William Hart

William L. Hart (January 17, 1924 – November 22, 2003) a position for which he was hired by Coleman Young, the mayor of the Detroit, in 1976; Hart served as a Detroit policeman for four decades, He was honored by the AARP in 1988 and in 1992 sentenced to 10 years' prison and ordered to pay back $2.3 million he had stolen.

Personal life Hart was a World War II military veteran. Before moving to Detroit to find work, Hart lived in Pennsylvania until 1949, where he worked at a coal mine until it closed. Hart obtained a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's in social education from Wayne State University. In 1973, he graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. In 1978, Hart was a guest lecturer at Michigan State University, in the College of Urban Development. Hart also secured a PhD in educational sociology from Wayne State. William Hart died at 79 years of age, in Philadelphia. In the early 1970s, when the Internal Affairs Section was created (replacing the Citizen Complaint Bureau), Hart was one of only two officers selected to start it up. In May 1988, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) honored Hart with a special commendation for "outstanding work with and for Detroit's older citizens", to serve as model "for other communities throughout the country."

Indicted in February 1991, following a two-year investigation, of embezzling $2.3 million, Hart also used the embezzled funds to purchase what the press described as luxury cars and other gifts, including cash, trips and concert admissions for Hart's three girlfriends; to buy $1000-a-week worth of lottery tickets, and to pay for renovations to his residence and his Canadian cottage. Roughly one-half of the grafted money was laundered through front companies created by the Deputy Chief, who was separately convicted and sent to prison; Hart was acquitted of witness tampering and of a charge of conspiracy with the convicted Deputy Chief. Hart was sentenced to the maximum penalty allowed by law, 10 year's prison, for graft, in August 1992; he was 68 years old at the time. Hart was ordered to pay back $2.34 million.

Hart served only seven years in jail, and was released in 1999.

Tax convictions Hart was convicted for submitting false tax returns in 1986 and 1987. He was acquitted of tax evasion in 1985. He was sentenced to three years for each of two counts of tax evasion, but these times were to run concurrently with his embezzlement conviction.

Assessment Following Hart's 1992 conviction, Detroit mayor Coleman A. Young said: «Bill Hart was a good man and a good cop".»