By Brad Devereaux
SAGINAW, MI — A bill that would give a
Michigan agency the power to make rules for reserve police officers has cleared
the Michigan Senate by a unanimous vote.
The bill to grant oversight of reserve
officers is a "step in the right direction" that has been needed for
a long time, the president of the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Michigan
says.
Sen.
Tonya SchuitmakerMLive/Kalamazoo Gazette file photo
Senate Bill 411, introduced by Tonya
Schuitmaker in June 2013, updates responsibilities of the Michigan Commission
on Law Enforcement (MCOLES) and allows the agency to create rules regarding
"minimum standards and procedures for reserve officers."
It passed through the committee on judiciary
in June 2013 and was referred to the committee of the whole. With every member
of the Senate voting on Sept. 23, it passed on a 38-0 roll call vote and was
sent to the House and read a first time that same day, then sent to the House
Committee on Judiciary.
Schuitmaker, R-Antwerp Township, said the
part of the bill that gives the the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement
Standards was included at the request of MCOLES and the Deputy Sheriff's
Association of Michigan and is intended to keep reserve officers in check from
going above and beyond the scope of their allowed duties.
Dave LaMontaine, a Monroe County sheriff's
deputy and the president of the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Michigan, said
a change regarding reserve officers has been needed for a long time.
Senate Bill 411 is "a step in the right
direction," he said.
Dave
LaMontaine
"There's widespread abuse," he said
of reserve officers in Michigan. "That bill is not going to fix the
problem, but it's a good start."
One of the primary issues is licensing, he
said, noting hairdressers, doctors, lawyers and others have to be licensed, but
reserve officers do not. LaMontaine said he wants the state to require
licensing of reserve officers, though the bill does not specifically call for
that.
An important part of the bill is that it
gives the deputy sheriff's association a seat on the MCOLES board, "and
we'll continue the discussion on licensing," he said. "We're going to
talk about it every time we can."
The association has been in talks with Gov.
Rick Snyder and his staff, LaMontaine said, and working closely with him on the
issues including oversight of reserve officers.
Currently, police chiefs and governments of
municipalities where reserve officers operate have full control of how their
reserve forces are run.
LaMontaine views the proper way to run a
reserve unit as the way Monroe County does. A collective bargaining agreement
there states a reserve officer must be directly supervised by a sworn officer.
"They're meant to augment, they're not
meant to replace licensed police officers," he said, noting there is
potential for other types of abuse without more oversight.
Explaining to citizens that he is a licensed
police officer is not something he wants to have to deal with while out doing
his job.
"I don't want a person I'm having
contact with question whether I'm a police officer or not. It's not a
conversation we need to be having with people," he said. "We don't
want people to question whether we're a real police officer, or somebody's
uncle."
MCOLES having oversight of reserve officers
would guarantee a vetting process that will allow the agency to know what
reserve officers' training processes are and what they can and cannot do, he
said.
"It will legitimize who these people
are," LaMontaine said, which is different from the current model.
"Who are they? I don't know."
"The problem we have right now is there
is no oversight. We don't know where these people came from, we don't know what
training they got."
He said some reserve officers are out at
sporting events and they often look the same as licensed police officers.
"At a Detroit Tigers game or a Lions
game, you think you're seeing a Wayne County sheriff's deputy," he said,
but some are reserve officers. "It's frightening to me as a licensed and
certified police officer.
"We're not there, but we're moving in
the right direction," he said. "And it's for the first time ever.
I've been in law enforcement for 26 years. It's been an issue for
us for a long time."
Michigan police reserve units face scrutiny
LaMontaine called the situation in Oakley,
where there is a police department that includes about 100 reserve officers for
a village of nearly 300 people in southwest Saginaw County, "probably an
example of pretty significant abuse," but did not give specifics.
"There are others, too."
In Saginaw County in July, MCOLES and the
Michigan Attorney General's Office began an investigation of the village of
Oakley, several months after a Saginaw News series revealed the village was
being dropped from its insurance coverage through the Michigan Municipal League.
Oakley Chief of Police Robert Reznick
operates a police force with about a dozen certified officers.
The league cited rthe Oakley Police
Department's lack of cooperation in the league's risk management efforts as one
reason to drop the insurance.
The Saginaw News broke the news about the
controversy in an ongoing series published starting in March called,
"Small Town, Big Problem."
