David Willis, a 2012 candidate for Macomb County sheriff and an avowed critic of Sheriff Anthony Wickersham and County Executive Mark Hackel, has written a provocative letter to the editor in today’s Macomb Daily.
Sgt. Willis wrote the letter while charges against him are still pending for misusing the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) last year to help his mother who, at the time, was serving as director of the county Department of Senior Services. The allegations are that Angela Willis wanted to dig up incriminating information against one of her staffers and turned to her son for help. 
Since then, she has been fired and her son is facing criminal charges. With the help of a public relations agency, David Willis fired back with a published letter featuring this headline, “Allegation is a political smear.”
Here is the text of the letter:
“I have been in law enforcement in Macomb County my entire adult life. I come from a family of cops. There are 15 of us, including father, uncles, brothers and cousins. I know the difference between right and wrong. I see wrong everyday on the streets as I work to protect the residents of Macomb County. I am also a candidate for sheriff.

“The allegation that I violated the LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network) system is politically motivated and orchestrated by a pack of political cronies now running our county government. This allegation is not about violating LEIN; it is purely an attempt to smear me and stop my campaign for Sheriff.

“I will fight this allegation until the charge is dismissed or I am vindicated and my name is cleared.

“For too long the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office has been run as a public relations bureau for the sheriff. An entire floor of our county jail is closed while county judges are restricted to quotas in sentencing criminals. This abuse of the public’s safety has got to stop.

“I served as an elected member of the Charter Commission that developed the new government being implemented in Macomb County, and I fully understand the financial pressures facing our county. But I firmly believe that public safety is the No. 1 responsibility of government. My campaign is based on that belief. We must let cops be cops and not politicians.

“I will begin visiting voters at their homes next month. I will not let this political smear stop my campaign for Sheriff. In Macomb County we need public safety, not public relations from the sheriff’s department.

David Willis
Sergeant
Macomb County Sheriff’s Office”

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