Diversity of Police Services Offered Depends on Millage Vote, Chief Says

Tuesday's election is drawing closer every day, but as voters, what do we know about what is really being asked of us?

Patch will interview police and fire chiefs, township officials and taxpaying citizens during the ramp-up to the vote on proposals for a public safety millage renewal — and an increase — to help explain where your money goes and why.

In West Bloomfield, we'll vote on a 10-year renewal of the township’s existing public safety millage at its current rate of 3.1378 mills, and in a separate ballot question, we'll vote on an 11-year increase of 2.85 mills.

A mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. The owner of property with a taxable value of $100,000 (about $200,000 market value) currently pays $313.78 annually in property taxes for public safety services and would continue to pay that amount for 10 years if the existing millage is renewed.

If the increase is also approved, the same owner would pay an additional $285 annually for 11 years.

Patch welcomes letters to the editor regarding the public safety millage. Please include your first and last name as well as the city or township in which you reside and write to: tim.rath@patch.com.

Diverse, deep range of services require more manpower

In order to understand the direction in which the is headed, it's important to understand what it currently does, according to Chief Michael Patton. Due to the wide range of services offered by WBPD — wider than that offered by many neighboring communities, Patton said — the department's 71 core officers are stretching their time as far as it can go.

"From 18 months ago, we're down 10 officers. Is there anything we're doing operationally that we weren't doing before? No," said Patton, who "Ideally, I’d like to add a few more officers to the patrol division, but we’re at the threshold now," he said.

Patton said that although West Bloomfield's crime rate remains low — decreasing this year from last year and the year before that, according to — additional staff is required in order to provide for various services offered beyond the patrol division. Patton said that while he could not divulge a number of officers who could be expected to be cut if the renewal and the increase fail at the polls, citizens could expect to see a "collapse" in service in a short time frame.

"We probably service some crimes — stolen identities, for one — that other communities have to sit back and say, 'That’s too much work. The chances of us finding anything are too low,' " Patton said. "They have to allocate their resources, but we make a stab at it.

"Our traffic safety bureau people do child safety seat inspection, because they’re trained to do that," he continued. "Those are value-added things we do for the community, and the community has always been good to us."

Officer cuts possible if millages fail

Although the department has had more officers in the past, Patton said the force is unlikely to return to its peak of 81 officers. He said administrative and civilian positions have been cut since he took over for retired Chief Ron Cronin, including the deputy chief jobs, two lieutenant positions and a sergeant job, but he said closer-to-the-community jobs, such as the school resource officer position and drug enforcement officers, could be cut if the renewal and the increase fail.

"The student population means you’re looking at a microcommunity in itself of several thousand people. If there’s a fight, a disturbance, a threat — we can send a uniformed patrol officer over there, but they won’t know the staff or the students as well. They won’t have any knowledge or history of any relationships," Patton said.

"Drugs are just the opposite," he said. "They're not confined to little corners, they're everywhere, and we need staff dedicated to stopping them."

Patton added that drug enforcement services provide "good bang for the buck" relating to federal forfeiture grant money. According to the proposed 2012 budget, the department is expected to collect $39,200 in total federal forefeitures, including money to help fight drug trade.

Overall, Patton said, he's optimistic that the renewal and the increase will be passed in order to avoid a fate similar to that of Pontiac's Police Department, which shut down this past summer and was taken over by the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

"When you think about the possibility of West Bloomfield's property values coming back up, as opposed to Pontiac's, I'd say that ours are probably a little better.

"There are lots of other options we'll look to in order to save money in the future," Patton said. "Some things, like shared service agreements, will definitely be considered.

"I've lived here for 19 years and worked 26½ years, and people have always supported the necessity of police and fire."