Senator Valde Garcia (R-22nd District), Chair of the Senate Committee on State Police and Military Affairs, invited DSAM representatives to a recent committee hearing on the current state of Law Enforcement efforts in Michigan.

MCOLES representatives there painted a grim picture announcing the state is down 1600 Police Officers since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Representatives from MSP's Criminal Justice Information Center pointed out that although overall crime in the state is down slightly from 2000 to 2006 (5.5%), the number of arrests for those crimes has fallen sharply at 12.8%. Law Enforcement representatives at the hearing focused on this number and relayed to Senator Garcia that fewer law enforcement officers mean fewer arrests which mean streets that are not as safe.

According to a MIRS article about the hearing Garcia said he wants to take the data presented at the hearing to craft a study designed to make sure the state's scant resources go where they can be put to the most use. This type of study is something that DSAM has been calling for years to ensure that Law Enforcement dollars in the state are being used most effectively.

Click here to read the invitation DSAM recieved to the Hearing

Click here to read DSAM's response to Senator Garcia from Executive Director Larry Orlowski

Click the "Read More" link to read article about the hearing from  

Read the article from Gongwer

Read the article from MIRS below: 

 ARTICLE FROM MIRS:

Murders Up 20%, Cops Down 7%
Michigan experienced a seven-year high in murders in 2006 and a general upswing in the number of all crimes since 2004, Michigan State Police (MSP) officials announced today.

The numbers were released today at a Senate MSP Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, where officials from the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (M-COLES) shared 2007 numbers that showed Michigan has 7 percent fewer police officers since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The combination of the two numbers was not lost on law enforcement officials, who came to the meeting to push its case that segments within the policing communities must be better funded in the name of public safety.

"The state of law enforcement in our state is not good," said Michigan Chiefs of Police president George BASAR. "We are down 1,600 officers and this has had a serious impact on keeping our communities safe."

Sen. Valde GARCIA (R-Howell), the chair of the Senate subcommittee, put some perspective on the otherwise scary numbers. He pointed out 82 percent of the 1,566 law enforcement positions lost since 2001 came from either the city of Detroit or the MSP, which some are looking to phase out of the road patrol business anyway. He also questioned the role local government consolidation and efficiencies played in the reduction.

As far as today's crime numbers from the MSP's criminal justice information center (CJIC), it's accurate to say that in many cases crime is up or down based on where the starting point is. According to numbers presented by CJIC Director Diane SHERMAN, crime in Michigan is down since 2000 when the state had more police officers but up since 2004, when the recent trend in law enforcement officer job cuts have leveled off.

But a review of the numbers showed that Michigan saw 744 murders in 2006, 20 percent higher than the 610 reported in 2003, which was the state's seven-year low. Also, violent crime in general — murders, robberies, rape and aggravated assault — are at their highest levels since 2000.

Compounding the problem is the number of arrests of violent crime, which is at a seven-year low. The number is most striking when it comes to murders. A total of 1,356 arrests were made in connection with murders in 2000, but only 252 were made in 2006.

Sherman pointed out that crime in other areas is down. Property crime — break-ins, vandalism, etc. — was down 7.6 percent in 2006 from 2000. When all types of crime are taken into account, actual incidents are down 5.5 percent from 2006 from 2000.

But again, arrests for those crimes are dropping at a faster rate — 12.8 percent, a number that the law enforcement officers testifying before Garcia's committee keyed in on. Be it the Southeastern Michigan officers, the city of Detroit, the county sheriffs, prosecutors or troopers association, the theme was the same: Fewer law enforcement officers mean fewer arrests which mean streets that are not as safe.

Michigan had 23,157 law enforcement positions in 2001. According to MCOLES, that number is down 1,566 positions by the end of 2007. When unfilled vacancies are taken into account, the number of bodies enforcing laws is 21,015.

M-COLES Executive Director Raymond BEACH said the loss in officers have stabilized in recent years, but even those numbers are misleading. The state's smaller police departments are carving up fewer hours to officers that are increasingly taking second jobs to make ends meet,

"You're still seeing a loss of service," Beach said. "We're still trying to put band-aids on the system."

Cities have been particularly hit by the loss of police officers, which has been the product of the end of a federal program put in place by former President Bill CLINTON to boost the number of officers on the street. But a decline in revenue sharing and city tax dollars from the state's sputtering economy has also caused cutbacks in departments across the country.

Detroit has lost nearly 25 percent of its police force, according to the numbers. Pontiac has lost 39 percent, River Rouge 30 percent, Saginaw 20 percent and Grand Rapids 13 percent.

The areas hardest hit appear to be the cities, where 254 city law enforcement agencies are down 11 percent. County sheriffs fared better in that, on an overall basis, positions were not lost. Several agencies even registered gains. However, 25 sheriff offices lost officers with Saginaw County losing 18 percent.

Garcia said he wants to take the data presented today to craft a study designed to make sure the state's scant resources go where they can be put to the most use.

ARTICLE FROM GONGWER:

POLICE OFFICIALS WARN LAW AND ORDER CONDITIONS NOT GOOD IN STATE

 

There are fewer police officers in the state, it takes months to get critical evidence back from scientific tests, the number of overall arrests of major crimes is down and in the last several years the rate of violent crime has gone up, top police officials from across the state told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee State Police and Military Affairs on Wednesday.

 

“The current state of law enforcement in Michigan is quite frankly not good,” said George Basar, Howell Police Chief and representing the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.

 

Departments are being forced to cut back on services, consolidate services with other departments, manage overcrowded county jails and are struggling to manage personnel overtime required because of smaller staffs, subcommittee members were told.

 

No one testifying before the committee directly said the state has to increase funding for law enforcement, but the lack of financial reserves was clearly the underlying cause for the problems.  And the financial problems were not just due to the state, officials said, cutbacks on the federal level since the administration of former President Bill Clinton were also blamed.  Deputy Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee said the city lost 110 police officers when federal grants were eliminated.

 

Wayne Beerbower of the Police Officers Association of Michigan suggested the state could look into creating some kind of a statewide retirement and health care system for local departments that could take some of the pressure off local units by providing lower overall costs that could then go into services.

 

Since 2001, the state has lost an estimated 1,500 police officers, said Ray Beach of the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.  More than 80 percent of that loss comes from Detroit and the State Police, officials said.  Detroit has lost 923 officers, while the State Police has lost 343.

 

Total crime in the state has declined since 2000, according to statistics from the State Police.   Through 2006, the latest year full statistics are available for, total reported incidents of crime fell from 1.11 million incidents to 1.05 million.

 

But since 2004, incidents of crime have gone up, especially of violent crimes, according to the statistics. From 2004 to 2006 there were 103 more murders statewide, from 641 to 744, there were more than 3,000 additional robberies and more than 4,800 aggravated assaults.

 

Diane Sherman with the State Police said early indications of 2007 statistics indicate violent crime may have declined, but data has only been reported from the state’s largest cities.

 

Robert Stevenson, Livonia Police Chief and speaking as president of the Southeast Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said cutbacks have forced local departments to regionalize some services such as SWAT teams, drug investigations and dispatch units.

 

And because of cutbacks in State Police services, such as laboratories, some police agencies have had to send evidence to laboratories out of state.  He described a situation where an elderly woman in an assisted living center was raped, with a suspect being a center employee, and it took eight months to get a DNA sample processed by the State Police.

 

While frustrating, Mr. Stevenson was also sympathetic, saying, “How do you prioritize which murderer, which rapist is more important?”

 

But the waiting creates a terrible situation for crime victims, said Livingston County Prosecutor David Morse, who know that they must often wait months before suspects in crimes involving them are even arrested let alone prosecuted.

 

While all officials deplored the state of law enforcement protection in the state, they sometimes differed on approaches to take, especially in regards to the State Police.  Mr. Stevenson urged the state to put a greater effort to protecting services like laboratories while Grand Rapids Assistant Police Chief Kevin Belt said if cuts are made to State Police highway patrols it effectively cuts Grand Rapids police staff on city streets.

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