A Detroit police sergeant who has been sued at least eight times since 2009 and has been the subject of dozens of civilian complaints was removed from patrol duty last week.
Sgt. Stephen Kue had been accused of harassing citizens of color and using racist language, an investigation by 7 Action News showed. Kue was removed just hours after the details of the allegations were made public. During Kue’s 12 years of service with the Detroit Police Department, he has been the subject of 85 civilian complaints. That is more than ten times the average for officers in the department, which stands about eight.
According to Julie Hurwitz, an attorney suing Kue and the department on behalf of a man she says was wrongly shot at and arrested, Kue’s track record is “mind-blowing.”
She told 7 Action News, Kue “had a history of citizen complaints and force investigations within the department that was as long, longer, more extensive than any officer’s personnel history I’ve ever seen.”
According to internal records, nearly the all the complainants who listed their race were non-white, and almost all of those people were Black.
Chris Graveline, the director of DPD’s Professional Standards Division, called the racial data a “concerning pattern.”
Two brothers claimed in a complaint that they were randomly accused of possessing drugs by Kue as they stood in the street near their home and that Kue used the N-word to refer to them several times. In total, four people told investigators Kue had used the slur. The complaint was sustained, but Kue appealed and a commanding officer later dismissed the charge without providing a reason.
Many of the complaints against Kue allege he targeted people of color, used racially demeaning language and used or threatened to use excessive force.
Quory Collins, a 38-year-old Black man, described Kue as “a gangster with a badge.”
