Melvindale Police Chief Chris Egan (at podium) updates the City Council about changes within the city’s police department during its Jan. 7 meeting.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE – Police Chief Christopher Egan updated the City Council on changes, including two firings, that have occurred during the process of rebuilding and improving the department during its Jan. 7 meeting.
He said in December the department had 36 arrests, 662 incidents, 20 vehicles were impounded and 444 citations were written during 526 traffic stops.
“That’s busy for a department that basically has 14 officers currently, and out of that, not all of them were on the road,” Egan said. “So, year-to-date, it’s pretty impressive – we are talking about almost 10,000 incidents that we went on.”
He said that during 2025, the Police Department had 9,874 incidents, 335 vehicles impounded, and more than 7,000 violations and 441 arrests.
“These officers are working really hard and I’m proud of them,” Egan said. “I’ve been here four months, (Deputy Police Chief Daryl Campbell) has been here three months and we are trying to gather as much intel as we can, get our footing, come up with a good plan and we do believe we have for 2026 if we move forward here with what we’re doing.”
He said they have accomplished a lot of training in the past three months, starting with officer wellness.
Egan said three police officers retired, some of which were unexpected, two employees were terminated, and three are on administrative leave, with two paid and one unpaid leave.
“We definitely have some work to do on trying to get some people in here,” he said.
Egan said they are currently vetting five good candidates, three of which would be lateral moves, one with 16 years of investigative experience, and he said they are pursuing several other potential candidates.
He said at the Jan. 13 public safety commission meeting two current police officers will be promoted to corporal and one to sergeant.
Egan said the department’s three sergeants will be sent to an assessment center soon to help boost them up.
Campbell said all new recruits receive a minimum of eight hours of behavioral mental health training, similar to training that is now provided at police academies.
Egan said the department could lose grants and Michigan Public Act 302 of 1982 Michigan Justice Training Fund money if it doesn’t complete this training as well, and said about 95 percent of its officers are currently compliant.
Campbell said the course specifically teaches police officers how to interact with mentally ill people they encounter.
“This course specifically talks about how they identify and treat someone with a mental illness,” he said.
Egan said he has seen a poor display of professional standards in the past when law enforcement personnel have had to deal with people with a mental illness who were in crisis.
He said mentoring all of the police officers and building morale back up are priorities for him, as are recruiting and retention.
“I think we are moving in the right direction on that,” he said.
Campbell said it is difficult to hire police officers since every local department is looking for people and it is difficult to compete with police departments that have more resources.
He said police academy graduates are recruited within a few weeks of graduation.
Egan said he and Campbell will take chief professional development training in February, and Lt. Humayun Rahman has been approved for police staff and command training.
Campbell emphasized that staff and command training is fundamentally important.
“It’s highly regulated, it’s a very difficult course and it’s highly challenging,” he said. “You have to work and it’s extremely difficult, a lot of people want to quit – a lot of people do quit – they couldn’t take the pressure of what they’re doing.”
Campbell said staff and command training teaches recruiting, how to run a property room and budgeting.
Egan said there are promotional opportunities within the department’s officers, and stressed the importance of properly training supervisors.
He said it is important that supervisors are available when officers need to place a call for support in the field.
Egan said the corporals should be going to field training officer courses, which will free up sergeants to fulfill other duties.
He said training that needs to be done within the department includes interviewing, use of force, and active weapon skills, and departmental policies need to be reviewed and established where they don’t exist.
Egan said he hopes to restructure the department with 12-hour shifts so his officers get a three-day weekend every other weekend.
“I think that family time is important, too, and that’s the industry now, and I support it,” he said. “It does get people in the door and it keeps them here.”
Egan also emphasized the importance of community engagement.
“We have an opportunity there to build more trust, building relationships and rebrand this department,” he said. “You will hear different things and you are building that trust back up in the community.”
Egan said they are trying to do fiscally responsible equipment need assessments.
“We are trying to do things the best way we can without breaking the bank,” he said. “Every city needs to be tight with their budget and we are certainly trying to do that.”
Egan said he also hopes to improve communications with the city council, staff and the residents.
He said he also wants to utilize social media to inform residents of situations like water main breaks, missing persons and police situations.
“We are not in the business to do Facebook posts, but it is a huge tool,” Egan said.