HANCOCK — Voters of the city of Hancock will be asked on Tuesday to approve a new, dedicated police millage for the purpose of hiring an additional full-time police officer and also updating and replacing outdated equipment.

The need for hiring a full-time officer, said Police Lt. David Outinen, is because of the shortage of part-time officers.

Outinen, who has been with the Hancock Police Department for more than 29 years, said that Hancock has historically relied on part-time officers to fill gaps in scheduling.

In the past, when an officer was absent for training, vacation or illness, part-time officers filled those gaps. At one point, he said, the department had seven or eight part-timers.

“And of course, they worked for other agencies, too,” he said, “in hopes of finding full-time positions when one opened up, whether it was here or in another department.”

That has changed now. Outinen said the Hancock department has had no part-time officers for about a year.

“I don’t believe any other local agency has any part-time officers, either,” he said.

In maintaining around-the-clock, safe levels of police protection in the city, it is necessary to fill the scheduling gaps, he said, so the department needs an additional officer.

Part-time positions do not qualify for full-time pay, benefits, retirement and other perks that come with full-time, said Outinen, so nobody blames part-time officers for accepting full-time positions.

“It costs money to become a police officer and to be an officer,” he said. “You’ve got to have the college, go to an academy, then MCOLES (Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards) certification, then constantly updating training.”

In addition, said Outinen, once someone becomes a police officer, uniforms, equipment, and those accoutrements necessary for an officer must be paid for, and they those are not cheap.

It is not a cheap proposition to hire, train and equip an officer, he added.

In the absence of the availability of part-time officers to fill scheduling gaps, the department becomes compelled to rely on officers working overtime.

“Every officer has family and personal lives,” said Outinen, “so they’re getting tired of working those extra shifts.”

In order to maintain protection and essential services full-time around-the-clock, the department requires eight officers, which includes the chief, said Outinen.

“And that’s just enough to fill the shifts 24/7,” he said. “Where we are lacking is benefit time, when someone is taking sick time or vacation time, or when someone is gone to training, which can sometimes be a week or two.”

Additionally, the department has what Outinen called update needs.

“Our body cams have a three-year life,” he said, “our tasers are three to four-year life, and we’re getting into that cycle now where we need to update our tasers, our body cams, and funding is becoming — difficult.”

The revenue generated from the millage is estimated at $100,739.

The owner of a home valued at $75,000, with a taxable value of $37,500, will pay an additional $40 per year for the proposed .08 mil increase.

City manager Mary Babcock said in her administrative report at the Oct. 19 meeting that she wants people to know why this millage is important.

“Our police officers downstairs are currently having to work a tremendous amount of overtime due to the amount of hours that are needed to cover 24/7 in the city of Hancock,” she said. “This will give us the ability to hire a full-time officer.”

Babcock corroborated Outinen’s statement that about six years ago there was eight part-time officers available in this area, which there are none now.

“So we have about 8,700 hours that we staff, and between all of the officers downstairs, they only work about 14,000 hours. So there’s less than two employee police officers that are available to work per hour that we like to have our 24/7 coverage. So that’s why it is so important. They are really looking for the community to back them up and to try to help to get them another officer that will take some of the demands of their overtime away from the current staffing.”

Daily Mining Gazette staff writer Garrett Neese contributed to this story.