Vroom, vroom. Disbanded Michigan State Police motorcycle unit to return this spring

LANSING — The Michigan State Police is bringing back its motorcycle unit in metro Detroit, in a move aimed at improving traffic safety that may also lift trooper morale and aid recruitment.

Col. James Grady, the new MSP director, announced the return of the motorcycle unit in a memo last week.

Grady’s predecessor, Col. Joseph Gasper, disbanded the unit after the 2022 motorcycle season.

Grady said in the memo he decided to bring the motorcycles back “after considerable assessment.” The unit will be based in the 2nd District, which covers Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties, and have seven troopers and one sergeant, he said.

The unit’s “primary mission will be traffic enforcement, specifically working to reduce the number of fatal crashes by focusing on hazardous actions,” Grady said. The unit “will also serve a community engagement and recruitment purpose.”

Trooper safety was among the reasons cited by First Lt. Mike Shaw when the police motorcycles were removed from the road. Two MSP troopers on motorcycles have died in the line of duty since 2015.

Shaw said Wednesday that the broader issue of public traffic safety is of critical importance. Policing can be a dangerous job and troopers have also been killed or injured in patrol cars, he said. The motorcycles will not be returning to the roads until spring and the MSP will work in the meantime to make sure all necessary safety measures are in place to ensure maximum trooper safety, Shaw said.

More: Firings, retirements result from MSP internal investigation that began at Flint post

Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for the MSP, said the department still has the BMW motorcycles it was using through 2022 and those bikes, which are from the 2020 to 2022 model years, will return to the road.

In a controversial move in 2012, the MSP began switching from American-made Harley-Davidson motorcycles to German-made BMWs, saying the BMWs performed better in testing.

At that time, the MSP had a fleet of 24 motorcycles, located in metro Detroit, Rockford, and Lansing.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.