Eaton County sheriff to suspend 24-hour out-county patrols because of staffing shortage

CHARLOTTE − The Eaton County Sheriff's Office will suspend around-the-clock patrols in out-county, or rural, areas in late September because of staffing issues, officials said.

Sheriff Tom Reich announced the decision Thursday afternoon, saying recruiting and retention struggles linked to pay disparities prompted him to temporarily halt 24-hour service outside of Delta Township, effective Sept. 25. Michigan State Police have agreed to cover the out-county areas during the early morning hours, he said.

"My office wants to provide 24-hour coverage, we just currently don’t have the personnel to accomplish this," Reich said in a Facebook message. "Let me assure you that once our wages are comparable to that of area agencies, which would make recruitment and retention more attractive ..., this will hopefully bring us back to staffing levels to resume 24-hour service."

Sheriff's officials met with commanders from MSP's Lansing Post, who agreed to reallocate troopers to cover Eaton County during the sheriff's department's off hours, Chief Deputy Adam Morris said. If troopers are mobilized for an emergency and can't cover Eaton County calls, the sheriff's department will step in, he said.

"We made a commitment we would post overtime to make sure there is never a gap in coverage for the county," he said.

A state police official did not immediately return a phone message left for him on Thursday evening.

Morris said deputies will be on call, with a patrol vehicle at their homes, to respond in case of a major emergency. Deputies assigned to Delta Township also will be available to respond if a life-threatening situation develops, he said. The sheriff's department's Delta Township division has 24 deputies, funded under a contract with the township.

In any case, wait times for overnight non-priority calls will increase, Morris said. Some outlying cities and townships — such as Charlotte, Eaton Rapids and Potterville — have their own full-time police forces, but rural townships rely on the sheriff's office or MSP.

"The response times are going to suffer," he said. "It's going to be like a triage, a prioritization of calls. It will be up to the on-duty supervisor to determine that."

The change comes a few weeks after Reich proposed offering $10,000 bonuses to sheriff's deputies in an effort to keep them on board and recruit new ones. Officials discussed using unspent funds in the sheriff's department budget, such as money budgeted for unfilled positions, or allocating some of the county's unused American Rescue Act money

The proposal, however, didn't make it past the Eaton County Board of Commissioners Ways and Means Committee, which instead opted to recommend the county reopen contract negotiations over wages and benefits with sheriff's department unions. Committee members said they preferred a long-term solution to the retention problem over temporary bonuses.

Morris said the bonuses were intended as a stop-gap measure until the current labor contracts expire in December 2024. They would have put the county in the middle of the median pay scale for police in the tri-county area, he said.

Officials are now "working through the terminology" for reopening negotiations over salary and benefits, he said.

The sheriff's department is budgeted for 12 general road patrol deputies, plus two grant-funded secondary road patrol deputies, and four sergeants, Morris said. It now has nine deputies, including the two secondary road patrol deputies, and three sergeants.

The agency recently lost staffers to Portage, Kent County and Bath Township, all of which pay significantly more than Eaton County, he said. Despite recruitment efforts, it's received only one job application from a candidate who could be certified since December 2021, he said.

Eaton County deputies entry level wage is $45,511, Morris said, and county documents show the top salary is $59,488. In comparison, East Lansing police officers can earn up to $64,591.

Two people retired this month, and a sergeant resigned for personal reasons, Morris said. To make things worse, a captain is set to retire in October and the quartermaster leaves in November, he said.

Reich included this call-out in his Facebook post:

Anyone who wants to work in the law enforcement or corrections fields can call Capt. Chris Kuhlman in administrative services at 517-543-6384, or email him at Ckuhlman@eatoncounty.org.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Eaton County sheriff eliminating 24-hour patrols over staffing shortage