Police Chief Candidates Share Approaches to Staffing Challenges, Mental Health and Policing a College Town
East Lansing’s search for a new police chief is heating up. At a Wednesday, April 30 community engagement event, the four finalists to be the city’s next top cop spoke with ELi about their stances on some of the most important components of policing.
Last week, the city announced that current Interim Police Chief Jen Brown, Earl Morrison, Shane Ginnan and Nathaniel Clark are finalists to be the next police chief. Read more about the finalists in ELi’s previous reporting.
The city was initially slated to announce the new chief this week, but City Manager Robert Belleman told ELi the announcement will be made later on this month.
To get to know the finalists, ELi asked candidates about their approach to recruitment and retention, the role police should play in responding to mental health crises, and how law enforcement can best operate in a college town.
ELPD has not been fully staffed in several years. What approach would you take to recruitment and retention to help the department reach full staffing?
Earl Morrison
Morrison said previously he has held open houses to recruit officers. He also said he would go to Michigan State University, nearby police academies and other institutions that may be producing young officers to learn about potential candidates.
Once candidates are interested, Morrison said he would invite them to visit the police department and even go on ride alongs, engaging recruits with the officers working in the department.
“A couple places where I did that, we probably increased our application pool anywhere from 50 to 75%,” Morrison said. “You’re kind of showcasing who you are and what you have to get them in the door.”
Morrison said once the department hires new employees, it’s important to mentor them and provide opportunities for officers to make career advancements.
Jen Brown
Brown said staffing has been a focus for her during the year-and-a-half that she has been working for ELPD.
The department’s current recruitment efforts that she has assisted with include engaging with the community. She said ELPD has a recruitment and retention team that sends officers to job fairs and community groups to find candidates.
“The community is the best way to bring in recruits,” Brown said.
Brown added that the department has officers advertise the department to their own families and friends, to bring in candidates they may have personal relationships with.
Once the department hires employees, “the challenge in today’s policing is keeping them,” Brown said.
She said her job as chief would be ensuring that the department is offering adequate training, keeping morale up, and taking care of officer’s health and wellness.
Shane Ginnan
Ginnan said retention often boils down to training. He said officers all have a specific area they most enjoy working in, whether it is traffic, detective work or something else. As chief, Ginnan said he would try to figure out what officers are passionate about and make sure they have the education to excel in that area.
Ginnan said police departments he has worked in have had a lot of success with high school cadet programs. He said ELPD should tap into the local schools and Michigan State University with a cadet program.
He added that with plenty of competitors like Lansing, Meridian Township and MSU, sometimes standing out to candidates can come down to “dollars and cents” and offering good benefits.
Nathaniel Clark
Clark said for ELPD to retain employees, it needs to make sure its salaries are competitive, not just with nearby police departments, but also the private sector.
He said having current police officers recommend candidates would help recruiting. He also said he’d assemble a recruiting team to visit schools, churches, military bases and more in search of candidates.
Clark stressed the importance of listening to employees and incorporating their feedback. He said in a previous role, he created a “Chief’s advisory board” that consisted of officers and civilian employees within the department.
“I want input and buy-in from my young officers,” Clark said.
He added that it’s not uncommon for him to do a late night ride along or to be at the department during the night shift. Clark said this isn’t to micromanage employees, but to make sure they know he’s approachable.
Clark added that officers need to be given opportunities to move up the ranks within ELPD.
East Lansing police are being asked to respond to people experiencing mental health crises more and more often. What role do you think police should have in responding to people experiencing mental health crises or homelessness, and how would you utilize the department’s social workers?
Earl Morrison
Morrison said police are receiving more training about mental health, and continuing to increase training on the topic would be a good thing.
He also said it’s helpful to have social workers available to assist officers through incidents involving mental illness that they are uncertain how to navigate. He said he’d encourage officers to learn about people who live with mental illnesses from the department’s social workers.
“[Having social workers] helps us respond better and helps us find a solution for those who are dealing with those mental health issues, way better than if the police officers were just trying to do it on their own,” Morrison said.
Jen Brown
Brown spent 10 years in the private sector after a 15-year stint with Michigan State University police. She said when she returned to policing in late 2023, the increase in mental health calls is the “number one thing that has changed” in policing.
“It is a really unfortunate circumstance in terms of the number of [mental health] calls,” Brown said.
She said responding to people experiencing a mental health crisis is a team effort, often involving police, paramedics and social workers to ensure as many resources as possible are offered – and that sites are safe before mental health professionals are deployed.
Shane Ginnan
Ginnan said when he worked in Noblesville, Indiana, the police department created a program that assigned an officer to solely focus on assisting people who struggle with mental health issues and addiction. He said the officer had a therapy dog, would conduct home visits and partnered with agencies in the community that offered mental health services. As chief, he’d look to create a similar program in East Lansing.
Ginnan said the police should serve as a bridge directing community members to the correct resources. This way, the individuals in need are receiving the best care possible, and officer’s aren’t spending all their time on mental health calls.
“If we can funnel those folks out of the criminal justice system and into the system where they’re actually going to get the help that they need, that’s what we need to do,” Ginnan said.
Nathaniel Clark
Clark said officers should be offered Crisis Intervention Team training to prepare them to work with people experiencing mental health crises.
He said the department should prioritize rehabilitation instead of incarceration. This means utilizing the social workers to find the best path forward for people who come into contact with the police.
“They’re not doing it just because they want to do it out of malice,” Clark said. “They have mental issues… We can recognize they have the mental issues, and we should take that extra step of ‘What can we do to help them?’”
Do you have any unique ideas that you believe would help lead a police department in a large college town?
Earl Morrison
Morrison again stressed the importance of mentorship. He said he’d like to form partnerships, not just with MSU, but also the local K-12 schools to create a mentorship program that helps young people learn how to be adults.
In addition to a mentorship program helping participants transition into adulthood, Morrison said it would help improve the relationship between ELPD and the groups it partners with.
“I want to connect with them in a way where we’re helping them grow and understand as they become young adults,” he said.
Jen Brown
Brown said the 15 years she spent working for MSU police have helped her implement new strategies at ELPD.
She emphasized officer health and wellness, especially through collaborating with the community. She said ELPD employees are offered health and wellness training days with community partners.
“We partnered with Sparrow Hospital last year to bring in a nutritionist to speak,” Brown said. “We partnered with Douglas J [Aveda Institute], who is a community member here in East Lansing, to provide massages to our folks while they were going through training. All at no cost to the City of East Lansing or the police department.”
Shane Ginnan
Ginnan said that one of the aspects of the East Lansing police chief job that drew him in is the opportunity to serve in a college town.
He said he would need to find out more about ELPD’s policies and working relationship with the university to find the best approach.
“I don’t know that I have a unique approach to it,” Ginnan said. “But I think that because I haven’t been mired down in it before, that maybe some of my approaches will be different because I’m going to look at it with fresh eyes.”
Nathaniel Clark
Clark said he has been a police chief or held a high ranking role in police departments in three different college towns: Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; and Albany, Georgia.
He said he learned early on that it is important to build connections with the student bodies. He said it’s critical to be visible on campus and attend college events to build partnerships.
“Treating them as young adults, treating them as a valued partner, treating them with the upmost respect and making sure we do listening first and foremost,” Clark said. “That’s 21st century policing and community-oriented policing.”