A Detroit police officer is facing criminal charges after prosecutors say he helped himself to a woman’s explicit photos and videos while she was under arrest, sending the files from her cellphone straight to his own number. The accusations are fueling fresh anxiety inside the department and in the neighborhoods it patrols about what really happens to detainees’ phones once they are in handcuffs.
Derond Martez Crawford, a five-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, was arraigned Friday and charged with using a computer to commit a crime and interfering with electronic communications. A judge set a $100,000 personal bond, according to Metro Detroit News. Prosecutors told the court the alleged abuse of the phone followed a traffic stop that ended with the woman arrested on a probation violation and taken to the city’s detention center.
Michigan law separately criminalizes using a computer or similar device to commit another crime. The computer-use statute, MCL 752.796, treats phones and other electronic devices as covered tools and can add penalties on top of the underlying offense. The legislature’s text and related case law make clear that prosecutors can pursue the computer-use enhancement when digital communication is used to help carry out other crimes, according to the Michigan Legislature.
In court, prosecutors said Crawford removed the woman’s phone from her vehicle before she was officially booked. While waiting to enter the Detroit Detention Center, they allege, he accessed the device without permission and sent at least 11 sexually explicit photos and videos from the phone to a number that investigators later traced back to him. According to their account, the woman discovered the transfers later and filed a complaint. Prosecutors also said Crawford subsequently went to her home while off duty but in full uniform and driving a police vehicle, asked who lived there, then left. The judge ordered him to have no contact with the victim or witnesses, placed him on house arrest with an electronic tether, and Detroit police have suspended him while both criminal and internal investigations play out, according to Metro Detroit News.
The arrest and transport happened before the woman was booked into the Detroit Detention Center, the city’s short-term lockup for people awaiting arraignment. The facility’s role and address are detailed on the Michigan Department of Corrections website and in recent audits. Central lockups like this are typically where officers hand detainees over to corrections staff, and departments usually have set procedures for logging property, including phones, even if critics say the follow-through is not always consistent. More information about the Detroit Detention Center and its operations is available from the Michigan Department of Corrections.
What the Charges Mean
The count of "using a computer to commit a crime" is an enhancement tied directly to MCL 752.796. Courts have applied that statute in cases where phones, text messages, or online communications were used to help commit another crime. Interfering with electronic communications is charged under Michigan’s telecommunications provisions, the MCL 750.540 series. State courts have used that law in situations where a defendant deliberately disrupts or tampers with someone else’s calls or messages, as outlined in recent opinions available through the Michigan courts system.
Local Trust and Oversight
The case arrives at a politically touchy moment for the Detroit Police Department, which has already been dealing with lawsuits and criticism over arrest tactics and surveillance tools that residents and advocates say have chipped away at public trust. Legal filings and prior local reporting on those disputes help explain why fresh allegations of an officer misusing power spread quickly among community groups and media outlets, as reported by Metro Times.
Crawford remains suspended while facing both criminal charges and an internal affairs review. Court records from the arraignment spell out the counts against him, the bond amount, and the conditions that include the no-contact order and electronic tether. The case will now move through Detroit’s courts, where prosecutors will have to prove each element of the charges in open court.
