Editorial: VBT police give detailed reports

Last Friday’s two-and-a-half-hour protest march of 150 to 200 people in Van Buren Township went off without incident, except for the woman who collapsed from heat exhaustion.
Thus began the detailed report by Public Safety Director Greg Laurain and Police Chief Jason Wright at Tuesday’s regular virtual meeting of the VBT Board of Trustees. As Supervisor Kevin McNamara said, “We’ve never reported these numbers before.”
Board members complimented police on how well the march went and also for the way the department has been functioning.
Police everywhere are under a microscope right now and the VBT police showed transparency with what they’ve been doing and how they’ve been training.
Laurain said the death of George Floyd was “grotesque, inhumane and just wrong” and sickened law enforcement across the country, including in VBT.
“We have professionals answering the calls,” Laurain said, detailing the training on use of force and de-escalation.
Chief Wright reported in 2018 there were 23,592 calls for service, 1,394 arrests, and 22 uses of force, which were reviewed in detail and found appropriate. A taser was discharged twice.
In 2019, there were 24,172 calls for service, 1,549 arrests and 36 uses of force, all scrutinized and found appropriate. A taser was pointed three times to get compliance with no firing.
We’ll give more of the report in next week’s paper. Transparency has arrived.