ONE on ONE Andy Arena:
ONE on ONE Andy Arena: Committed to fighting crime After nearly 25 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Andy Arena is still committed to fighting crime — just without the badge. In his new role, he is committed to helping the agencies that do fight crime daily. In 2007, Arena became the special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Division where he spent the last few years of his FBI career, but he did not head into retirement. He transferred his experience and skills into running the Detroit Crime Commission (DCC). As stated on their website, “the mission of the Detroit Crime Commission is to lessen the burdens of government and the citizens of the southeast Michigan area by facilitating the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime.” Chaldean News Co-publisher and Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Denha Garmo sat down with Arena inside his Detroit office. Chaldean News: After a long career with the FBI, what interested you in the Detroit Crime Commission? Andy Arena: It was an interesting thing. I was approached by a group of businessmen and attorneys who were thinking about putting together this Crime Commission. There are Crime Commissions in other parts of the country; Chicago has had one for 100 years, New Orleans for 60 years. They do different things. They came to me and a lot of other people in law enforcement and said, “What do you think?” I said, “I think it’s a good idea as long as you define the mission and you stay within the lanes and don’t step on toes.” Then they asked me, who would I hire? I gave them some names and they hired them. Then they came back and said, “Would you be interested in running it?” I was ineligible to retire at that point from the FBI, and I said, “I can’t.” About a year went by and then I was getting close to retirement age and I just had to re-evaluate. I had some job offers in the private sector. I had a job offer from the director of the FBI to go back to Washington. I looked at where I was at in my life and thought, I don’t want to move my kids, my family again. Ten times in 24 years is a lot of moving. CN: Really, you moved 10 times? That is a lot of moving. AA: Yeah. This is home. We’re from Detroit, so I looked at the DCC and thought this really intrigues me. It’s somewhat like public service. It’s a non-for-profit and we’re going to focus on quality of life and public safety issues. That’s really what interested me and this just seemed like a perfect fit for me in my next life. CN: For people that don’t really understand the Crime Commission, what is it? AA: We’re a non-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. We’re totally privately funded by grants from foundations or donations from the corporate side of the house. CN: Do you work closely with the prosecutor’s office, other law enforcement agencies? How are you working with other government entities now? AA: Very, very closely. The key to what we do is kind of proving ourselves. Initially, we had to ask, will these Andy Arena people understand what we’re doing, are they going to trust us or want our assistance? Today, it’s going very well. We work with the Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and we just partnered with the Mayor’s Office. They asked for our assistance on the scrap metal bill. Everything we do revolves around public safety and quality of life. That is our mission. We are privately funded. We’re made up of former law enforcement, FBI, State Police, Detroit Police and intelligence analysts. We have some very young, very sharp young folks here who have intelligence analytics background and most of them actually have a master’s in intelligence analysis from the University of Detroit. We have five full-time intelligence analysts now. We do a lot of different things. We investigate criminal activity that really doesn’t rise to the level that anybody else would look at it. CN: Can you give me an example? AA: It’s kind of hard because a couple of them are pending at Wayne County to get ready to charge. You’ll see some stuff coming out over the next couple of weeks, but we’ve investigated a number of groups, criminal organizations that just didn’t really rise up to the level that anybody would look at it. We put meat on the bones and give it to law enforcement and say, “Here it is. This is what’s happening.” We do a lot of analytical work. We look at crime data, all different types of sources of intelligence and kind of piece together what is causing the crime and who’s causing the crime. CN: Did you get involved in the scrap metal issue? Did you look at what was causing the crime? AA: Yeah, we looked at the crime problem and then we looked at the solution, so we did a lot of research around the country, what other states are doing, what works and what’s not working. That’s what we came up with, the payment control and things like that. The states that have been able to drive down scrap metal theft, those are the things they use. We do criminal investigations; we do a lot of analytical work, then we do sort of quality-of-life stuff. The next thing we’re going to look at is illegal dumping in the city of Detroit. CN: Was the scrap metal bill one of your biggest achievements thus far? AA: I think so. It was hard. Just going back to the analytical part real quickly, what we’re trying to do is to help law enforcement identify who and what is causing crime and help them better use the limited resources they have so they can focus resources on certain areas, certain groups, certain individuals that are causing chaos in the city. CN: So illegal dumping is the next thing you’re going to be looking at? What prompted this illegal dumping all over the city? AA: Let’s just say the city of Detroit. If you look at the blight problem, and the crime problem, and the scrapping problem, and illegal dumping, those things all kind of go together. If you have a house that goes vacant in a neighborhood, the gang bangers, the drug dealers and the prostitutes move into that property. The scrappers come in and then take anything of worth out of it. Then they burn the house to get the copper wire. A lot of the arsons in the city are driven by the scrap metal people. Then the next house goes vacant and the next, people start moving out and they just kind of deteriorate. Then the illegal dumpers come in. Now we’re not talking about Fred and Lamont Sanford coming out with a pickup truck. We’re talking about commercial loads coming from the suburban sites. When you go into some of these neighborhoods, you’ll see boats and you’ll see tires. Vast amount of tires. Where are those coming from? That’s coming from some tire shop somewhere. You’ll see big mounds of concrete, so that tells me that’s a demolition site. It’s much cheaper to bring that in and dump it than it is to go to the dump and pay. So you’re going to have concrete, you have asbestos. CN: I didn’t realize that was happening. Is it all over the city right now? AA: You’ll see certain areas. We’re working on Brightmoor right now and you’ll see areas where these trucks will come in and just dump. I’m talking about the double loader. 32 CHALDEAN NEWS MAY 2014
CN: Wow, that’s crazy. AA: You’ll see a load, a load, and a load. A triple decker came in here one night and just dumped it. CN: Do you know what they dumped? AA: We’re really looking at these commercial loads coming in. It’s obviously a building demolition site or some kind of a building site. You’ll see concrete, wood, dirt, things like that. Intermeshed with that will be things like asbestos, and it is not good. CN: Chaldeans, as you know, are business owners and a lot of them have businesses in Detroit and all over the county and they’re concerned obviously about crime. They have been for decades. How does the Detroit Crime Commission play into the role of helping businesses reduce crime and be more successful? AA: Two things. Number one is just the direct work we do at the police department. We have people embedded in Detroit Police Department’s crime analysis unit right now, but we work with Redford, Southfield and other departments in the area. As I said, we’re trying to help law enforcement focus on who and what is causing the crime. A lot of it is gangs. If we can help them focus the resources on the right people, that’s going to drive the crime down. And a lot of this is in and around these party stores and gas stations. Those seem to be kind of hubs because people come there to get gas, to shop. That’s an easy place to carjack, rob, whatever. The other thing we do is work with a lot of business groups. We had a number of businesses come to us and say, “Can you give us advice on how to strengthen our facility here? How do we become less of a target? How do we cut down the fraudulent check rings hitting us?” That’s a big problem in the stores — guys coming out with the fake, counterfeit checks. CN: How can business owners and citizens get involved with what you’re doing to help your efforts? What would you like to see them do? AA: There’s two things. Obviously donations; we certainly need money to hire. The more people we hire, the bigger we get, the more effective we will become. Secondly is the pro bono assistance from law firms like Dykema, Pepper Hamilton, the Flood Law Firm; they give us a lot. Deloitte gives us forensic accounting assistance. one on one continued on page 34 Analyze This: Analyst pieces together the path to helping others By Vanessa Denha Garmo Revan Hermiz is no stranger to hard work; he started at 12 years old washing dishes at a Chaldeanowned restaurant to help pay family bills. The oldest of three boys raised by a single mom, he intentionally paved a path he knew his brothers would follow. “I knew at a young age that I could go down a path of doing drugs, making money and doing the wrong things, or choose the academic path and live a good, honorable life. I knew I had to set a good example for my brothers,” said Hermiz. So he did. Knowing he has always wanted to help people, Hermiz is doing just that — by analyzing crime data. He is helping a whole lot of people by working with others to help the entire community combat crime. In school getting his second master’s degree, Hermiz, 25, is a full-time intelligence analyst for the Detroit Crime Commission (DCC). He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Oakland University before heading to the University of Detroit (U of D) Mercy for a master’s in intelligence analysis. Soon he will have a second master’s in cyber security from U of D Mercy. The intelligence master’s program is designed to help meet U.S. government demand for more specialists to assist in the tasks of homeland security in the face of threats from global terrorism. Revan Hermiz “The cyber security degree was basically to give me an edge when I apply to government agencies,” said Hermiz. “It gives me a better background. I always wanted to work hand-in-hand with the FBI or for the FBI.” As anticipated, Hermiz’s brothers are following in his academic footsteps. His middle brother is at Oakland University as a dual major in criminal justice and nutrition. The youngest brother is pre-med. Both want careers with the FBI. Shortly after starting his intelligence analysis program at U of D, a professor directed Hermiz to the DCC, which is headed by Andy Arena, former head of the Detroit FBI Division. Hermiz started out as an intern and eventually was hired full-time as an intelligence analyst. The DCC is a non-profit agency designed to assist government agencies in solving and reducing crime. On a day-to-day basis Hermiz’s job varies. “We assist the Detroit Police Department but I really can’t provide details because they are pending and sensitive cases,” said Hermiz. “We are always ready to help DPD and any other police agency. Every day there is something new.” The crimes they assist on cover a broad spectrum from theft to murder. “We have the intelligence background to analyze the crimes,” Hermiz said. They analyze behavior of criminals, patterns, data, statistics, facts and other aspects to determine a criminal’s next target, plan of attacks and to help solve crimes. Hermiz is finishing his master’s thesis on school shootings and will soon publish his findings. “We are trying to find connections to where, when and why they happen — what are some triggers,” said Hermiz. “I have analyzed more than 330 school shootings in U.S. history.” Hermiz has found patterns. “There are certain times of year that these shootings happen,” said Hermiz, “typically in the beginning and end of the year.” As he researched victims of school violence, he discovered much. “Often when kids are bullied, they don’t know how to react and what they do is go home, get their parents’ gun and take it to school,” said Hermiz, sitting in his Detroit office on the day the news reported that 20 kids were stabbed at a school in Pennsylvania. Citing another case, Hermiz said, “A kid in Ohio was being bullied by four kids every single day. So what did he do? He went home, got a gun, went back to the school and shot those four kids sitting at the table.” Hermiz cited the first-ever school shooting in his thesis, which took place in 1764 in Pennsylvania. “A dispute over territory; a group of Indians went to a school and opened fire,” said Hermiz. “The largest school attack was a school bombing in Michigan in the 1950s.” His thesis also includes a plan of action to deal with such bullying incidences that he hopes will prevent school shootings. Once his thesis is complete and Hermiz earns his second master’s degree, he will analyze his next plan of action. “I might go back to law school,” said Hermiz. He spent a year and half at Cooley Law before dropping out to getting his second master’s. “I know I want to end up at the FBI. That is my goal,” he said. “I am so fortunate to be working with Andy, who not only has tremendous experience but knows how to engage the community and get things done.” Whatever his future holds, Hermiz knows his life’s work will include helping others. “If anyone in the Chaldean community needs anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out,” said Hermiz. “If I can help with a crime issue or help a kid fill out financial aid for college, I am here. I am so proud of our community. We have moved on from being store operators to becoming educated, professionals and business leaders and so much more. I am so proud of our success.” MAY 2014 CHALDEAN NEWS 33
