By David Fleet
Editor
A series of House Bills that would stabilize funding by dedicating $15 million of the liquor excise taxes collected by the state each year to the police protection to rural Michigan communities was approved last week by the Michigan House.
Rep. Mike Mueller (51st R-Linden), a retired sheriff’s deputy who represents Groveland and Atlas townships, was one of the sponsors of the legislation.
The state’s secondary road patrol program provides funding for sheriffs’ deputies to patrol roads outside of cities and villages. The program has been funded by a $10 assessment added to traffic tickets, but this funding has declined over the last 20 years.
“Every year, the Legislature must have a conversation about how much, if any, general fund money will be allocated to secondary road patrols,” said Mueller. “Meanwhile, residents face uncertainty every year about whether their neighborhood will continue to have adequate police coverage. And patrol officers are left in limbo, worrying about the status of their job while the Legislature crafts its budget.”

“This plan solves a problem the state has been trying to fix for the last 20 years.”
House Bills 5772, 5773, 5732 and 5569 will not increase the tax on consumers in any way.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has received Secondary Road Patrol (SRP) funding for 43 years.
“I appreciate this legislative effort to fix a long-standing problem and to create a permanent funding mechanism for critical secondary road patrol efforts,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard, in a statement to The Citizen.
Public Act 416 of 1978, as amended, established the Secondary Road Patrol and Accident Prevention Program. The funding is used for uniformed Deputies to patrol secondary roads throughout the County, respond to citizen requests, perform traffic law enforcement and investigate crashes involving motor vehicles. The Sheriff’s Office 416 Unit is unique as they are responsible for patrolling the entire County. The Unit is particularly useful in supporting smaller communities, such as Brandon Township, in providing backup when there are a limited number of cars available to respond to time-consuming incidents such as accidents, OWI arrests and especially during inclement weather.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon Substation commander Lt. Greg Glover said the funding 416 Unit is used if there is a specific problem area of the community.
Glover said that recently several patrol cars (through the 416 Unit) to the Oakhill and Sashabaw roads area when motorists were avoiding the barricades and cutting through a residential area during the construction of the roundabout.
“We were getting a lot of complaints from residents about the traffic,” said Glover. “Several patrol cars were dispatched to the area and wrote tickets for the violations. As a result, we kept our deputies on the road in the township and were able to deter those not obeying the law.”
Glover added that the 416 Unit as been used for “Click-it-or-Ticket” and other areas of traffic needs.