Michigan State Police director defends leadership amid calls for his resignation

Yahoo

01-07-2025

Michigan State Police Director Col. James Grady speaks to reporters following a joint meeting of the Michigan House Oversight Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Michigan State Police. July 1, 2025 | Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance
Michigan State Police Director Col. James Grady said Tuesday that a no confidence vote from troopers and command officers didn't represent the full scope of his department, and that he was working to address issues of low morale that began before his time as the head of the agency.
Grady's comments came during a joint hearing of the Michigan House Oversight Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Michigan State Police. Some members of the Republican-led House of Representatives and the GOP members of the Senate have called for Grady's resignation due to complaints from troopers and command officers who have claimed they are fearful of speaking up about department policies under Grady and have faced retaliation when they have.
Grady said that the vote of no confidence from the Michigan State Police Troopers Association and the Michigan State Police Command Officers Association in June was not an MSP-sanctioned survey nor was it reflective of employee surveys issued by the department. Overall, Grady highlighted his years of service to the department and the discretion that comes with his position to make leadership and command changes if needed.
'I'm doing the work, representative,' Grady said in response to questions from Republican state Reps. Mike Mueller and Jay DeBoyer, the respective chairs of the joint committees. 'I'm doing everything that I can to ensure that the morale increases, because I, again, respect all of the members of our agency, and I want them to be well. I want them to be in a good place. I want them to want to come to work, because when they're in a good place, they can come and do the work effectively and efficiently every day. And that's something that I support as a leader of this department.'
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That was how Grady responded to most of the questions lobbed at him from Republicans and Democrats alike on the joint panel, much of which were fastballs and somewhat critical of Grady and his handling of the department. Grady further noted multiple worksite visits, feedback missions and an open door policy as ways he was trying hard to boost morale.
Grady was appointed in Sept. 2023 as director of the department by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, following the departure of former director Joseph Gasper.
Over the last few years, troopers and command officers have complained that Grady was out of line when he came out with a statement that did not initially support former trooper Brian Keely when he was charged in May 2024 in the death of Samuel Sterling. The charges against Keely have since been dropped by a U.S. District Court judge, but the Michigan Department of Attorney General has said it would appeal the dismissal.
Troopers and command officers also took issue with Grady promoting Chief Deputy Director Aimee Brimacombe as his second-in-command because of her alleged lack of experience and multiple complaints made against her before she was elevated several ranks.
Other grievances include Grady's decision to not keep existing command or leadership staff and replacing them with a new team, which Grady said Tuesday was a means to better serve the department and bring commanders on board with unique strengths.
Troopers filed an ethics complaint against Grady and Brimacombe in January. A handful of troopers also filed lawsuits against Brimacombe questioning her leadership, and questioned performance bonuses Grady and Brimacombe received after only a short time in their roles.
The morass culminated in the vote of no confidence, which Grady said was a first, but later noted that similar questions have been posed to trooper and command officer unions in the past questioning the leadership of previous directors, dating back to 2018.
Some have questioned whether the complaints have an undertone of racial or gender bias, seeing as troopers have in the past complained or sued over the department's diversity recruitment policies that emerged under Gasper, but before Grady's ascension to his current role. Although Grady is not the first Black officer to be promoted to colonel, some have called into question the deluge of complaints against the combo of Grady and Brimacombe as the department's leaders.
That said, DeBoyer, Mueller and others noted that although they have great respect for the department and Grady's years of service in law enforcement, maybe he wasn't the right leader for the agency despite his commitment to the department and its troopers.
'I appreciate that, and I don't have any reason to believe that that is not who you are, but the results of the survey, unfortunately, and with all due respect, says otherwise,' DeBoyer said. 'You made the statement that the Michigan State Police is one of the most respected agencies in the entire country, frankly, and it has been for decades. So, when you see that level of lack of confidence, that's very concerning to us as legislators.'
Mueller, a former law enforcement officer, also said that it appeared to him Grady wasn't a bad person, but sometimes good people aren't great leaders.
'It's not anything about your character at all. It's about the men and women, 98% of the men and women, that drive around those police cars [who] fear retaliation,' Mueller said.
The gloves were off, however, after that first bit of cordial opening statements.
DeBoyer noted that the House Oversight Committee, which he chairs, has deposed several members of Michigan State Police in the matter of his leadership and had several say that there was a culture of fear in the department for either saying the wrong things, sharing their opinions or speaking up on leadership matters. The depositions, which were not shared in full during the committee nor made public elsewhere, also showed troopers and command officers experienced retaliation for doing so, resulting in work assignment loss or other reprimands.
State Rep. Jamie Greene (R-Richmond) read some of the commentary from MSP's 2024 employment engagement survey. One response noted that it was allegedly well known within the department that Grady and Brimacombe didn't take kindly to criticism on their leadership decisions, and if they do, they pay the price.
'This is incredibly disturbing,' Greene added. 'This department seems to be fostering a culture of fear and isolation, which is extremely harmful in such a high stress career.'
Greene asked Grady why retaliation was the running theme in some of the responses if he was working to mend bridges and communicating with his troopers about their concerns.
Grady again leaned on his commitment to hearing officers out and said again that he believed those comments did not represent that majority of the department. The director also defended Brimacombe and his decision to elevate her, noting that she has 25 years of experience with the department and a law degree.
Greene asked him if she thought the results of the surveys were fabricated. Grady did not directly respond, but did say there appeared to be copycat or repeated similar responses.
State Rep. Will Snyder (D-Muskegon) said it was his understanding that there were approximately 700 vacant positions within the department and that 500 of them are at the trooper level. Snyder worked that out to be a 20% vacancy rate, which he said was exceedingly high.
Grady said the department had over the last 10 years hired nearly 1,000 troopers, leading the nation in hiring among state police organizations. He also noted that the department has an aggressive recruiting plan.
But DeBoyer later countered by saying that morale continues to dip and then turned to question Grady about reports of doxing within the department. The names of some of the troopers and command officers who were deposed during recent closed-door hearings of the House Oversight Committee were reported by the Detroit Free Press ahead of Tuesday's hearing.
DeBoyer said that revelation was appalling, and grilled Grady about how and why someone within the department who was familiar with those discussions leaked that information to the press. The chair as
'That is doxing people within your organization, people who we have asked to communicate with us in private … in fairness and openness and transparency with others members of our committee,' DeBoyer said. 'And this morning, in the media, we read three names that only your agency had. That's inexcusable. … The fact that someone in your agency would dox their own members, Colonel, that is a clear demonstration of why there's a lack of confidence in leadership at Michigan State Police, because at all costs, they will protect themselves and they will sacrifice their members.'
While DeBoyer called for an investigation, Grady said he wasn't aware of that leak and would look into it.
Following testimony, Grady spoke to reporters and said he thought the committee hearing was generally unfair and that he was proud of the job that he was doing.
'I'm not the type of Colonel that doesn't make himself available or accessible. I'll talk to anybody, and so I have those conversations, and they're positive,' Grady said of his outreach to troopers. 'People enjoy working for the State Police. That's why, when we do have vacancies, they don't last long. They don't remain vacant, because people apply to the positions they want to work here in this department. People want to be state troopers.'