Layoffs to hit 48 State Police posts

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing -- The Michigan State Police announced Friday that 48 of its posts will lose troopers under a layoff plan to help close the state's budget gap, but lawmakers are looking for ways to avoid issuing the pink slips.

Nearly 1 of every 10 troopers is affected. The Ypsilanti and Flint posts will lose five troopers each, the largest number. The Detroit Post, which patrols freeways, will lose one, Oakland County's Groveland Post will lose three, and the Richmond Post in northern Macomb County will lose four.

Sixteen posts were spared the June 28 layoffs.

"Every corner of the state will be impacted by this," said Michael Moorman, president of the Michigan State Troopers Association. "Look at the Bad Axe Post in the tip of the Thumb. They're going to have 40 percent of the trooper strength (two troopers) walk out the door at the end of June."

The layoffs will drop the number of troopers statewide to 968 -- the fewest in more than four decades. And those who are left will soon be ordered to drive fewer miles to save gas.

Shanon Akans, spokeswoman for the Michigan State Police, said people will notice the absence of the troopers.

"We won't be able to provide the same level of services we do today," she said. "Certainly with fewer troopers and less shifts being run at some posts, it will have an impact. We'll do our best."

The troopers union and some state lawmakers are scrambling to find alternatives, and the door is at least cracked open.

Liz Boyd, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's spokeswoman, said the governor based her layoff plan on recommendations from the State Police hierarchy.

"If the department wants us to consider other ways to achieve the same savings, we are certainly open to their ideas," Boyd said.

The combination of layoffs and less time on the road will mean unanswered calls, slower response times and fewer arrests and traffic tickets issued, officials say.

The layoffs -- including the entire 82-member trooper school that took the oath after graduating in December -- were made official Tuesday when lawmakers approved Granholm's executive order to cut the budget by $305 million to help close a more than $1.3 billion deficit. Officials will divert $1 billion in federal stimulus money to balance the budget for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Ironically, while it cost the state $8.3 million to run last year's training school for the soon-to-be laid off troopers, the layoffs will save just $1.7 million. Last year's trooper school was the first run since 2004, and 18 members of that class will also turn in their badges and guns.

A directive is expected to be sent out soon to reduce miles driven by troopers, and Akans said it will probably be similar to one issued two years ago.

For five months during 2007, troopers were told to drive as few as 40 miles during a shift.

During that fuel efficiency campaign, there was a 39 percent reduction in miles driven (1 million miles) while a great many offenders slipped between law enforcement cracks.

During those five months:

• Troopers wrote 22,811 fewer traffic tickets than they did during the same period a year earlier, a 21 percent reduction.

• Drunken driving arrests dropped 23 percent, meaning an estimated 750 tipsy drivers weren't nabbed.

• Fugitive arrests dropped by 1,204, or 17 percent.

And law abiding citizens felt the sting as well. There were 3,327 fewer motorist assistance calls answered by troopers, meaning drivers with flat tires or broken down vehicles had to look elsewhere for help.