New information shows Lansing police board member’s special requests prompted controversial sex sting

LANSING — Documents released by city officials Tuesday evening show that Lt. Larry Klaus, who oversees the police department’s special operations unit, coordinated a controversial May 22 sex sting in Fenner Nature Center, responding to a Board of Police Commissioners member’s requests that have been criticized as inappropriate and out of step with proper police protocol.

In a May 20 email from Klaus to his special operations unit, he wrote:

“I’d also like to get Police Commissioner, Jan Kolp off my back and help out Lt. Nosotti. Apparently the fella’s are out in full force at Fenner looking for male love. I’d like to set up some surveillance and see if we can catch a couple of them servicing one and other, so they can be charged with Gross Indecency.”

The email seems to run counter to earlier statements by Kolp who has argued she did not call in her capacity as a police commissioner but only “as a person who has lived on Forest Road for 40 years and president of Forestview Neighborhood Association … I would hope they would handle anyone’s complaint the same way.”

Kolp declined to comment Tuesday when reached for comment.

The email, as well as two other internal communications and the arrest reports from the May sting operation were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Michigan Messenger, City Pulse newspaper, the Lansing Association for Human Rights and the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation in early June. The request was originally denied by Lansing police on June 10, and upheld Monday night by Lansing City Council President Derrick Quinney.

But Lansing City Attorney Brigham Smith released the documents after learning the Ingham County prosecutor had successful charged and convicted two men arrested during the sting.

As the document was being released by email to Michigan Messenger, Lansing Police Chief Mark Alley was defending the Board of Police Commissioners and his officers.

“I know the officer would not go out and do something they wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “I don’t see this as Jan Kolp, or any Police Commissioner, giving direction to the officers.”

Tom Hendrickson, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said Kolp’s actions were “disruptive” to the chain of command of the police department. Asked if such action were dangerous, Hendrickson said: “Absolutely.”

“You have officers or departments acting independently or responding to some one else. They are serving a different master or command structure,” he said.

Alley contested Hendrickson characterization. “I’m not sure why he would say that.”

Hendrickson, who started his career in law enforcement as an attorney with the Lansing police, said most police agencies report to a mayor, city council or a city manager, and do not have a police commission overseeing them. He said it was essential to have a firm policy in place.

But Alley said Lansing doesn’t have one.

“There is no specific policy in place for the police commissioners to contact the department,” Alley said. The chief also acknowledged that commission members receive a copy of the body’s charter, spend a day touring various police departments and participate in on-going education about the department.

“Whenever you are a police commissioner or city council member or you’re mayor, you have to be careful what you say, how you say it, because it’s taken with a greater weight,” Eric Hewitt, who represents the city’s First Ward, said in an interview on Monday.

Alley said he didn’t “recall us ever having a training” to address the issue of “extra weight” given to reports from appointed and elected officials.