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Concerns Expressed at Public Safety Forum

Online form now available to report law enforcement officer encounter concerns There was nearly a full house at the BIC Center along with about 60 Zoom attendees yesterday afternoon for St. James...

Traffic Stops at issue; Community Forum set

St. Patrick’s Day brought plenty of visitors and fun to the island with activities on Friday and Saturday along with all sorts of Irish meal specials at the Shamrock, Dalwhinnies and the Bodega. ...

Updated Internet Speed Survey

Continuing its efforts to correct the data about the island in the FCC's National Broadband Map, the Joint Telecommunications Advisory Committee has, in cooperation with the BIA, put up a new online...

Check the FCC Broadband Map TODAY

The Island's Joint Telecommunications Advisory Committee, formed by the townships, is urging all Island residents to check the FCC's National Broadband Map (broadbandmap.fcc.gov) to make sure that...
Concerns Expressed at Public Safety Forum

Concerns Expressed at Public Safety Forum

  • Online form now available to report law enforcement officer encounter concerns

There was nearly a full house at the BIC Center along with about 60 Zoom attendees yesterday afternoon for St. James Township’s public safety meeting. Township Supervisor Bobbi Welke lead the meeting starting off by making clear that the purpose was to gather information about recent law enforcement actions, especially during the St. Patrick’s Day weekend—and to use that information constructively to address community concerns. The meeting was calm with all waiting their turn to speak, and it took a bit of cajoling from Bobbi to get folks talking.  An early theme that emerged was concern that the number of encounters seemed to be excessive compared to what occurs on the mainland. Here’s Angel Welke:

Angel Welke

A number of commentators told of being followed for excessive distances, in some cases all the way from town until they turned off onto down island roads. Some were stopped because they had dim taillights or a broken light and then asked to step out of their vehicles even though there appeared to be no basis for a reasonable suspicion that any law had been violated. Deb Robert told of her husband, Johnny B, ultimately just stopping after being followed for an excessive distance.

Debbie Robert

There were also a number of reports of what can only be described as inappropriate conduct by officers, including stopping people walking down the street for no apparent reason and this from Attorney Mary Beth Kur.

Mary Beth Kur

The island’s representative on the Charlevoix County Commission, Scott Hankins, was on the call and, after hearing these stories, had this reaction.

County Commissioner Scott Hankins

The general concern that evolved during the meeting was that there seemed to be a false perception about the general conduct of people in the community and that, contrary to Mr. Hankin’s view, the conduct of officers had been inappropriate and abusive. Island EMS director Chris McGee seemed to confirm some of these concerns with this behind the scenes look.

Chris McGee

Next steps are to collect written information about the encounters in question and then for township officials to meet with Sheriff Vondra to look for a way to address the concerns of the community. A full audio recording of the meeting is available at the link below. 

You may report the details of any encounter with law enforcement officers that you believe is of concern by completing the form at the link below.

Law Enforcement Encounter Report Form

The full audio recording of the meeting is available on Soundcloud from WVBI. The Zoom video recording is available here.

This story first appeared on wvbi.net. The audio version of the story as reported on WVBI is here.

Traffic Stops at issue; Community Forum set

Traffic Stops at issue; Community Forum set

St. Patrick’s Day brought plenty of visitors and fun to the island with activities on Friday and Saturday along with all sorts of Irish meal specials at the Shamrock, Dalwhinnies and the Bodega.  But, it also brought what some are now calling a heavy handed approach...

Updated Internet Speed Survey

Updated Internet Speed Survey

Continuing its efforts to correct the data about the island in the FCC's National Broadband Map, the Joint Telecommunications Advisory Committee has, in cooperation with the BIA, put up a new online speed test survey. This one is automatic. All you need to do is click...

Check the FCC Broadband Map TODAY

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JTAC conducting Internet speed survey

JTAC conducting Internet speed survey

Most Island property owners have probably received their Winter Tax Bills by now. Included in them is an Internet Speed Survey being conducted for the townships by the Island's Joint Townships Telecommunications Advisory Committee (JTAC). It's all part of an effort to...

ETIPP Onboarding Meeting

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Wednesday morning at 10:00 there’s an ETIPP Information and Strategy meeting via Zoom with the island’s  National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) Advisor, Liz Weber.  The island was the winner of an ETIPP grant and this meeting will kick off the process of working to plan...

Dark Sky Happenings in July

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July is going to be a dream-month – or maybe a dreamless month – for island dark sky buffs. With the Thunder Supermoon, two meteor showers and a comet, there’s so much to see that there might not be time to sleep at night.  The thunder super moon will rise this...

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