Steve Grimm
At the Cannon Township Board meeting held on Monday, December 10, 2012, the Board received a report from Marc Burns of the Kent County Sheriff’s office. Lieutenant Burns told the Board that Cannon Township is…really quiet. So quiet in fact, that Deputy Steve Moon, who has been our Deputy since 2010 asked for a reassignment because he was not seeing any action. From July 1, 2012, through September 30, 2012, we had no robberies. The vast majority of calls concerned medical emergencies, traffic matters and citizen assists. As many know, in 2011, the Township, on the advice of the Sheriff’s department, reduced the number of hours we pay for a dedicated officer from sixteen hours per day to twelve. This saved taxpayers approximately $75,000.00 per year. As we have said before, we supplement those hours with over-time officers and are able to schedule them exactly when, and where, they are needed. For example, we received a call from a resident who alerted us that in morning hours, before the regular deputy shift begins, some drivers ignore the stop signs when entering Cannonsburg Road. We platooned an over-time officer to patrol that area. He made several stops and issued numerous citations. We will periodically continue that effort. This also happened in the fall, when school began. We had an over-time officer patrol the busier areas to control traffic.
Even though our dedicated car is here on a set twelve hour schedule seven days a week (which will not be disclosed for obvious reasons) we do have twenty-four hour coverage by a district car which covers multiple townships. This car is always available to Cannon residents. That car can be reached through dispatch at (616) 632-6100. That number should be utilized at any time for non-emergencies. The quarterly statics for Cannon Township will be available on the Township website, www.cannontwp.org.
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