New deputy joins the ranks thanks to state funding
CENTREVILLE – St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department recently hired its first deputy trained through a government-paid incentive.
Undersheriff Jason Bingaman said the program is a big deal because it has changed the way law-enforcement agencies hire staff.
“It used to be, for the longest time, people would come to us trained and with a license, and then we would just hire them on,” he said. “Well, we don’t have enough people coming into law enforcement for that way to work anymore, so something had to change.”
The new deputy, Hunter Zinsmaster, is a Mendon native who has worked seasonally for the department’s marine patrol division.
Bingaman said the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards grant is in its second year. It has a pool of more than $20 million to share with qualifying agencies, Bingaman said. He said deputies Zach Radtke and Davanate Jennings – the two deputies hired most recently before Zinsmaster – completed their training but at the county’s expense prior to MCOLES.
That burden is now lifted thanks to the grant, he said.
“We’ve been heading this way and we’ve had heads of law-enforcement agencies going, ‘Look, we need some funding to get people in here,’” Bingaman said. “Staffing-wise, we’re down a bunch if you compare where we are today opposed to 15, 20 years ago. Hopefully that will change with this grant.”
Bingaman said a number of factors appear to keep interest in law-enforcement low. In his opinion, he said men and women in their 20s looking for career jobs have many other options with considerably less stress than law enforcement.
“Imagine getting into a line of work where you might be faced with making a split-second decision and you make the wrong one – just a good-old-fashioned, honest mistake – and it gets put all over the news and all over the internet, and some people out there, for whatever reason, just aren’t going to forgive an honest mistake,” he said. “So, there’s always the potential for a life-changing situation with every shift and as a young person, you might ask yourself if it’s worth it.”
MCOLES provides qualifying agencies $24,000 to cover the estimated $15,000 it costs for a new hire to complete police academy. The balance is allocated to the person being trained to ensure a steady paycheck over the four-month training – a luxury not previously afforded trainees.
“Every agency is different but for us, we give them a fair wage while they go through the academy,” he said. “Most people can’t take 17 weeks without pay, then pay out of their own pocket to go through the academy, so that’s how this grant has changed things.
“Now, we can look at anybody at any stage in their life, where they’re physically able to go through the academy and then say, ‘You know what? We’ll send you to the academy and you won’t have to worry about feeding your family,’” Bingaman added. “This grant is a huge game-changer.”
Bingaman said Zinsmaster and everyone who graduated with him at Kellogg Community College’s ceremony in December had already secured employment prior to going through the academy.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: New deputy joins the ranks thanks to state funding
