Troy City Council Discusses Police Department Report, Approves Road Repairs

In an uncharacteristically short meeting Monday night, Troy City Council discussed a handful of agenda items before heading into a closed session just before 8:30 p.m.

During the hour-long meeting, Council discussed a quarterly report from the comparing current year calls for service with calls for police service from the previous year.

“Overall, we had a decrease in our calls for service," Police Chief Gary Mayer said, adding, "There are some areas we need to keep an eye on."

According to the report, incidents of breaking and entering and vandalism decreased while theft, robbery and forcible sex offenses increased by as much as 60 percent from the 2010 level.

"We’ve had a decrease in the number of (traffic) violations” because of the loss of the unit, Mayer added.

Hindering the department, according to the report, is the loss of 33 retiring officers in the past year or so, "resulting in significant stresses on road patrol staffing." As a result, officers assigned to the Traffic Safety Unit have been reassigned to routine patrol shifts to keep enough officers on the road.

“I just want to let the public now that when you move from a proactive police department to a reactive police department, there’s a trade," Councilman Dane Slater said. "Specialization is one of the areas that take a hit when you become a reactive police department.

"I think that during the next budget session," Slater continued, "those are some of the things we’re going to discuss – whether we want to have a reactive police department.”

"We’ll do the best we can with the resources we have," Mayer said.

Also during the meeting, City Council:

• Heard a presentation regarding drunken driving prevention from Troy Community Coalition's Teens Taking Action (TTA) President Liz Stuart and Vice President Jannet Jones.
• Unanimously voted to appoint Earle Van Dyke, David Hay and P. Terry Knight to the .
• Unanimously voted to appoint Lawrence Ted Halsey and David Ogg to the Traffic Committee.
• Unanimously appointed Hugh Stephen Doyle and Padma Kuppa to the Historic District Study Committee.
• Unanimously voted to upgrade outdated security cameras and recording systems that service city-owned buildings at an estimated cost of $150,000.
• Unanimously approved a private agreement with Holiday Inn Express to make municipal improvements, including installing a water main, pavement, sanitary stewer, landscaping and soil erosion on the site.
• Unanimously approved a $94,375 agreement with the Board of Road Commissioners for Oakland County to replace sections of roadway on westbound Long Lake between Crooks and Northfield.

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