The sting of the recession and the stinginess of the Legislature have left the Detroit area suburbs with dwindling police forces decimated by layoffs.
That is the conclusion of another eye-opening piece published online by Bridge Magazine. We all know the story about cities, villages and townships across Michigan forced to make cutbacks in a variety of services due to anemic property tax collections plus Lansing’s drastic reductions in state revenue sharing.
But Bridge found that similar budget-chopping actions by localities did not take place in other Midwestern states, and the Michigan cuts in police protection – regardless of crime rates – were dramatic.
For example, the number of cops lost in one decade statewide was 2,300 – twice the number of officers in the entire Michigan State Police force.
Because of the state’s broken municipal finance system, local officials are forced to cut police protection because it typically represents the biggest department, with police personnel costs as the biggest expense.
Relying on FBI statistics, Bridge created a database that provides comparable details from 2005 to 2014 on the size of police departments in 326 Michigan communities.
The news for the Detroit suburbs is startling.
In Oakland County, the communities that have suffered from police force reductions between 20 percent and 50 percent include Troy, Ferndale, Waterford Township, Madison Heights and Oak Park.
In suburban Wayne County, those localities witnessing cop cuts in that 20-50 percent range include Northville, Romulus, Grosse Pointe Woods, Wayne and Livonia.
In Macomb County, the range of reductions isn’t quite as bad but the towns with 15 percent to 40 percent less cops on the beat since 2005 include Warren, Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, Fraser, Eastpointe, Roseville, Center Line, Chesterfield Township and Utica.
Legislative theft: Michigan ranks last in funding for cities
