April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com

A Committee with the Livingston County Board of Commissioners has given the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office approval to apply for grants that would secure officers with new equipment.

On Monday, March 11th, the Courts, Public Safety, and Infrastructure Development Committee approved a resolution that authorizes the Sheriff’s Office to apply for grants toward three separate projects. The grants are issued by the State of Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) Project Proposals Grant Program.

Commissioners gave the Sheriff’s Office the green light to cumulatively apply for over $200k in OHSP funding, covering the period of October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. The OHSP Grant allows for multiple projects to be submitted independently for consideration, and are issued to law enforcement throughout the state for safety training and equipment. If the Sheriff's Office is awarded a grant for any or all projects, a separate resolution to accept the funds would be submitted to the Board of Commissioners for approval.

A requested grant of $156,500 would go toward the purchase of a new driving simulator, otherwise known as Emergency Vehicle Operations (EVO). In a written statement to Commissioners, Lieutenant Chad Sell said EVO is a ‘high liability task conducted daily by all public safety in Livingston County. Training for EVO is also a costly endeavor when using county owned vehicles at high speeds with wear and tear.’

Sheriff Mike Murphy told Commissioners if awarded the grant, the state-of-the-art computer driving simulator would be housed at the Sheriff’s Office and made available to all members of county law enforcement, along with Livingston County EMS for year-round training.

A second grant of $34,989 would be used to purchase 55 license barcode readers for the Sheriff’s Office’s fleet of patrol vehicles, as well as two fingerprint scanners.

After the Michigan Secretary of State upgraded Michigan Drivers Licenses to barcodes only at the start of 2024, Deputies became unable to scan the new style of barcode and needed to run information manually. The updated scanners quickly confirm the validity of driver's licenses to better assist at traffic stops, crash sites, and other incidents in-the-field.

Additionally, mobile fingerprint systems help law enforcement access information on a person via access to the Michigan State Police fingerprint system. The Sheriff’s Office would purchase two fingerprint scanners with the funds.

Portable crash scene lighting, with an estimated cost of $16,482, would also be purchased to assist officers with traffic incidents. Sheriff Murphy said Livingston County has one of the best traffic safety crews in the state of Michigan, and the new equipment would assist officers and first responders even further.

“We have one of the best traffic safety reconstruction crews in the entire state, so crash scene lighting would help them do just a little better job out there.”

A link to the meeting agenda and information regarding the resolution can be found at the provided link.