Bloomfield Hills public safety officers, emergency dispatchers and their families said they plan to protest this week the city's idea to explore moving its emergency dispatching to Bloomfield Township.
Proponents say the move could save the city money, but opponents say it could hurt personalized policing in the tony community.
"We've had only a very preliminary discussion with the township, and this could take a year to decide," Bloomfield Hills City Manager Jay Cravens said. The city commission plans to take up the issue at its meeting Tuesday night.
Nearby Birmingham already has decided to outsource its dispatching to the township within the next few months, saving the city at least $200,000 a year in operational and capital costs, Birmingham City Manager Tom Markus said last week.
Merged dispatching is a trend throughout metro Detroit: The Downriver communities of Lincoln Park and Southgate announced last week they would cut their dispatching costs about 10% by moving them to the Wyandotte police station. In addition, Farmington Hills does night and weekend dispatching for Franklin and Bingham Farms, and Berkley does it for Huntington Woods.
