Mich. bill could help retain Detroit officers by charging them to leave

The legislation allows the academies to recover training expenses from new recruits who leave before completing four years of service in the city

June 20, 2023 10:38 AM

By Sarah Roebuck
Police1

DETROIT — A new Michigan law could help the City of Detroit retain officers and recover the costs of training those officers.

The city pays to train new officers who often leave to work in the suburbs, costing Detroit millions, the city’s assistant police chief told the Detroit Free Press.

“We have experienced over the last several years a large number of individuals joining the Detroit Police Department for the training with an apparent plan to leave for suburban police departments shortly thereafter,” Detroit Police Department Assistant Chief David LeValley said during a legislative hearing.

“I’ve been told that some agencies have actually encouraged individuals to do so. And we have even had police chiefs and command staff from suburban police departments attend our academy graduations only to have a recruit resign the next day and go work for that agency,” LeValley added.

In Michigan, it is currently against the law for employers to accept fees, gifts, tips or any other type of compensation as a requirement for employment. However, two Democratic legislators from Detroit have proposed a bipartisan supported legislation that would establish an exemption for law enforcement agencies.

This exemption would enable these agencies to recover training expenses from new recruits who leave before completing four years of service.

According to an analysis conducted by the Senate Fiscal Agency, the tuition fees for law enforcement training academies in Michigan vary from $6,000 to $10,000. While the majority of academies require recruits to pay tuition, the Detroit Police Department has its own training academy, which comes with a higher cost of approximately $35,000 per participant. Additionally, trainees at this academy receive wages and benefits, according to LeValley.

LeValley said 58% of officers who departed from the Detroit Police Department since 2020 had served for less than four years. Among those who left, the department incurred an estimated cost of $6,389,000 for their recruitment, hiring and training.

The legislation signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer establishes a repayment scale that adjusts based on the duration an officer served in the department before transitioning to employment at a different law enforcement agency.

For officers who serve less than a year, the agency has the potential to recover the complete training cost, up to the officer’s first-year salary. However, if an officer serves between three and four years, the agency is limited to recouping only 25% of the cost, up to the officer’s first-year salary.

Additionally, the law stipulates that the repayment for the law enforcement training academy expenses would be waived if a newly recruited officer chooses to leave the law enforcement agency voluntarily and pursue an entirely different profession.