Ludington Police Reserves: Who Are They?

[XLFD]

Back during the latter parts of the Vietnam War, the Ludington Police Department (LPD) created the Reserve Police Officer (RPO) program to deal with the local riots during those turbulent times, and according to Chief Wally Taranko back in 1998, a few stayed on as a permanent force when they were formally set up in 1971.  As of 1998, they were unpaid officers working special events primarily, who were trained in basic police work, but did not carry guns.  Their primary duty was to provide traffic and crowd control, thus assisting both the police and fire department in emergencies.  This Ludington Daily News article in 1998, shows that Chief Tarnako was open about the force, and there is no reason to disbelieve that the RPO force was anything but beneficial to the community and transparent.  After all they mention members and their duties in the article:

1998 Article

Four years later in 2002, Patti Boals, now Patti Klevorn, did a similar story for the paper involving the new chief, Mark Barnett, and his plans for the reserve officer program.  He hoped to expand the program by up to 50 percent, and give the reserve units more time at their job.

"The Ludington Police Department is in search of additional reserve police officers.

There are eight reserves now and Chief Mark Barnett is hoping to have 10-12 in the future.

Some reserves “retired” and others are looking to become less active, Barnett said, which leaves a few vacancies available.

The minimum time commitment from reserves is about four hours per month with meetings and ride-alongs, but Barnett said there is training involved as well and he would like reserves to want to spend a little more time with the program than the minimum four hours.

The city’s reserves help provide extra personnel for special events, such as the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Charity Basketball Tournament, July 4 Freedom Festival events, security for arts and crafts fair type of events and are additional officers to support road patrol.

Barnett is asking people who are interested in becoming reserve officers to contact Sgt. Steve Wietrzykowski at 843-3425."

  Aug 13, 2002 Patti Klevorn article

In the dozen years since that time, there hasn't been much said about the reserve program, the mentioning of RPOs doesn't really come again until we learn that Mayor candidate Ryan Cox is a RPO during the election, which helps to give him some leverage into becoming enough of an inside candidate to take enough votes away from the aforementioned Wally Taranko, who had become a city councilor in the interim, and Cox wins the mayor race. 

But the same experience as an RPO in the LPD does present a problem.  Historically, active police officers have not been allowed as councilors or mayors, due to the natural incompatibility of the two offices and the inherent conflicts in duties.  State law does not seem to allow an active police officer to work also as mayor even in small towns, and even with a powerful City Manager form of government.  This is why I made an issue about it in January, and have yet to see the City do anything but prove my point in the last few months.  It has also been learned that these officers do carry guns, wear regular uniforms and cost the city taxpayers about $5000 a year in equipment and uniforms mainly.

But during that time, the City Attorney issued an opinion that the two offices held by Ryan Cox were not incompatible, he did this by offering two arguments, one that had little merit, the other one depended on records that the City refused to disclose about the nature of the reserve officers, their job description, their standards, their legitimacy, etc.  I did eventually receive an E-mail between the chief and the city attorney that described the reserves, but this too was confusing, almost as confusing as the chief's descriptions at the end of the April 28th meeting.  But by that point, I had made a FOIA request for the rosters of the RPO of the LPD over the last few years, and surprisingly, I did get a reply.  Here was the latest roster with a date on it of 1-1-2014:

 

You will note that Ryan Cox is a sergeant of the RPO, which displays a regimentation and chain of command that was not present in the previous rosters that were included yearly since 2010.  In the marine reserves, our other recent mayor candidate and former LPD Chief leads the group.  A little research shows that the people in both marine and regulars have a bit in common.

RESERVE OFFICERS:

Jon Stowe leads the RPO and is a LASD high school teacher, but they do not show him as a sergeant in the LPD reserves at his Linked page:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jon-stowe/74/856/b71

A 2012 article from the local paper showed he was using his class to develop CSI concepts but did not mention his own police background.

Ryan Cox, who is Ludington's current mayor and a middle school teacher, fails to point to his police reservist affiliation in his linked account, or anywhere else before he ran for mayor and made it known.

 

Dave Skridulis comes from Scottville and he seems to be a retiree, and the most senior reserve: https://www.facebook.com/daveskridulis

Steve Castonia was one year graduated from high school when he became a reservist in 2007, he has been very quietly serving since.

 

Sarah O'Connor is a first grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary who is also on the Petunia Committee.

 

Keith Gill in 2012 was a student at LHS, just before he joined the reserves, he earned an Eagle Scout designation.  No signs of formal police training however.

Mark Willis is an LASD high school science teacher at about the same time he joins the force as seen in this article about the SS Badger.

Stowe, Cox, O'Connor, and Willis are all teachers in the LASD, meaning that even if School Resource Officer is away, there may still be four guns and gendarmes in our school.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing, and could serve as a healthy deterrent to any local school shooter-to-be, but the public and the students don't generally know about these 'teacher/cops', and what the extent of their powers are, or whether they will satisfactorily resolve conflicts that may arise out of their duties as teachers and as law enforcement.  Will they send Johnny to detention or put them at the mercy of our local justice system?  Will they start their own police investigation on information that was effectively privileged to them by dint of their teacher-student relationship?

 

 

MARINE OFFICERS/FORENSICS:

 

Wally Taranko, former city council member (2010-2013) and police chief served as a reserve until early 2011, and never made any remark as to abstain from votes on the fact that he was still on the police force, albeit in a diminished capacity.  Even though Ryan Cox freely admitted he was on the LPD reserves during his 2013 campaign against Wally Taranko, Taranko kept his own involvement secret throughout the election.    

Section 5.1 of the City Charter says:  "No elected officer of the City shall be employed by the City during his or her term of office unless otherwise provided for in this Charter or authorized by State Law."  The reservists are employed by the City, and there was arguably incompatible public offices present with Wally too.

 

Joe Marion is a charter fisherman operating from the Buttersville area and works at Mason County Animal Control.  He has experience with fire boats, and is formerly from the coast guard.

 

Andrew Nielsen is/was a member of the US Coast Guard too, and an architect, part of the Scottville Main Street Design Committee.

 

Brian Jacobs ( and 2013 member Jonathan Ayers) is also a local Coast Guard member too.

 

Steve Marx had a long career with US Customs and Drug Enforcement, he currently runs Federal Digital Forensics.

As you can see, the marine officers have a strong component of coast guard members, along with the multi-talented Wally Taranko.  In checking the past rosters, the marine reserve officers did not exist back before the City of Ludington acquired a state-of-the-art fireboat from the federal government. 

 

Although I think it's almost indisputable that having these experienced and ready-to-go reserve officers (the fireboat is about a block from the coast guard station) around ready to respond to a marine emergency is a good thing, the lack of any available public records is troubling.  The only reference that has been made about them publicly, was a brief mention by Chief Barnett just after last year's Gus Macker. 

If the marine reserves are effectively volunteer 'firefighters' for water and shoreline events as one would think they are, they should be formally recognized and legitimized, but they aren't.  Computer forensics specialist Steve Marx is also potentially a very helpful unit, but why is his involvement with the LPD a secret, and what exactly is his duties and expectations as compared to the other RPOs? 

 

 

 

I conclude with the older roster lists, showing the 2013 list as I did the 2014 list above.  The reserve force has undergone a lot of changes over the years and what is particularly telling is that there is only one officer (Dave Skridulis) that has been on the force for over seven years.  If Chief Barnett inherited eight reserve officers in 2002 and did expand the force to twelve at some point early on, one has to wonder where those all disappeared to-- even back in 2010 you had only RPO Skridulis on the force before 2006.  Did they move on to other things, resign or get fired for one reason or another?  When did the LPD reserves get guns and new powers that former Chief Taranko denied back in 1998?  These and many more questions are all good, and should be answered in full by the current leader of this group.

Reserve roster 2010- 2014.pdf

[Willy]

I wasn't aware of the size of the marine reserve unit but I think having the reserve marine officers makes a lot of sense since Ludington is a water oriented community and the fact that there exists so many water experienced personnel in this reserve unit is indeed a very good thing. For this I give the Police Dept. kudos. However my real concern is with the land based reserve unit because they are more likely to interact with the community. The lack of experience, training and the fact that they carry a weapon is troublesome. It seems irresponsible to have these reservists armed while doing volunteer work. Ludington doesn't need wannabe cops for the duties they perform and to refer to them as officers only makes this situation seem a little ridiculous. Ludington could easily hire part time people to direct traffic and people during events without arming them and calling them "police officers". As far as the digital forensics expert is concerned the City of Ludington is lucky to have him available as a volunteer because this useful position would cost the City plenty if he were on the payroll. So I give a thumbs up for the marine unit and the digital forensics expert and a thumbs down for the land unit because of the way it is organized, trained and used.

[Willy]

If any of the reserves are qualified it would be the marine reserves. They are experienced like no one else to handle water related problems plus the fact that being ex Coast Guard personnel they are qualified in handling and using firearms so I have no qualms about their role in the reserves. Unless the land based reserves are trained ex police officers I'm afraid Ludington is taking a huge risk by having such inexperienced and untrained personal posing as police officers.

[XLFD]

I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying, Willy.  And I don't know the answer to Jamie Long's question, but I will formally welcome them to the discussion. 

[Wonder Woman]

If the reserve officers are carrying guns, but are not sworn officers of the law, then technically they really cannot use their gun.  So what's the point of letting them have one?

Michigan's open carry law prohibits brandishing a firearm.  The law against brandishing does include some specific exceptions. Approved grounds for brandishing include peace officers performing their duties, people legally hunting or engaging in target practice, and people selling, buying, repairing or transferring firearms.

In the case of reserve officers, would they be considered "peace officers performing their duties?"  I believe it was stated that these individuals are not sworn peace officers, so they are merely private citizens using their Michigan right to open carry or carry concealed with a CPL.  But state law prohibits them from removing the gun from the holster, and holding someone at gunpoint as a peace officer may often do. 

Who pays for these weapons?  Are these weapons provided by the City of Ludington or do the reserves bring in their own gun?  If it's provided by the City, is it taxpayer money paying for the guns?  If it's a personal firearm supplied by the reservist, are there liability concerns with having them use their own weapon?

Final question/thought:  The chief said the reserve officers cannot make an arrest and work with, and under the direction of, a sworn police officer.  Does this mean there is always a sworn officer with the reserve officer?  I believe I've seen many instances of a reserve office acting along while "patrolling" at Gus Macker and directing traffic at Friday Night Live.  If there is a law enforcement matter that needs to be handled immediately, can these reserve officers do anything if a sworn officer is not present?  I suppose they could act as a good samaratin, but would they then be covered by the City's liability insurance, etc?  Lots to think about.

[Willy]

Good questions WW. I'm still wondering why the Chief has not addressed the public as to the need for a reserve, how it's governed, who's involved, what are their exact duties, what can the reserves do and not do, how are they authorized, why do they carry weapons and under whose authority to do so, who's responsible for the reserves actions and are they covered under the CIty's liability insurance, are the reserves covered if they are injured on the job, what are the consequences of a law suit against a reservist and will the City provide legal council to defend them, is the City libel for the reservist's action or inaction when dealing with the public, is the City indemnified against lawsuits brought against the city by reservists who are injured while serving as a reservists and what if a reservists accidentally shoots himself while on the job? I can think of a hundred more questions but  it would be nice if the Chief would at least answer those posed on this forum.

[XLFD]

And to think that this whole can of worms got opened just because the mayor could not openly discuss why his two jobs working at the City of Ludington might not be compatible.  Wonder Woman and Willy pose many of the concerns and questions which has led me to my own position on the regular reserves.  Even ones I hadn't considered fully. 

Candidate Cox pledged to make the City's operations more transparent, more citizen-friendly; Mayor Cox hasn't followed that pledge just yet.