Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Increasing calls for service, more traffic and crashes, and a need for additional officers on the road are issues facing numerous law enforcement agencies - including Green Oak Township Police.

The department is working to educate residents and the community about three upcoming millage requests that will appear on the August 6th Primary ballot.

Two are straight renewals for the police and fire departments, while the third is a newly proposed general millage request to replace the current township millage. The latter seeks 2.61-mills for 20 years – an increase from the current .7999-mills. It would restore funding lost to Headlee rollbacks, and provide funding for increased election security and requirements related to the voter-approved Proposal 2; police and fire department capital purchases; public safety, and general operations.

The Board of Trustees has also passed a resolution clarifying that of that, 1-mill will be dedicated solely to the Police Department, and .61-mills to the Fire Department.

Police Chief Steven Kramer told WHMI the department has always been behind on staffing and the hope is that with the additional millage, they can get up to where they should be. He said they did a recent study that showed they’re short eight officers for their call volume and crashes are substantial in the area.

Kramer said the department has less officers per resident and per square miles than major departments in the county and they handle about the same number of calls - if not more than the majority - and their officers are really taxed on their call volume.

In 2010 - 14 years ago - Kramer said they had a total of 15 officers and are currently at 17 – meaning the department has not been able to grow with the current millage to meet the needs of citizens.

Kramer said the township population has increased by about 2,500 residents - which doesn’t include the amount of traffic, businesses, or people visiting parks within the township - and unfortunately, the department has not grown with that.

Kramer said the department has seen a huge increase in not only traffic-related calls in general but crashes, and they’ve had a significant jump in assaults, frauds targeting the elderly community, and calls from people who are mentally ill or having a mental-episode. He stressed said they need more officers to help offset the increase in call volume – citing about 3,000 more calls for service than in 2014. Kramer added that traffic is also one of their “number one complaints from citizens”.

Recruitment and retention in law enforcement is also difficult but Kramer said they’ve been very fortunate and have been able to fill spots with extremely qualified officers - which they’ll continue moving forward. He attributed that to the department’s culture, adding the support they have from the township and citizens is “outstanding”.

Kramer said the department has also been doing a lot more community events and involvement - not only in Green Oak but the surrounding community. With the additional millage, he said they’re hoping to get a community resource officer, hire a traffic enforcement division, and others for general patrol. Kramer said there are a lot of responsibilities and giving all of that to an officer who is also trying to handle calls and investigations is very difficult.

If passed, some millage funding would go toward technology improvements, which Kramer said are constant, including body-worn cameras and in-car cameras. With crimes like fraud becoming more prevalent, he said technology is needed to help investigate those. Kramer added law enforcement, like the community as a whole, is constantly changing for the better and they need to be able to fund those improvements.

The millage would also allow the department to continue rotating vehicles and avoid the high cost of repairs - with Kramer commenting they’ve had extreme costs for repairs because they’ve had to keep vehicles much longer.

Kramer encouraged anyone in the community with questions about the requests to reach out to him at steven.kramer@greenoakpolice.com.

More information about the proposals is available on the township website. That link is provided.