Whitmer signs bipartisan bill to boost police patrols on Michigan roads, improve officer retention

LANSING – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bundle of bipartisan payments geared toward boosting police patrols on roads, and to extend officer retention efforts at native sheriff departments.

Whitmer signed three bipartisan payments (Home Payments (HB) 5569, 5732, and 5772) growing funding for the Secondary Highway Patrol (SRP) program, which will probably be used so as to add officers to the street. The constant funding supply will permit sheriff departments to plan higher and provides officers extra employment stability, bettering their recruitment and retention efforts, the state stated. These payments will improve the SRP fund by $5 million every year, up from $10 million to $15 million.

SRP funds efforts to watch visitors violations, implement the state’s legal legislation, examine accidents involving motor autos, and supply emergency help to Michiganders on or close to a patrolled freeway or street. The funds can be utilized for using extra personnel, buying gear, implementing legal guidelines in state and county parks, and offering selective motorized vehicle inspection packages.

“I’m grateful that each Governor Whitmer and the Legislature got here along with a commonsense answer to the Sheriffs’ secondary street patrol considerations,” stated Matt Saxton, Govt Director of the Michigan Sheriff’s Affiliation. “These payments present for stability in funding that may put extra deputies on our street to offer improved public security response all through the state of Michigan.”

Final yr, Whitmer proposed a plan to take a position $75 million in federal funds to cut back crime, with a deal with unlawful weapons and court docket backlogs.

“As a former prosecutor, public security is a high precedence for me,” stated Governor Whitmer. “At this time’s bipartisan payments will enhance street security by placing extra officers out on patrol. The 50% improve in funding for the SRP program will even enhance legislation enforcement recruitment and retention by bolstering the funding stream and enabling sheriff departments to provide their officers extra stability. I’ll work with anybody to guard public security, and I’m happy with the bipartisan funds I signed earlier this yr that ensures legislation enforcement at each degree, from the MSP to native departments, have the assets they should hold folks protected. Nobody ought to really feel unsafe as they go to work, drop their children off in school, or run errands of their neighborhoods. Let’s work collectively to guard public security and hold drivers protected on the street.”

Whitmer indicators invoice so as to add monetary literacy course to Michigan highschool curriculum