MANISTEE COUNTY — So far this year Manistee County’s 911 Central Dispatch center has seen 150% of the calls it had last year at this time. It isn't alone in seeing an increase in calls to service.
Most leaders in law enforcement and other first response departments are reporting large increases in the number of calls they need to respond to this year and last month just brought even more.
At the monthly Manistee County Public Safety Committee meeting for December several key administrators in the county reported a growing trend of more calls and often fewer staff on hand to respond to those calls.
In early September, much of the leadership also had reported record call numbers. And those increases seem to be continuing.
Michael Machen
File photoMichael Machen, 911 deputy director and emergency management coordinator, said “much like everyone else” 911 complaint calls are up.
He said last year at this time the 911 center had handled 9,000 calls for service complaints and as of Dec. 3, the center was at 22,500.
“So, we’ve more than doubled. We have been busy at the center. Summer was very taxing for the center. It seemed like everybody from the state of Michigan decided to summer up in Manistee,” he said.
Machen said the dispatch center is hiring for an open position with 11 dispatchers currently on staff.
He said a few years ago, there were only eight dispatchers and that the center "really had come a long way in the past two years."
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Jason Torrey
Courtesy photoJason Torrey, Manistee County undersheriff, said at the meeting that as of the Dec. 3 meeting the sheriff’s office had recorded 3,678 calls.
That is about 22% more than compared to the whole of 2019, which represented stable numbers to compare with outside of a pandemic.
“Just to give you a little bit of an idea, I went back to the last two years. Last year was low with COVID numbers so we were only at 2,846. But in (20)19, we were at 3,018 and those are year-end stats,” Torrey said. “We’re a good 600-plus, almost 700 over our highest numbers. So it’s been busy for all of our agencies in the area.”
However, even though the complaint numbers are up, Torrey said he was happy to report that road patrol deputies had more time spent patrolling than on report writing and responding to complaints.
“That hasn’t always been the case,” he said.
According to the agenda packet materials for the meeting, deputies spent a total of 504 hours on patrol, 416.5 hours responding to complaints and 368.5 hours in November writing reports.
Brian Gutowski
Courtesy photoManistee County Sheriff Brian Gutowski said at the meeting that there are still two road patrol positions open.
“I think you can ask any of the administrators that are in here, finding law enforcement officers is very difficult at this point,” Gutowski said.
The animal control officer position is also unfilled and Gutowski said the sheriff’s office would be going through applications and interviews soon.
Breaking the stats down further, the report shows the department spent most of its time last month on investigating people, conducting property inspections, assisting people with their vehicles and giving verbal warnings.
Last month, the sheriff’s office arrested 19 people and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Department of Public Safety, Manistee City Police Department and Michigan State Police each arrested three people respectively.
Robert Medacco
Courtesy photoRobert Medacco, director of public safety for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, said at the meeting that arrest cases are up 60% and that complaints are up by 15% compared with last year.
“We’ve been hit hard in the drug aspect pulling some (instances that are) more than just user-weight off of the streets in the past month and it’s continuing throughout the year,” Medacco said. “I think we’re doing good at combating it but we can be better and we hope to.”
He noted that the new K-9 named Freki that joined the department in August has been off to a good start.
“He’s been an asset and I hope to continue that next year and hopefully those numbers go down because we made a huge impact,” Medacco said.
The report also shows that of the 29 people booked in the jail last month, 14 of those were charged with felonies, 13 were charged with misdemeanors and seven had alcohol-related offenses.
Most in the jail last month were considered repeat offenders who had been booked at the jail before, with two who had been there 10 or more times, per the report.
Torrey also reported that the bailiffs at the Manistee County Government Center interacted with more than 2,000 people who were coming and leaving the building.
The bailiffs have a number of responsibilities ranging from court security, conducting checks for weapons and fingerprinting.
At the meeting, Chair Pauline Jaquish noted that she had always had great experiences with the Manistee County bailiffs.
According to the meeting agenda packet materials, bailiffs fingerprinted 34 people while also intercepting 25 knives last month.
While the bailiff crew is at full staffing levels, Gutowski said the jail staffing is down by three positions.
MMR
There have also been increases in crashes recently due in part to changes in weather.
Jason Sopha, supervisor with Mobile Medical Response’s northwest region, urged drivers to go slower.
“I hope everybody … slows down. We’ve obviously had a significant increase in accidents. Some of them have been pretty severe, (in) others people have just walked away with just scratches that probably shouldn’t have,” Sopha said.
He also noted that in October MMR changed the new configuration of advanced life support and basic life support vehicles in the county.
“If we only have one ALS truck in the county — so one ALS truck (and) one BLS truck — that ALS truck does not go out of county unless it is a verified emergent transfer,” he explained. “What that does is that keeps that ALS truck available in the county.”
Earlier this year, several people who are leaders in first response such as 911 and others noted that there were problems when the county was left without access to an advanced life support ambulance while MMR transferred patients outside of Manistee County.
Sopha said this new system has helped with that issue.
He said there have been times that MMR has needed to use the ALS truck for transfers.
“However, working with the hospital, our sister organization with NorthFlight Aeromed, they’ve answered the call,” he said. “They actually had a huge increase in the number of air transports out of Manistee hospital. That allows us to keep our ground units in county available for other 911 calls or even returning people home locally.”
He said starting on Jan. 1, MMR will be covering the county “a minimum of five out of seven days” with two trucks staffed with advanced life support employees. The other two days of the week would mean one advanced life support and one basic life support staffed ambulances.
“That’s a huge turnaround from a few months ago where we were having problems staffing two trucks just in general. We’re definitely making progress,” Sopha reported.
At the Aug. 6 public safety meeting, Sopha had noted that his staffing was limited and was “decimated” during the pandemic.
At that time, Sopha said MMR has been very busy and that they had been able to provide a third ambulance two to three days a week in the Manistee County area.
This month, he said another recent challenge was that five staff members contracted COVID-19 all at once but they had assistance from other employees serving MMR in other counties.
With COVID-19 cases MMR responds to, Sopha said the most common needs are general support like oxygen.
“Lately, I would say over the last three to four weeks what were are seeing on our transfer level is just supplemental oxygen and those patients being transferred regionally to other facilities,” he said.
Those patients are transferred to places in the region like Traverse City, Cadillac and Charlevoix.
Sopha commended the Manistee County Central Dispatch team.
“Those guys and gals in that center, they are still doing a great job. They’re trying to gather as much information as they can,” he said.
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