West Bloomfield Shares Police Command with Keego Harbor to ‘Help Out Our Neighbor’

Officials West Bloomfield Township and the city of Keego Harbor have agreed to share police command services under a temporary 90-day agreement that will cost the city about $2,240 weekly to add one commanding officer to Keego’s command chain per shift.

The agreement between the two jurisdictions was precipitated by Keego Police Chief Kenneth Hurst’s medical leave and could be extended for another 90 days if that’s necessary, The Oakland Press reports.

The agreement, signed earlier this month by officials from both the township and the city, takes effect April 7.

“To put it simply, instead of a shift sergeant supervising six officers, (he or she) would supervise seven or eight,” West Bloomfield Police Chief Michael Patton said. “We’ll be overlaying our command office onto their operation temporarily, but it won’t overwhelm our command structure in any way, shape or form.”

The police dpeartments in the two jurisdictions will have to iron out some differences in policies, but Patton noted the two have always had a strong working relationship.

Either party can back out of the agreement if it becomes unmanageable, he said.

West Bloomfield doesn’t intend to make the shared-service agreement permanent, though Patton said “that could happen” because mutual aid costs have risen over the past five years due to cost cutting.

“If they came to us, we’d engage in that discussion,” he said. “Right now, we’re just hoping to be of help to our neighbors and hoping that Chief Hurst comes back soon.”