They have guns, wear badges and patrol Michigan’s streets. They're even in uniform. But they’re not real cops. Across Michigan, police departments have enlisted civilians to work alongside licensed officers to patrol communities and even assist real cops with arrests. But unlike the regular officers licensed by the state, these armed civilians are unregulated. A Detroit Free Press investigation found there are no state-established training requirements for reserve officers, as they are commonly known; no standards for screening their qualifications, and no process for monitoring their conduct. The state agency responsible for police licensing and training is not regulating reserve officers — despite gaining authority last year to do just that — and has no idea how many such unlicensed volunteers there are statewide. This lack of oversight continues despite numerous incidents of questionable — even illegal — conduct by reserve officers in recent years. There are more than 3,000 civilian officers in Michigan. Other states have them, too, and some set training standards and regulations. Michigan does not.Brian McNamara, Detroit Free Press The Free Press found a convicted felon who could not legally carry a gun actually patrolled as an armed reserve police officer in Highland Park, the former leader of a hate group volunteered as a reserve with western Michigan police agencies, and a Flint reserve officer was convicted after running a vigilante force that once illegally detained teens, holding them at gunpoint. The Free Press investigation also found: There are about 3,000 unlicensed civilians supplementing the ranks of law enforcement agencies across Michigan, based on information compiled by the newspaper through Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year. Most are considered reserves or auxiliary officers, but the newspaper also identified other unlicensed civilians, such as members of sheriff’s posses and mounted and marine units.It is believed to be the first such accounting of this group of officers. Michigan has fallen behind other states that have already implemented standards for reserve officers. The responsibility to set training requirements in Michigan falls to MCOLES, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards — but the agency has no immediate plans to take on such a task, despite gaining the authority to do so nearly two years ago. Responsibilities of these civilians, who are mostly unpaid volunteers,vary widely — from serving as the partners of licensed cops on patrol to riding horses in parades in units that are, generally, ceremonial. David Harvey, former executive director of the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.(Photo: Gin
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