News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Brett Szczerowski, co-owner of Jerome’s Towing, stands next to one of his trucks at 6500 U.S.-23 North in Alpena.

ALPENA — When it comes to law enforcement responses to accidents, an often overlooked aspect of them is the relationship between law enforcement, central dispatch, and wrecker companies.

“We do have a good working relationship with all the police departments,” said Brett Szczerowski, co-owner of Jerome’s Towing. “I’ve been through Alpena County and Alpena City, all of them, it’s kind of one of those things of just wait until we get the green light and do our thing and clean the mess up, make everything all better, and so on.”

According to Eric Hamp, the police chief for the Alpena Police Department, when an accident that requires towing takes place, the officers ask the car owner if they have any preferences when it comes to wreckers.

If there is a preference, then central dispatch is contacted and informed so they can reach out to the requested wrecker.

In the case that there is no preference, then central dispatch consults a list of registered wrecker companies in the area and sends them out on rotation.

“When it comes to wrecker companies in response to accidents, it goes off what we call a no preference wrecker list,” said Hamp. “If we have an accident, we will ask the driver of the vehicle if they have a preference on what wrecker service they would like. If they do, then, we request that wrecker service. If they don’t have a preference, or they don’t know any, then we tell dispatch, we need no preference wrecker, they maintain that list, and they send the next wrecker service that’s available on the no preference list.”

Upon arrival, the wreckers load up the damaged vehicle, clean up the wreck, and haul the car away.

“When that wrecker service arrives, of course, we direct them to the correct vehicle,” said Hamp. “Then they assist in cleaning up debris on the scene, as well as obviously hauling the vehicle away from the scene as well.”

For the city police, it is a simple straightforward process.

“The process works smoothly for us,” said Hamp. “Staff is given direction on how to handle wrecker callouts. The process is pretty simple on our end. We just go with the next one that’s up unless there is a preference for a specific wrecker service.”