Crime & Safety

Restructuring of Park Public Safety Underway

The Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Department will promote several officers this week as part of its restructuring.

By the end of the week, five public safety officers in will be promoted in what Director David Hiller is calling a realignment of the staff. 

The department, similar to the public safety departments in the other Pointes, has slowly lost staff over time. Most recently, the department had two retirements, for which no replacements were made. Another retirement is expected this week.

By Jan. 1, the department will employ 36 officers whereas six or seven years ago the department had 45, Hiller said.

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Administrative positions are being eliminated in the restructuring, Hiller said, noting his goal is to maintain the road patrol staffing at the same level. Generally, there are six officers actively patrolling the Park and he intends to ensure that stays the same, he said.

Until recently, the department has been structured with the director, five lieutenants and seven sergeants. After the promotions this week, the department will have two lieutenants, one captain and seven sergeants, Hiller said.

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Six of the sergeants will be assigned to road patrol and one will work in the detective bureau while the new position of captain will include job duties that split work between the detective bureau and administration. The captain will be the second in command of the department, Hiller said. 

The officers who sought promotion took written tests and most recently went through oral board interviews. Four officers sought promotion to the one lieutenant position and several sought a promotion to sergeant.

In addition to finding those deserving of promotions this week, the testing was also used to generate a list of officers who will be next in line when a vacancy arises, Hiller said.

Meanwhile, officials from to both municipalities—the mere idea of which caused at least a few Park residents to share their concerns on Grosse Pointe Patch's Facebook page.

There were a variety of , including the candidate forum in which anyone present could pose a question to the candidates.

The changes come at a time when more surveillance cameras are showing up outside of Grosse Pointe businesses, but they are not isolated to the Park. All of the public safety departments in the Grosse Pointes are operating with fewer employees now as compared to several years ago.

In the , there are 34 public safety officers including City Administrator Al Fincham and Director Andrew Pazuchowski. Several years ago the department had 11 supervisors overseeing 33 officers whose sole focus was road patrol. Today there are seven supervisors, Sgt. Raymond Yonkowski said. 

In the , there are 33 public safety officers plus an additional four full-time firefighters. Grosse Pointe Farms Public Safety Director Dan Jensen said the key to operating with fewer employees is to maintain a strong road patrol presence. There are never fewer than five officers patrolling the city at any given time, he said.

In the , there are 23 officers, which is lower than even in recent years due to retirements that have occurred but not been replaced, Director Stephen Poloni said. 

In the , there are 17 officers, which is down from 22 in 1997, Poloni said. There were times this past year however, when the department operated with as few as 13 officers because a few officers were out on leave due to an injury they sustained while working.

Those injuries led Poloni, who is in the midst of leaving the Shores and has already begun work with the City, to pull the department's sole detective from investigation and re-assign him to road patrol to ensure patrols round the clock, Poloni reported to the council.


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