This website was created out of necessity to present the other side of some issues that are on the table, in our communities. As many of you know there has been trouble with funding the township police force. Chief Sutliff, has served the community for over 35 years, he works the day shift from 7:00AM-3:00PM. Some may question as to whether he has served them well or otherwise been a waste of millions of dollars over the term he has been our Chief of Police.

Sgt. Kevin Szentmiklosi works the night shift, 3:00PM- 11:00PM. What most people do not realize is that the area we live in IS covered by the Jackson County Sheriff's Dept., as well as the State of Michigan Police. As we, at policetruth.com started to ask questions about who does the work in the community, we found out some astonishing facts. We recently obtained a portion of the 911 logs for 2005 and 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act and it shows the following:

2006 (partial log) 1322 Total calls for May-October

Chief Sutliff answered 84, which is 6.3%

Sgt. Kevin answered 386, which is 30.3%

Part Time office that the village pays for answered 18, which is 1.3%

Michigan State Police (MSP) and Sheriffs answered 824, which is 62.3%

The COPS Group, is made up of friends of the Parma Police Dept. These individuals would like you to believe that our Police Dept. answered more calls then they actually did. The statistics show that the MSP and the Sheriff's Dept. answer the majority of the calls, therefore doing the most to service our community. To maintain the service of our MSP and Sheriff's Dept. does not require a millage, additional tax burden.

As you drive through Parma, you may see signs that say quite the contrary to what we are presenting to you. Politics as usual, number juggling, quite similiar to the oil companies telling you they only make $.04 a gallon! One of the signs and recent brochures will tell you that the Township Police answer 73% of ALL 911 calls. What these do not tell you is that the figures on the signs only count the time the officers were on duty. You may ask what is the difference?

Hours in a Week 168

Hours we are "protected" by the township police 80

They claim to have answered 73% of the calls that happened in the 80 hours they worked. We are alive for 168 hours a week, from our prespective, we are interested in who is doing the work all of the time that we are alive, not just while they are working. We ARE NOT protected from 11:00PM-7:00AM by our local police, so in essence we are paying over $188,000.00 for a PART TIME police force.

Policetruth.com actually has the 911 logs for 2008, that the supporters for the Police Department are referencing, and even if you use the spin they put on it, you will come up with a much greater conclusion.

THE FACTS for 2008

On duty hours 7:00AM-11:00PM Monday-Friday

Calls to 911 594

 

Parma took 296 = 49%

If you count every hour of the week the figure is 34%

 

If anyone would like to come and look at the logs and make their own mind up, we would be glad to share them.

I personally have had limited experience with the police, limited to a couple of seatbelt tickets. The police have come to our home and business over the last several years, for simple things, alarm calls, strange vehicles out front etc. and I can say that it was not the Parma Police that came here. We had a car rollover at the end of the driveway a couple of months ago at 7:30AM, I guess we hadn't started our Parma Police "protection" yet because 2 State Troopers came out to handle the call. Out of curiosity we drove up to Parma and there was our Chief Sutliff sitting in front of the office. In March, of this year, I made a call about a suspicious vehicle at the end of my driveway. I called 911 and about 15 minutes later the Sheriff's Dept. came out to check on it. Once again, the day shift Chief was at his office. Both of these calls happened during the day, the time when they alledgedly answer 73 percent of the calls so we really don't understand.

The wages for the department are not all that extravagant on the surface, but the whole picture is not represented. The Chief makes 51,967.21 per year. Add the insurance package, social security contributions and pension and you are around 72,283.00. So the 24.98 per hour does not include all the "perks" and the real figure is closer to $35.00 an hour. Kevin figures out to around $25.00 an hour with benefits.

The health insurance has been a talking point at all the budget meetings. Something we discovered was that the Chief's wife was eligible for medicare and should not be on his policy. It has been calculated to be an expenditure exceeding $20,000.00 over the last several years. In these tough economic times, our townships could sure use that money, but it is gone. The real question we have is who is responsible for that? Who wrote or approved an insurance policy for someone that had free coverage from the state.

We suggest that people go to the local township meetings and see how their tax dollars are wasted. One expenditure last month was $2,400.00 for new voting booths because the old ones were too heavy (40lbs). I could go on, but if you want to get a wake up call as I did, than attend one and you decide.

As you may have noticed, we have displayed signs at the end of our driveway to voice our opinion. As you also may have noticed a resident of Parma Twp. has displayed signs in his yard on North Parma Rd., near the truck-stop. His signs were originally in opposition to the upcoming police millage, then he was paid a visit from Kevin. He was told there had been complaints about "garbage" in his yard, apparently the "vote yes" signs are not considered "garbage." Now that the resident has been "shaken down" by "the man" he is fearful that he will be retailiated against and has become their spokesperson for the vote yes campaign. I suggest you pay him a visit so he can tell you his version of events.

We were informed that there was a special police board meeting on 6/25/08. This meeting was scheduled to handle a complaint against Sgt. Kevin. We sat down and were ready to see what it was all about. Chief Sutliff entered the room and attempted to intimidate the board by threatening a call to the lawyer when he was told that the meeting would go as planned. Shortly thereafter they turned it into a closed meeting. (which they are allowed to do) We were then asked to leave. The meeting was posted on the village window as open, but it seems when they have an unsupportive audience they prefer to keep it information secret.

Another complaint was brought forth by 2 citizens at a joint twp meeting we also attended earlier this year. They had a very detailed explanation of their problem. The problem related to the chief not handling a complaint they had made. We asked their twp. supervisor what happened to them. He responded to us that nothing had been done regarding the situation. That they too had been intimidated by the Chief and therefore chose to not take things further.

The COPS organization boasts of how there has never been a complaint against our police force, but there have at least been 2 brought up that we personally know about.

The money the millage will generate will not even be sufficient to cover the officers wages, not to mention the rest of the budget which totals close to 200,000.00.

As we previously stated above anyone who would like more information or to view the evidence to these facts please feel free to stop by or call. We are more than willing to share it with you. It is very important to us that we portray an honest picture of all the information that we have gathered. We are tired of the spin that is being put on everything. We want the community to know THE TRUTH, then everyone can make an educated decision on how they choose to vote.

Thanks for your time,

Charlie and Charlie Westcott