Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main said he is limiting the deputization for all local law enforcement due to the loss of his department's road patrol.
Previously, The Central Michigan University Police (CMUPD), Mount Pleasant Police (MPPD), and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police had a blanket deputization, allowing them to operate throughout the county.
They are now limited to getting approval by Michigan State Troopers on a case-by-case basis.
Main said the reason behind limiting local law enforcement is because he no longer has any supervision over their actions in the county with the loss of the 24/7 road patrol. He said this raised some concerns within his department’s risk management team.
“I was always in the loop,” Main said. “(Deputies) would call me in the middle of the night and say, ‘Hey, this is what's going on.’ … Without the deputies, we don't have that anymore. Can you imagine giving authority to 70 or 80 police officers and you have no idea from day to day what's going on?”
In November, voters struck down a $3.7 million millage that funded 20 positions within the sheriff’s office. Since the mileage failed to pass, state police have been filling in for the county's vacant road patrol.
MPPD Public Information Officer David Coffman said this new deputization will require officers to take an extra step when working on a case.
“We now get authority through the state, and it is a different process from a different authority,” Coffman said. “It just adds one extra step for us if we're going to act in a law enforcement capacity outside of the city.”
One result of the limited deputization is that CMUPD will no longer be able to help students outside of the university's campus.
CARES Reports are forms that are filled out whenever a student is showing concerning and possibly dangerous signs of struggling with their mental health. If a report is filed on a student who lives off-campus, CMUPD will have to contact another agency to address it.
“If one of those reports gets elevated to the CMU Police Department and requires a police response outside of our jurisdiction, we notify the appropriate police agency so that they can respond as appropriate,” said CMUPD Lieutenant Michael Sienkiewicz.
Main said giving local agencies a blanket authorization is uncommon compared to other counties. He said that it's too early to discuss the future of returning these departments to the level of authority they previously had.
“I don’t think we would not revisit the blanket deputization,” Main said. “Most counties don’t do that but we always felt confident and comfortable with our partners when we had people on the road and reporting back. If and when the deputies return, it certainly would be a conversation that we would have again to see if that's viable.”
He said state police are handling emergencies properly but there is a negative impact that comes from losing an entire road patrol.
"You can’t remove 20 hardworking law enforcement officers that took over 17,000 calls for service a year and not expect some sort of negative impact,” Main said.
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police Department declined our request for comment on this story.
