Albion Department of Public Safety Chief Aaron Phipps at his desk compiling information that helps him discern needs in the community and plan future training for his officers. He shared that ADPS is still a part of the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards pilot program requiring 24 hours of continued education yearly. Last year’s focus was mental health. This year money is going towards firearm’s training.
By Sylvia Benavidez
Year two as chief is beginning to be a busy one for Albion Department of Public Safety Chief Aaron Phipps. With growth in staff size and training, ADPS has been able to react quickly to calls and regional needs. For example, there has recently been a lot of police action in Albion. ADPS officers assisted detectives from the Southwest Enforcement Team April 24 by helping seize cocaine, collect evidence of production and distribution of crack cocaine, seize an unregistered handgun, and arrest a 34-year-old woman in the 500 block of Washington Street.
One day earlier, ADPS responded to a complaint about a man brandishing a handgun while threatening an individual in their driveway on the 700 Block of N. Eaton Street. The 65-year-old man was found, arrested, and transferred to the Calhoun County Jail. Earlier that same day Albion College, Marshall Public Schools, and downtown businesses were on lockdown as a precaution because of a report of a juvenile male pointing a gun at two other juvenile males in the area of N. Clinton St. and West Pine St. and just a week earlier the department held a birthday party at Fire Station 1 for a family who won the opportunity from a silent auction at Kids ’N’ Stuff Museum.
Phipps credits the department’s ability to answer calls that involve agreements with other agencies with his increased staff numbers as well as being aware of what is going on in the community. “I think more so taking advantage of opportunities. With us being staffed with 18 people, the aggravated assault we had on Austin, then we had the juvenile incident that led to the college and the school being on lockdown, that is a call we typically receive but what is unusual is that it was happening at 11 a.m. and with having being staffed so well we had an on-duty officer there that actually observed one of the individuals involved and we were able to set up a perimeter to find them,” said Phipps.
“We are not necessarily getting more calls for service,” said Phipps. “With the number of officers, we have we are more proactive, and we are able to respond faster.”
In the past officers had to work a lot of extra shifts because of the staff shortage. “Now that we are staffed where we are at, on day shift we could have upwards of two people off and still not have to order anybody (to work) because we have so many people working.” He hascontinue the emphasis on recruiting officers from the legacy of former ADPS Chief of Scott Kipp. “On night shift, we have three people working on each shift and soon will have four.” Their last hire will be done with his training by the end of the month. “Staffing is looking pretty good, and we can see the results,” said Phipps.
Creating a functioning team is also vital to Phipps. “We’ve gone through enough turnover to where I am pretty confident that our officers are doing proper background on individuals and finding people that fit our culture here and our work ethic that’s another huge part.” Constant training is his other focus for the years to come.
Phipps said he continues to provide officers with training opportunities. “We’ve been working with other agencies. We still have letters of understanding with the county with the drone program, drone team, CAMJET, our evidence collection team, and with our SRT (Special Response Team). We are still working with the county and Marshall, the tribe. So, we are all working together in those areas, which is great, but I think we are also getting a lot of help from SWET, the Southwest Enforcement Team. They specifically focus on narcotics trafficking. They have been in town a lot and we have been working with them a lot. With that partnership, a lot of things have developed. We have had a lot of raids in town this year.”
Phipps shared that the narcotics problem is still alive in Albion. “We are trying to be proactive with traffic stops. They are lately leading to a lot of drugs, Fentanyl, methamphetamine. Those two are the main ones but coke in crack cocaine. We recently had a drug and opiate overdose study that the Calhoun County Health Department did.”
Phipps said between 2019 and 2024, the common substances that contributed to fatal overdoses in Calhoun County were fentanyl and methamphetamines.
“Pretty much between 25 and 64 are where the majority of our overdoses took place,” reported Phipps.
Having more officers available for traffic stops and having Tyson the K-9 officer on the day shift makes it possible for more drugs to be found or patterns detected. Phipps said that day he assisted Michigan State Police in a traffic stop on I94 on exit 121. “They had a truck pullover at one of the gas stations and our dog did a search, indicated that there was something in it or was something at one time. Tyson the other day was able to sniff out fentanyl and cocaine separately on two individuals.”
Two other big issues affecting Albion are domestic violence and fraud. He said, “Domestic violence is always the biggest concern, but we are not going to enforce our way out of that. That is going to have to be a cultural change.” He is also seeing a trend involving senior citizens and fraud. “There is a lot of fraud that has been taking place.” Phipps further explained, “Victims, senior citizens, people who believe their computer has been hacked or what they perceive is a romantic relationship that is online then they get swindled into sending money to someone who is defrauding them. We’ve had some specific groups in town that I have spoken to about fraud and some of the red flags.”
Phipps said he had spoken at local churches and reached out to Huntington Bank. “We have individuals in town who are wanting to find a way to monitor their parents bank accounts without necessarily having access to them.”
Phipps believes maintaining and keeping an updated training schedule are key to his department’s success on the job and working with the community. “We just wrapped up emergency vehicle operation called EVO. We had it with police cars last week and this week at Michigan International Speedway.”
He has observed it takes an officer at least two years to get comfortable on the job and he wants to keep that talent in Albion. “Sustaining it is what I don’t want to overlook. I want to make sure we continue to build on what we have and make sure all is working properly…We have three new firefighters that are still on probation.” He also reported “We had two promotions recently. Bill Lazarus got promoted to detective sergeant. Zach Behnke got promoted to sergeant as well.”
Regular fire training is particularly important to him. “We get anywhere from a 100 to 150 calls a year but maybe eight or nine are structure fires. We’ve gone back to automatic mutual aid with Sheridan Township. So, we are working closely with them…But the fire side is something we are trying to push so everyone feels comfortable on the fireside and not just the police side.” He has three people going to Bowling Green for three days of hands-on fire training. “They host two times a year during spring and fall,” he said. “I think people find out the fire side is really fun and rewarding. So, we are getting people interested in it,” he said. “I had to get up on all my certifications to be recognized as a fire chief.” He is about to complete fire officer 2 training and take his tests to be recognized formally as the fire chief.
Phipps is not afraid to ask for help. “If I don’t know something, I am going to ask. So, working with our administration and game planning, it’s worked well. We just got our tower tested recently,” he said.
One aspect of the job of he has learned to appreciate more as chief is certain paperwork. “What I didn’t know was the number of FOIA requests I would receive and how many people were going to try and sell me things.”
Phipps knows he has got a good crew and he is going to do everything he can to give them the necessary tools to do their job well and opportunities to advance their skill levels for their personal growth as well as the departments.
