'It’s not an ideal situation'
A year without a county road patrol
An Isabella County Sheriff police cruiser sits parked outside the Isabella County Jail at 207 Court St. in this March 2021 file photo. Sheriff's road patrol deputies are not considered mandatory employees in Isabella County and so were facing elimination following a Feb. 27 vote against a millage increase. However, this spring the county Board of Commissioners directed staff to find roughly $515,000 to keep deputies on the road through the end of the calendar year. (CM Life photo | Michael Livingston | file)
After the 2024 Election, Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main held on to his tenure as head of the county’s public safety. However, his deputies did not return with him.
Voters denied a $3.7 million millage during the election that would have supported these positions, leaving the Michigan State Police (MSP) to fill the county’s absence at the beginning of 2025.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Lt. Patrick Agema, the public information officer for MSP’s District Six, said. “How we focused on taking the additional responsibility is by pulling the other troopers away from (surrounding) counties and filling that need.”
With a hyperfocus on Isabella County, the Mount Pleasant Post responded to 13,638 calls since last January, nearly double the calls they responded to in 2024 (6,950), according to Isabella County Central Dispatch data.
Headshot photo of Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main. (Courtesy of Isabella County)
Despite the increase in calls, the Post didn’t expand its staff of 24 due to budget constraints.
“You have breaking and entering, accidents and thefts that are not decreasing,” Agema said. “Maintaining the fast-paced workload with the increased number of complaints … it wears on an officer going from complaint to complaint to complaint.”
Main said that an increase in response times is always a concern when agencies are limited.
“We’re all short, they’re all working very hard,” Main said. “When you take, 20 law enforcement officers off the streets that were doing a lot of work, it’s going to impact it.”
The Post was also forced to move some officers from specialty teams to make up for the road patrol.
In September of 2024, the Sheriff’s Office started an investigation after a construction worker was killed during a 2025 Ford Bronco test drive. The investigation took over a year to be submitted to the county prosecutor’s office after being given to MSP.
“I had staff that could perform this type of work, but when they were laid off, all of those specially trained members in a variety of assignments were lost,” Main wrote in an email to WCMU Public Media in April. “We now have to obtain that support from other sources, MSP in this matter.”
‘It’s a team effort’
Agema stated that local agencies, such as the Mount Pleasant Police Department, have been crucial in helping fill in for the road patrol over the past year.
Headshot photo of Lt. Patrick Agema. (Courtesy of Michigan State Police)
“It’s not all falling on MSP ... the city’s filling in, (Central Michigan University Police) is filling in. There are others that are doing their part as well,” he said.
However, after years of having jurisdiction at the county level, these agencies were not redeputized by Main. He said that he ended the tradition due to legal and liability concerns.
One result of the limited deputization is that CMUPD is no longer able to serve students outside of the city limits without MSP’s help. CARES Reports are forms that are created whenever a student is showing concerning and possibly dangerous signs of struggling.
“There may be times where we pass it to MSP, and they handle it themselves,” CMUPD Chief Deputy Mike Morrow said. “There may be times where we partner with them to assist and help in the investigation.”
Main said that partnering with the agencies is better than risking legal trouble.
“It is an extra step, but it’s nothing more than, ‘Hey, officer so-and-so, I got to follow up over here,’” Main said. “At this point in time, we just don’t have the ability to be in the know enough to be comfortable with just opening up deputizations.”
Main said that most counties don’t give out blanket deputizations
Agema stated that having open communication is crucial to maintaining safety in the county.
“It’s a team effort out here,” he said. “It’s not just one person or one organization that is responsible for everything.”
Source: Isabella County Central Dispatch (Paige Jaczkowski | CM Life)
The ‘subjective’ county funding for public safety
According to Michigan law, the funding for the number of officers in a road patrol is determined by the county board of commissioners, and this subjective level of service makes deputies more susceptible to being cut.
“There’s an obligation to fund at a serviceable level, but defining serviceable level is the subjective interpretation,” said the deputy director of the Michigan Sheriff Association, Daniel Pfannes. “There is no mandate that funds at a level that would provide for five, 10, 15 or 20 officers.”
The law doesn’t define the minimum or maximum number of officers required to serve, but whether it’s employing 20 officers or cutting down a department to just its sheriff and undersheriff, these inconsistencies in staffing can have an impact on the region’s public safety.
This precedent was set by the 1976 case, Brownstown Twp. vs. Wayne County. It is still the precedent today.
In that case, Brownstown, Canton, Huron and many other surrounding townships in the Detroit area sued Wayne County after the board of commissioners reduced the size of the county’s road patrol, but officials found there was no requirement listed in the state law to have one.
“Our review of the authorities leads us to hold that neither the common law nor Michigan statutory authority imposes a duty on the sheriff to supply a full-time road patrol on all county roads and highways,” the court report states.
Jackson County Sheriff Gary Schuette says this law is flawed. His department has faced many cuts over the past few years due to failed millage proposals.
“I think there’s a good argument to be made that we’re supposed to have people out on patrol,” Schuette said. “Townships that don’t have police facilities, that don’t have policing, the sheriff is responsible for investigating crime … How do we do that if we don’t have anybody on patrol?”
The county’s hopes to rebuild
In October, Isabella County hired two deputies to assist the Sheriff’s office. This is the first increase county commissioners approved for Main’s budget since having to cut the deputy positions.
Main said it’s going to be a slow rebuild and isn’t expecting to have a substantial increase in funding anytime soon.
“I would love over the next few years to potentially build at least a day shift, another four or five deputies,” he said. “And then maybe revisit the millage request at a smaller amount to bring on the night shift.”
If a millage were to be put on a future ballot, Main said he wants to have clear communication on what the county is asking.
“We’ve had a lot of people in the community over the last year ask when (the road patrol) is going to come back up,” he said. “I think there was a lot of misinformation. A lot of people read things on social media and were really confused about certain things and requirements.”
There has been no official decision on creating a future ballot initiative. Main said his goal for 2026 is to complete projects that have been delayed due to limited staffing, connect with the community and continue rebuilding his department.
“I would love to do coffee with a cop, soda with the sheriff or something,” he said. “Let’s have a good conversation and just continue to build that trust and relationship."
"If we get other funds that come in, just continue to build that road patrol back as much as possible.”
