By Scott Pohl, WKAR
LANSING, MI –
A recent change in state law will allow some Ingham County deputies to do road patrols in the city of Lansing.
The change led Sheriff Gene Wrigglesworth to propose a plan where the deputies would occasionally patrol secondary roads and state trunklines in Lansing.
Lansing police chief Teresa Szymanski is looking forward to having the help.
"And then what we'll do is we'll look at our hot spot areas or neighborhoods, hot spots, a lot of traffic, along with areas where we have high accidents, high traffic complaints, and then we'll direct them into those areas, and they will be working off of our frequencies and they'll be checking in with our supervisors, because certainly we want everybody to be safe."
Four deputies are funded through a state grant and are restricted to traffic patrols. They do not respond to calls for service. Since they're funded with state money, the plan shouldn't add to county or city expenditures.
The proposal will have to be approved by the Lansing city council and the Ingham County board of commissioners.