The News Room [News Release]

Sheriff Contact: John Roach: 313-224-0615
Release Date: Friday, June 27, 2003

Sheriff, western Wayne communities, develop cooperative law enforcement focus --- Suburbs to rely on County’s fugitive and Internet crime units

The Conference of Western Wayne County Mayors and Supervisors [CWW], which represents 18 suburban communities and more than 700,000 residents, recently passed a resolution to form a cooperative approach to law enforcement with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

By having the Sheriff’s Office conduct fugitive apprehension, Internet investigations and computer forensic services for the suburban departments, the resolution lays the groundwork for the County to become a vital support agency, rather than a competing police force, according to Sheriff Warren C. Evans.

“Since the Sheriff’s Office does not have primary police duties in any of its communities, with the recent exception of Highland Park, we all recognize that the County’s ideal role is as a support agency to 43 other departments,” Evans said. “This arrangement brings us a step closer to our collective goal of a seamless law enforcement system.”

The cooperative approach will make each agency more efficient and effective, said Canton Township Public Safety Director, John Santomauro.

“This type of partnership makes perfect sense from a law enforcement perspective,” said Santomauro. “Each agency can focus on what it does best; local departments can provide immediate response and the Sheriff’s Office can provide various specialized support services. Ultimately, that will mean more effective law enforcement and safer communities.”

When a local police department comes across a suspected case of child pornography or Internet identity theft, for example, the Sheriff’s Internet Crimes Unit will perform forensics on any computers seized by the local officers. This process can recover files that have been deleted from the hard drive and which can be used as evidence.

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Similarly, when a local department learns that a violent criminal they previously arrested has failed to appear in court after being released on bond, County warrant enforcement officers will handle the case. This unit, which also is made up of officers from Detroit, Livonia and Taylor, has already made 1,000 such arrests countywide in the past five months.

In addition to the services specifically described in the CWW resolution, the Sheriff’s Office also provides a number of countywide services, including its marine division, narcotics and morality enforcement, and its Special Response Team.

Evans said his department is also working to develop new services that will be provided to suburban departments, including in-custody lineups, a missing/exploited child recovery unit and another unit specifically to arrest individuals who fail to appear in court on drunk driving charges.

With more than 900 sworn officers, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office is the second largest police department in the state.

Internet Crimes Unit
The Internet Crime Unit is responsible for finding and responding to crimes occurring through the use of computers and the Internet. The most common computer and Internet crimes that occur are: Child Exploitation, Identification Theft, Internet Fraud, Credit Card Fraud, Cyber-stalking, Software Piracy, Prostitution, and Controlled Substance and Firearms Trafficking. Officers also will be available to assist local law enforcement agencies by that have cases involving advanced computer needs. To date, the unit has performed computer forensics for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Canton P.D., Sumpter P.D., Grosse Isle P.D., Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wayne County Airport Authority. These original cases ranged from a homicide investigation to sexual harassment.

Fugitive Apprehension
Shortly after taking office Wayne County and Detroit, along with officers from Taylor, Livonia and the US Marshals Service developed the Fugitive Apprehension Service Team, whose mission is to round up the thousands of wanted felons roaming Wayne County. In only five months, the 40 officers have arrested more than 1,000 fugitives living or hiding in communities across the county.

Communities represented by the Conference of Western Wayne are:
Belleville, Canton Township, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Garden City, Huron Township, Inkster, Livonia, Northville, Northville Township, Plymouth Township, Redford, Romulus, Sumpter Township, Van Buren Township, Wayne, Westland, and
Plymouth

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