The Isabella County Sheriff’s office is adjusting to their new normal, after 20 positions with the road patrol division were cut at the end of last year.
The jobs were eliminated because budget woes forced the county board to trim $6 million from their $23 million operating budget.
Voters then turned down a special millage that would have kept them funded, failing in November.
Sheriff Michael Main said the transition has been rough. The last of his deputies turned in their badges and guns last week.
“The loss of the deputies was very hard. You know, those are your staff, those your employees, but they’re also a family,” said Main.
With the sheriff’s office now down to two people, he said there’s just a lot they won’t be able to get to, in a county with a population of more than 60,000 people.
“We’re not taking any calls. We don’t have any investigative abilities. We don’t have any resources to go out and take those calls,” said Main.
Main said it’s difficult for him because he wants to be able to protect and serve and respond to the calls.
“We’re still getting requests. People are calling us or sending us things on Facebook and other social media like, hey, this is going on,” said Main.
He said the Michigan State Police Post in Mount Pleasant is picking up the slack, by pulling troopers from the other three of the four counties they cover.
“So, the other three counties that depend on them for those resources and help have been pulled back into this county. So, they are responding, they’re covering it 24/7, and trying to keep up and respond to the calls for service in our county,” said Main.
He said he’s holding on to the deputies’ equipment’s like weapons, tasers, defibrillators, and patrol cars- because he’s hopeful-they will be able to bring a few more deputies back, if the county can find the money.
“I’m not going to burden the county and my office and or the next sheriff or whoever else. By having to spend tens of thousands of dollars to outfit for equipment that we had,” said Main.
But it won’t be on the scale they once had, which is a huge loss for his office.
“The amount of service time they had and the experiences and the training, are probably hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. All that was lost, so it’s pretty painful,”
And he doesn’t think it’ll be anytime soon.
“It has to be long term. You know, we can’t find a little bit of money in hiring a deputy for a year. We want long term solutions,” said Main.
He said he’s still adjusting.
“I never wanted this for the office. I never wanted this for our community. But we are here,” said Main.
He said in extreme cases, where there is an active violent situation, like a mass shooting, the sheriff’s office will still be responding to those.