Officers Greeted with Southern Hospitality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2005

Contact: Shanon Akans, MSP, 517-336-6364

East Lansing.  As the law enforcement officers from 21 Michigan agencies arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana yesterday at 4:30 a.m., they were prepared to sleep outdoors, eat MRE’s and potentially forgo showering for up to 14 days.  However, they were pleasantly surprised to find the Louisiana State Police (LSP) had made arrangements for them to stay in a recreation center adjacent to the LSP Headquarters, allowing the officers to unload their gear, take showers, get vehicles repaired, eat and rest before beginning their 14-day deployment.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 92 Michigan law enforcement officers were sworn in as Special Officers of the LSP and were given full police authority throughout Louisiana.  The officers, who will each be paired with a LSP trooper, left for their first mission this morning at 5:30 a.m.; a door to door search and rescue mission in New Orleans.  The contingent will return to the LSP compound at the end of a more than 12-hour workday to prepare for another early morning mission on day two.

Officers in the Michigan contingent are from the Barry County Sheriff’s Department, Berkley Police Department,  Burton Police Department, Charlevoix County Sheriff’s Department, Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department, Dearborn Police Department, Emmet County Sheriff’s Department, Grand Rapids Police Department, Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Jackson Police Department, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, Lansing Police Department, Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department, Mackinaw City Police Department, Meridian Township Police Department, Michigan State Police, Redford Township Police Department, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police Department, Southgate Police Department, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department and West Bloomfield Township Police Department.

Law enforcement resources from Michigan were requested by the State of Louisiana through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) on Saturday, Sept. 3.  The contingent of Michigan law enforcement officers left Lansing on Monday morning for a minimum 14-day deployment. 

The convoy included a six-member Emergency Support Team with full equipment, a mobile command vehicle with communications capability, a National Guard transport vehicle with enough supplies to sustain the officers for four days, a tactical medical unit from Life EMS Medic of Grand Rapids and a gasoline tanker from Mooney Oil Company of Flint.