 officers below strength, was hemorrhaging personnel. There was a new wave of murders and other violent crimes, and the pay scale was more than 20 percent lower than many neighboring departments.
Then, however, the city stepped in and authorized a major pay raise. New officers would start at $53,888, ten thousand more than they had been getting, and other ranks got hefty pay increases too.
That helped morale and has helped keep good officers on the force. “They don’t have to work a second job now,” he said. “It means more personal and family security.”
In another positive development, then-police chief James Craig resigned to make an abortive run for governor, and was replaced by James White, who Mahalab has known since they both attended the police academy. “I have confidence in him,” he said.
“We also now have a mayor who doesn’t promote bobbleheads,” he said, meaning three-term Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Today, he goes back and forth between Detroit and Lansing. He knows that there are a few bad cops on any force, but says a lot of the worst problems could be headed off “if they have to have a psychological as well as a physical exam every year.”
He also is a strong believer in gun control. “An AR-15 is not a hunting rifle. It cuts people into pieces. Did you see they had to use DNA testing to identify those children (killed by AR-15s)?”
Most of all, he urged police departments everywhere to be as media-friendly as possible. “They should all do what I did and have a cop go on the radio, take people’s questions, and respond.”
He paused. “You gotta be honest with the public. That’s what it’s all about.”
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(Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)
