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Oakland County board chair calls for review of Oxford response

Gillberg
Oakland County board chair calls for review of Oxford response

The chairman of Oakland County’s Board of Commissioners wants an independent review of the emergency response to the 2021 Oxford High School attack and said Thursday he will propose this month that the board make third-party reviews of such incidents in the county mandatory.

Board Chairman David Woodward, D-Royal Oak, vowed to seek funding for the review, citing reporting in The Detroit News that he said raised new questions for him about the law enforcement response to the mass shooting that killed four students and wounded seven other individuals . The story revealed concerns by two area fire chiefs that Oakland County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers took too long to call them to the scene.

“I have always been under the impression there was a flawless response (to Oxford) in terms of timeline and action,” Woodward said. “The articles highlighted some very serious concerns from first responders and families that need to be addressed.”

In separate allegations, Oxford Fire Chief Matthew Majestic and Addison Fire Chief Jerry Morawski told The News that they self-dispatched their crews on Nov. 30, 2021, when the high school came under attack. Their concerns prompted victims’ families to renew calls for a so-called “after action review,” as has been done with other school shootings nationwide.

The News also reported that Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, a Republican, declined to participate in such a review as requested by county Executive David Coulter’s office in January.

Woodward said he wants all mass shooting events to be independently reviewed, including the June 15 mass shooting at a Rochester Hills splash pad that wounded nine people.

“If there is value to improving the ways things are done then that is why you do them. It’s not a gotcha,” Woodward said. “It’s how do we improve so — God forbid — if an event like this happens again, …we are better coordinated, better trained and better able to respond to these events.”

The county is beginning to put together its next fiscal budget, which starts Oct. 1. Woodward said he would work to make the money for the review available in upcoming budget negotiations. He said he also wants the state to contribute funding to an after-action review for Oxford and anywhere across the state where they are needed.

The review, typically undertaken by an outside agency to learn from the actions taken by the coordinating police agency and its partners during a mass shooting incident, was sought and supported by Coulter, a Democrat.

Through his spokesman Steve Huber, Bouchard said Thursday he would be willing to participate in an independent review.

“We would be fully willing to participate in an independent review, as we already did with the Guidepost review,” said Huber, referring to the consulting firm that reviewed the Oxford school district’s response. “We were turned down when we asked for (after -action review) funding over 2 1/2 years ago and managed in the ensuing years to do one on our own.“

The Guidepost review and its report, however, were limited to investigating the school district’s role and response to the attack — not emergency responders.

Funding dispute

Bouchard’s department conducted a debriefing a month after the attack. Changes that came out of that review included asking a software vendor to create a priority tab system within the dispatch computer system and forming a tactical dispatch team for larger incidents, sheriff officials said. They also increased their dispatch staff and are reviewing fire department protocols annually.

Bouchard’s claims that he was denied funding by the county board for a videographer position to make a video about the incident are not accurate, Woodward said.

“I was never asked about an after-action review, nor were any commissioners and no amendment was ever offered for such an action,” Woodward said. “It was the decision of the sheriff’s office to not participate in the review with (Oakland County) Homeland Security.”

“This notion is very off-putting,” he added. “To suggest in any way that Oakland County said we would not fund an after-action review is complete BS. We are going to make it a matter of practice going forward.”

Woodward said it would be inappropriate for Bouchard to conduct his own review and that an independent review must be performed going forward. The county board would need to decide how to hire a third party for the review; it’s not clear how much one would cost.

“This absolutely cannot be done by his own office. As a matter of policy going forward, I would be recommending to our board in these cases we bring in an independent part to do an AAR,” Woodward said. “That is the practice every other agency and institution uses when these events happen.”

“If there is a breakdown, let’s identify it and fix it,” he added.

Woodward said he did not expect any opposition to funding from the board but thinks the state should also pay for such reviews. He also said such reviews should take place closer to when events unfold. The attack on Oxford happened 32 months ago.

Oxford lawmaker responds

Republican state Rep. Josh Schriver, whose district includes Oxford, said Thursday an after-action review must be done amid the first responders’ questions reported by The News, and he said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel should do it.

The Oxford victims’ parents also have asked Nessel, a Democrat, to investigate the shooting response. Nessel’s department has maintained that her office cannot launch its own investigation without the permission of the Oxford school board unless there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Nessel’s office has told the school board rejected two separate offers for her office to investigate in 2021 and 2022.

Schriver said he has had conversations with Nessel’s office about doing an independent investigation.

“Nessel can do it. Why hasn’t she? That is the question all the families in Oxford (have) asked,” Schriver said. “For me right now, what is needed is an investigation in this specific situation that is constantly evolving.

“The EMS needing to self-dispatch — that is unbelievable to read,” he added. “There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Victims’ families have also asked the State Board of Education for an independent investigation into the shooting funded by the Michigan Legislature that would include the emergency response. The request was sent to all state legislators on June 12. No legislators responded with a specific statement or answer, education department officials said.

State Board of Education member Tom McMillin, R-Oakland Township, opposed the measure, saying in June he asked the board to approve resolution language that would have asked state lawmakers to appoint a special committee and grant them subpoena power to investigate the attack.

“We need a bipartisan committee that has subpoena power. This is going to be our only shot,” McMillin told The News in June.

On Thursday, McMillin reiterated his concerns and pushed for a bipartisan subcommittee with subpoena power.

“A bipartisan State House or Senate committee with subpoena power is really the only way to get to the whole truth about what happened that day at Oxford High School,” McMillin said.

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