In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, nearly 90% of local governments involved with law enforcement are struggling to recruit new officers.

Statewide, the figure is 72%, while 48% report problems with retaining current officers.

The key findings from a 2024 Michigan Public Policy Survey of 1,800 Michigan cities, townships and counties compares to just 22% that reported the same issues in 2015, marking a drastic increase in less than a decade.

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The survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, does not delve into the reasons why, but sheriffs and police chiefs who spoke with Bridge Michigan pointed to eroding respect for the profession, along with low pay and high risk.

“Even my own kids don’t want to be police officers,” Marquette Police Chief Ryan Grim told the news site.

Despite $5,000 hiring bonuses, and overtime that can increase salaries by more than $25,000, the department is constantly searching for officers, often competing with other departments struggling with the same issue.

“Every day is recruitment day,” Grim told Bridge. “We’re just fighting over the same people.”

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Between 2014 and 2023, data from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police shows the number of officers in Michigan dwindled from almost 19,300 to less than 18,900, despite $30 million approved to provide training grants to counter the decline.

UM researchers found 80% of county sheriffs and local police chiefs are facing recruitment problems, and roughly half are now struggling with a workforce that’s “insufficient to deliver the needed law enforcement services in the community.”

“It’s really across the board that this recruitment problem is out there,” Debra Horner, with UM’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, told Bridge.

Part of the problem is pay at public police offices “just can’t compete with the private sector pay,” she said.

Another part centers on the lack of interest from young people in the profession, resulting in fewer promising candidates.

“The quality is really not where it was years ago,” Eaton Rapids Police Chief Joe Weeks told Bridge.

The downturn over the last decade has been fueled in part by increasing hostility against police, both in the criminals in the streets and from politicians and Democratic activists tied to the Defund the Police movement.

“Since the George Floyd death, we’ve had a lot of people pushing an anti-law enforcement narrative,” Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Michael Shaw told The Detroit News. “That has an impact. So when we stop someone for a simple traffic stop now, we’re getting a lot of pushback and resistance, unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

In 2022, the most recent year with data available, “there were 1,751 officers assaulted in Michigan” according to the news site, “the highest number in the Michigan State Police online database that goes back to 1997.”

The 1,751 assaults was up 60% from 2019, and “the assaults and attempts to obstruct arrests have not abated,” The News reports.

Some believe that’s because the defund the police movement has gained support from the highest levels of government.

During a June 2020 Q & A with The Root, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she supports “the spirit” of the anti-police movement, arguing spending should be focused instead on schools, health care, and mental health.

I support defunding the police – Gretchen Whitmer https://t.co/MmvrsuJXNy pic.twitter.com/QwU17PIFsV

— Michigan GOP (@MIGOP) October 11, 2022

“The spirit as you just articulated is really just about reprioritizing and rebuilding communities, not just policing,” Whitmer said.

“If you do all those other things, you don’t need all the money going to police departments,” she said. “So yeah, the spirit of it, I do support that spirit.”

Whitmer shared a similar take on abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement while campaigning for governor in 2018.

In 2018, @gretchenwhitmer wanted to abolish ICE.

If she had her way, Michiganders would be defenseless against illegal immigrants currently committing murders, robberies, and other violent crimes across the state.

Source: @MIGOP pic.twitter.com/C4uobcvH7C

— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) April 8, 2024

The anti-police sentiment also flows through Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office, which has vigorously pursued charges against officers she believes went too far.

In May, Nessel charged 50-year-old Detective Sgt. Brian Keely with second-degree murder, which carries a potential life sentence, as well as involuntary manslaughter, following the death of Grand Rapids’ Samuel Sterling during a pursuit of the 25-year-old fugitive with a history of gun crimes.

“We have found that Detective Sgt. Keely’s actions that day were legally grossly negligent and created a very high risk of death or great bodily harm, which could have otherwise been prevented,” Nessel said in a video announcing the charges.

Whitmer described the incident as “unacceptable,” and called on the state police to “take steps to terminate the trooper’s employment if criminal charges are issued.”

The Kent County ruled Sterling’s death an accident.

Keely’s attorney, Marc Curtis, has suggested there’s political pressures behind the prosecution of his client, a 25-year police veteran with an unblemished record and life-saving award for taking a shot in the chest while rescuing a hostage.

“It is unfortunate that in this time of political correctness, Michigan’s Attorney General has chosen to ignore the facts of this incident and rely on political pressure,” Curtis said in a statement cited by WXMI. “It is also unfortunate that our Governor, without having seen or heard all the evidence in the case, chose to interject her opinion and side against law enforcement in this matter.”

Keely’s prosecution is only the latest chapter in Nessel’s years-long campaign to crack down on law enforcement she doesn’t like.

In April, Nessel filed an amicus brief in a Court of Claims case seeking disclosure of the names of certified Michigan police officers, arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs.

While Michigan State Police argued that releasing the names would endanger officers, Nessel argued its more “important that the Michigan State Police are held to the same FOIA requirements as other state agencies,” according to an AG statement. FOIA is an acronym for Freedom of Information Act.

The brief followed Nessel’s push for a range of “reforms” in 2020 that would allow officials to revoke officers’ license for a broader range of misconduct, require permanent retention of all disciplinary records, create a statewide public officer misconduct registry, cancel retirement benefits for officers convicted of felonies, require police to report use-of-fore data by demographics, create a new agency to investigate officer involved deaths, and require more continuing education for officers, Bridge Michigan reports.