By Ashley Silver
Police1
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Several Michigan police departments are celebrating a new bill that will use a spirits sales tax to fill the deficits in patrols within some towns and cities due to lack of funding.
According to The HITC, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently signed house bills 5569, 5732 and 5772 specifying that funds from the state’s alcohol tax will be used to adequately staff Michigan police departments with officers for additional patrols on back roads outside of cities and towns.
The previous program used to fund patrols called the secondary road patrol program had fizzled in recent years due to a lack of traffic citations that funded the program, according to local sheriffs.
“We’ve seen a decrease in the number of subpoenas issued,” Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker told News 8. “Which leads to a smaller pool of money to be distributed through this street patrol program.”
Through the new spirits tax, $15 million will be added in the first year to the secondary road patrol program and another 5% in subsequent years to cover inflation.
News 8 spoke to several officers who labeled the new tax a “game changer” for police forces across Michigan. Baker said this program is “essentially their street patrol.”
“We’ve seen fatal traffic accidents,” Baker told News 8. “We have seen many crashes involving drunk cars. We see many real roads where high speeds ultimately matter. So, if we can deploy additional deterrent patrols to make our streets safer, we all benefit.”
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