By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — During its meeting on Monday, the Lake Orion Village Council heard from Interim Police Chief Todd Stanfield regarding the current state of staffing for the Lake Orion Police Department, including losing two full-time officers.
Now, the LOPD and village administration are exploring options to keep the village covered with officers.
On Nov. 22, the council held a special meeting to discuss the department’s staffing and services.
“Part of the issue is we had some full-time staff that left for positions closer to home and for other personal reasons, and we have a dwindling part-time staff,” said Council President Jerry Narsh. “As we’ve made public comments from this podium, all of us – the staffing nightmare (in) law enforcement, Chief Stanfield is not alone.”
During the meeting on Nov. 22, Stanfield provided the council with several options for moving forward with the lack of staffing in the LOPD. These options included reaching out to the Michigan State Police, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and the Auburn Hills Police Department in the hopes that they could potentially help provide staff to the area on a 90-day contract.
According to Stanfield, both the Michigan State Police and the Auburn Hills Police Department do not have the manpower currently to help the village in providing police services.
Stanfield is waiting to hear back from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Narsh, the village has received applications for positions and the village is advertising the positions everywhere they can. However, there is a training period that applicants will have to go through before they are able to get police on the road and out into the community.
“The LOPD is strong. They will remain strong. They are a part of a national trend of staffing difficulties and we’re working our way through it,” said Narsh, a former LOPD chief of police.
Councilmember Michael Lamb voiced his concern for the safety of residents, asking if Stanfield had asked the sheriff’s office what it might cost for them to take over all the operations of policing in the village, to which Stanfield responded that he had not discussed that with them.
“Right now, the conversation I had this morning was to cover Monday through Friday, the midnight shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and then, with the weekend shift for Saturday and Sunday, 24-hour coverage,” Stanfield said.
Council did not take any action on the agenda item but another discussion could be on the horizon depending on what response Stanfield receives from the sheriff’s office.
“I appreciate the report, I appreciate the concerns but from what we all heard in the previous meeting, application’s are coming in. They’re under review. Provided these applications are good, it would resolve our staffing issues and we would be right back to where we are,” Narsh said. “In fact, this council also entertained the idea of strengthening our police department programs that we have, and I think this council might ultimately be supportive of that. We’re looking at several options.”
Additionally, Stanfield and village Manager Darwin McClary have still not agreed on a contract that would make Stanfield the official police chief of the LOPD.
According to McClary, Stanfield did provide a contract proposal earlier that day. McClary expects to meet with the committee created for contract negotiations for police chief soon to review the proposal.
Stanfield’s temporary contract as interim police chief expires on July 31.