News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith is pictured in his office on Friday

Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith is pictured in his office on Friday

SUGGESTED HED: Local law enforcement affected by wage increase for Michigan State Police troopers

By REAGAN VOETBERG

News Staff Writer

ALPENA — On the surface, a wage increase for Michigan State Police troopers is a positive, but it could make retaining staff at local law enforcement agencies much more difficult.

Michigan State Police troopers and sergeants will be receiving a large boost in wages with the passage of the state budget last week.

The budget for the MSP increased by about $11 million from the previous fiscal year. In FY 2024-2025, the state police had a budget of $953,108,500 and the FY 2025-2026 budget is $964,186,600, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency.

In a Tuesday press release from the Executive Office of the Governor, the budget is broken down showing that $31.1 million will be allocated to raise wages for non-supervisory enlisted positions (troopers and sergeants) in the MSP.

According to a May 30 press release from the MSP Newsroom, there are around 1,150 MSP troopers. Troopers are the lowest rank in the MSP, and sergeants are one step above. While no recent data could be found on the number of sergeants in the MSP, a report from 2015 titled Fiscal Focus: Strength and Composition of State and Local Law Enforcement Officers found there were 455 sergeants, and 1,145 troopers, a similar number to what is listed in the May 30 press release.

Assuming those numbers are consistent, there are around 1,600 MSP troopers and sergeants that will receive a pay increase.

The $31.1 million evenly distributed among those officers is a $19,437 raise per person.

“When you are a corrections officer or a deputy or a local police officer, when you have an opportunity to go to another agency, and essentially do the same job, but be paid way more money, that affects us because we hire people here at the Sheriff’s office, and we invest in them,” Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith said. “We train them, and then they jump ship or potentially could jump ship to go get a higher paying job.”

Law enforcement agencies are all fighting for the same pool of candidates, Smith said. Local tax dollars are going to recruit people and pay for their training, and then those people get picked off by another agency.

In the last few years, Smith said he has not lost any law enforcement personnel to the MSP, and he is hoping it stays that way.

Smith estimates that his wage as sheriff is about the same as what an MSP road patrol or sergeant road patrol is making. He also estimates that the pay of one MSP trooper is about the same pay as two deputies.

“We can do a better job…making a safer community if money is spent at a local level versus big state government and MSP,” Smith said.

There are certain calls that MSP won’t cover, Smith said, like animal control issues or an accident on private property.

“So when I say you could get two officers, you get a different level of service in my opinion,” he said. “Because we answer to the community. We are an elected position.”

Smith clarified that he is not attacking local MSP officers, but the organization as a whole and spending by the state government that could be better utilized elsewhere.

At nearly $1 billion, Smith believes the MSP budget could be better spent elsewhere helping out local law enforcement departments.

“You could increase the level of police officers you have on the street, make a safer community, at a way cheaper cost than MSP,” Smith said. “I would hope that the taxpayers of the state would see this and see what’s going on. And hopefully they get upset about it.”

State Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) and State Sen. Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton) were left messages seeking comment.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.