ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Royal Oak Police Department Chief Michael Moore has worn a lot of hats, from being a detective to teaching officers how to ride motorcycles.
Moore has been chief for two years but has been with the department for over two decades.
He's happy to boast about the city's 53 beautiful parks. More importantly though, he wants his officers mentally prepared for the job ahead.
"We’re going on so many mental health calls, so we’ve actually created a crisis intervention team that actually gives our officers in-depth training or connecting those in crisis with the resources that they need,” Moore said.
In his 24 years on the force, the chief has seen change including the need to support mental health within the department.
“We actually took a look inward and one of the things we’re doing in law enforcement that we’ve never really done before is we’re paying attention to the wellness of our own folks because if we’re not well, we’re not able to help the community,” Moore said.
Moore said the department has a peer support team and doctors and psychologists are brought in to help officers after significant incidents.
One challenge the chief said his department and many across the country are facing is recruiting and retention.
“After 2020 and all the unrest, our profession was really under attack, and rightfully so,” Moore said. “And I think it made a lot of folks that were in the profession maybe second guess if this is what they wanted to do.”
He added that recruiting efforts were also impacted because of it. Moore said the department is hiring.
To continue improving, Moore said his officers are constantly training, following trends and using technology.
“Traditionally, training might have been used as sort of a punishment,” he said, adding that more officers have been appreciating the extra training and resources.
Moore said he’s stayed in Royal Oak because it’s “an amazing community.”
“I’ve grown up in law enforcement in Royal Oak, I’ve had a lot of opportunities and the community support that we feel day in and day out — we work at it all the time to build that trust. And you can actually feel it when you’re policing this neighborhood and this community,” Moore said.
