Who Told Security Not to Let Him Into Westland City Hall?
What happened inside Westland City Hall on August 28 may have started before the man involved ever walked through the door.
And that's the question we want answered.
The man is a First Amendment auditor, someone who goes into public buildings with a camera to record government employees and see how they respond.
His visit to Westland City Hall didn't go well.
Video from that day shows a confrontation with security that eventually became physical. A Westland Police report was filed under case #26-40338.
But there's a moment in the video that deserves a lot more attention.
At about the 12:30 mark, a security guard can be heard saying:
“I was called. Don't let him in here.”
Called by who?
That's important.
Just a few weeks earlier, on August 3, Westland City Council unanimously approved an $80,000 contract with City Shield Security Services to provide security at City Hall.
NAIAS Security Services had been providing security, but its contract was not renewed. According to information provided to Voice of Westland, August 28 was NAIAS's final day at City Hall.
It turned out to be an eventful last day.
The city's own bid specifications for the new security contract are interesting when viewed alongside what happened. Westland said it wanted security personnel who could deal with problematic individuals with an emphasis on de-escalation and minimal physical interaction.
So we want to know what happened before this confrontation.
Who called the security guard?
Was it a City Hall employee? A department head? Another security employee? Someone else?
What exactly was the guard told?
And most importantly, why was he allegedly told not to let this particular person into Westland City Hall?
There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation.
But right now, we don't have it.
Recording inside a government building can involve rules and restrictions depending on where someone is standing and what they're doing. Simply carrying a camera doesn't automatically give someone unlimited access to every part of City Hall.
But this wasn't someone trying to walk into a private office unnoticed.
According to the video, security was apparently expecting him.
That's what makes those few words matter.
“I was called.”
Voice of Westland is working to obtain the police report connected to case #26-40338 and additional records surrounding the incident.
We also want to know whether City Hall has surveillance video, whether an internal incident report was completed and whether there are phone records or communications that could identify who contacted security before the confrontation.
We're not going to guess who made that call.
We're going to ask.
Because if someone at Westland City Hall told security not to allow a member of the public into a public building, residents deserve to know who made that decision and why.
This is a developing story.
