A retired Detroit Fire Department lieutenant and dispatcher has been charged with lying to federal investigators after allegedly using her access to a shared police and fire dispatch system to warn her family that FBI agents were about to raid their home. Stephanie Carol Steen was named in a criminal complaint filed Monday, accusing her of tipping off her mother and brother hours before agents arrived at a house on Turner Street early on March 5, 2025.
According to the complaint, as reported by Metro Detroit News, Steen was working an overnight shift from 6 p.m. on March 4 through 6 a.m. the next day at the shared police and fire dispatch center inside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters when her assigned username was used to view the Turner Street search entry. The raid itself was carried out by FBI agents, U.S. Department of Labor investigators, Detroit police and other agencies as part of a broader unemployment insurance fraud and bribery investigation, with several searches conducted across metro Detroit that morning, according to The Detroit News. Steen's brother, identified in the complaint only as C.B., was named as a subject of that investigation, while her mother is identified as C.S. The two reportedly lived together at the Detroit home that was searched.
Calls, Texts and a Countdown to the Raid
Investigators allege Steen called her mother around 3:17 a.m. for nearly three minutes, according to the news outlet, and T-Mobile records separately documented a 30-second call from Steen's number to a number used by her mother. The pair reportedly began exchanging text messages at 3:23 a.m., with Steen allegedly telling her mother the operation was supposed to begin at 4:30 a.m. and suggesting officers would probably arrive around 5 a.m., as reported by WDIV ClickOnDetroit. She allegedly told her mother to sit on the porch at 4:45 a.m. and, per the outlet's account, instructed her to tell agents she was waiting outside for an Uber Eats delivery.
The complaint further alleges Steen asked whether everyone in the house had identification and warned that officers would enter with guns. Investigators say she told her mother, “don’t tell them I told you,” and later sent a message reading, “I’m on the way.” The same account states Steen placed additional calls to her mother at about 3:41 a.m. and 4 a.m. — all before agents actually carried out the search around 4 a.m., a time the complaint notes occurred earlier than the times Steen had given her mother.
Traps, Facebook Posts and a Seized Phone
Steen's brother allegedly told another person, in messages he was reportedly exchanging over Facebook Messenger as the raid approached, that his house was about to be raided at 4:30 a.m., that he would stand his ground, and that “I got connections there too.” He is also alleged to have said, “I’m setting traps now so they can hurt themselves,” describing oil over a door and ice on the steps, and to have posted “I’m up I’ll be waiting” along with messages about calling off work, hiring a lawyer, arranging bail money and disconnecting the power. He also reportedly called a work absence line and urged others to move everything out of the house that morning.
The complaint, as detailed by the outlet, states that FBI agents discovered the brother's public Facebook posts about the coming raid the day after the search, while a phone seized during the operation later revealed his private Messenger exchanges. A court authorized a search of Steen's and her mother's Apple iCloud accounts on July 11, 2025, and Apple records reportedly contained the text conversations described in the complaint. The complaint notes that lights were on and people inside the home were awake and moving before agents entered, though it does not establish that any traps were actually set or that anyone was injured.
Confirming the Login and Steen's Denials
Detroit Police Internal Affairs confirmed on February 3 that the username “steens121” was assigned to Steen, according to the complaint's account; employee usernames reportedly incorporate a worker's last name along with the final three digits of a uniquely assigned pension number. A follow-up check on February 9 found no other employees with the surnames Steen or Stein in the communications division or elsewhere in the fire department, and investigators obtained another confirmation of Steen's assigned login on February 18.
Steen has denied wrongdoing throughout the investigation. She reportedly told federal investigators on January 30 that she had not learned about the search until after leaving work the day of the raid, and she denied that the username steens121 belonged to her. She is quoted in the complaint saying, “I don’t remember anything back in March,” and, when asked directly, “No sir it’s not.” She also said her mother was elderly and that she was concerned for her safety, and stated, “I did not disclose any sensitive information.”
A Two-Decade Career Ends Amid the Case
Steen was hired by the Detroit Fire Department on January 29, 2001, and worked there as a dispatcher before retiring on March 27, 2026 — roughly six months before the complaint against her was filed on September 28. The dispatch system recorded a request for a marked Detroit police car to assist with the Turner Street search at about 3:10 a.m. on March 5, 2025, and agents had reportedly scheduled the operation around her brother's work schedule.
The Detroit Fire Department identified Steen as a former member of its communications division and said it fully cooperated with the federal investigation, but deferred further comment because the case remains ongoing. The criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, though details on any plea, arrest status or scheduled court dates were not available in the record reviewed.
