News Photo by Julie Riddle 1st. Lt. John Grimshaw, commander of the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post, Alpena County Undersheriff Erik Smith, Alpena Police Chief Joel Jett, and Kim Elkie, Alpena County 911 director, speak to local residents at a League of Women Voters of Northeast Michigan forum at Alpena Community College on Wednesday.

ALPENA — A recruitment crisis, public distrust, and a rise in mental illness challenge the agencies charged with protecting Northeast Michigan, law enforcement officers told a roomful of residents on Wednesday.

Invited to speak during a League of Women Voters of Northeast Michigan forum at Alpena Community College, three police agency heads and the director of Alpena’s 911 center answered questions about the greatest challenges they face on the job.

More than anything, the police heads wanted new, quality recruits to join their ranks, they said.

“I love bright, new, shiny stuff,” said Alpena County Undersheriff Erik Smith, asked what he most wished he could add to his department. “But our people are our biggest resource.”

When he applied for a spot on the Alpena Police Department years ago, Alpena Police Chief Joel Jett said, he competed against 135 other people vying for the same job.

Now, with few people interested in the profession, local agencies are lucky to find one or two qualified applicants, the leaders agreed.

Police agencies in neighboring states are offering signing bonuses of up to $25,000, Jett said.

“As a small community, we can’t compete with that,” he said.

Young people who might otherwise contemplate a law enforcement job are warned away by parents afraid they’ll be injured, or worse, on the job – especially after 570 officers nationwide died in the line of duty last year, many of them because of violence toward police, Jett said.

Although Northeast Michigan mostly respects its police force, the police leaders said, officers face danger any time they respond to a call involving mental illness – something they said they do with increasing regularity.

About half of calls for police help involve a mental health crisis, according to Jett.

Add alcohol and drugs to that, “and it can make for a real interesting day,” he said.

Kim Elkie, Alpena County 911 director, said that last year Alpena County dispatchers received 227 psychiatric calls or reports of potential suicide attempts, making up 1% of all calls.

So far this year, the dispatch center has received 67 such calls.

Half of the Alpena County Jail population take some type of psychotropic medicine, Smith said.

Even if police know a mental illness lies behind a person’s behavior, if a crime is committed, officers have to make an arrest, said 1st. Lt. John Grimshaw, commander of the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post.

A person off of their medication or acting out because of a mental crisis can become violent at the time of arrest or at the jail, Grimshaw said.

“Those are the battles that we fight every single day,” he said. “And those are the ones that can become deadly encounters.”

In a rural region with few mental health care options – and with the mental health system facing the same staffing struggles as police – officers with no training in mental health counseling are often the only option to intervene in mental health crises, Smith said.

Sometimes that means an officer pulled off of the road to drive an arrested person with mental illness to a treatment center hours away or required to sit at the hospital for hours with a person in custody, trying to get them admitted, he said.

“We have a very limited number of deputies on the road,” Smith said. “If we take one person and tie them up for six hours, our community’s not getting that protection from the police.”

Prompted by an audience member’s question, the police officers described the levels of investigation that would be triggered if an officer in their department were to be accused of wrongdoing.

“Let’s face it,” Grimshaw said. “We do have some bad cops out there. And those are the worst people, because those are the ones that tarnish all of our badges and take the trust the community gives us and erode away at it.”

Grimshaw and Jett, in response to another question, also expressed support for background checks for people purchasing firearms.

Jett, voicing strong support for the right to own guns, said gun ownership must be linked with responsibility.

“I don’t think it’s a big ask in this day and age,” Grimshaw said.

Forum attendees also asked about school threats – which the police leaders said occupy large amounts of time for already-busy officers – and police views on legalization of marijuana – about which the officers had little to say outside of their intent to follow the state’s laws.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.