New hires, retirements and an overall look at things
By Barb Pert Templeton
A recent meeting of the Marine City Commission had several department heads giving presentations to officials including Police Chief James Heaslip. He gave a 25-minute presentation about law enforcement in the city.
Marine City Police Chief James Heaslip.
At the Jan. 15 meeting Heaslip introduced his officers, both full and part-time, several in person at the meeting and several off for the night.
The chief introduced Officer Paul Kelly, a part-timer who’s been with the department for more than six years. Heaslip said he’s known as “Motor 7” among the police crew and “he writes the most tickets, he’s hard on people but he’s fair with people.” On the downside, Kelly will be retiring at the end of February 2026.
Another upcoming retirement will be that of Officer Jim Vandermuelen, effective July 20, 2026 after 31 years with the department.
“Jim has been a very dedicated and loyal individual to the department, I’ve been a friend of Jim’s for my entire time that I’ve been here, 25 years,” Heaslip said. “He’s a great family man, he’s a great cop, he’s a great asset to this department and we are certainly going to miss Jim Vandermuelen.”
Marine City Police Office Scott Baldwin, a retired lieutenant from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department and now a part-time officer with the city, shared statistics from the department for 2025.
Next, Heaslip introduced Scott Baldwin, a new hire who came to the department six-months ago after retiring as a lieutenant from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department. Heaslip said he quickly went from part-time to full-time status.
“He’s very tech savvy, he knows how to pull stats out of our report management system,” Heaslip said. “So, I tasked Scott with pulling and generating some stats that we could present tonight. Kind of an annual report for lack of a better term.”
The members of the commission were given copies of the stats and then Baldwin stepped to the podium to discuss his findings.
“Honestly I think this is really basic information, what you don’t find is homicide and a couple of the serious crimes because we really don’t have it here,” Baldwin said. “But I think it does show a couple of interesting things that are important.”
The top stat was 2,883 under calls for service, a yearly total, which was up 50 from the previous year. The top locations for calls for service among the 2,883 included:
1. Main office – people walking into the police department to report something
2. Main office – people walking into the police department to report something
3. Schools
4. Businesses
5. Intersections
6. King Road Apartments
7. CVS Pharmacy – “just property checks and not a bunch of larcenies”
8. A home on Harold Street that’s a “frequent flyer house”
9. Court house
“Interestingly enough out of the 2,800 calls we took, most of them being pretty insignificant as it relates to crime, I tallied 55 juvenile type complaints,” Baldwin said, adding that he knows that’s not the total amount because other categories like suspicious circumstances may include juveniles but it’s not reported as such.
Doing better reporting
While noting officers tally business, school and park checks for every shift, every day, Baldwin said one improvement in 2026 could be creating more accurate reports.
“I think what we’ll talk about over this next year is consistency in how we type up reports,” he said.
He then read that stats stating there were 863 park and recreation checks, 1,100 school/property check and business checks were 1,200.
“I found myself checking Mariner Park 20 times in a 12-hour shift and it was because if I wasn’t checking the park I was getting called there to deal with something that was going on,” Baldwin said. “Because sometimes if I’m at the park, they go to Washington Life and if I’m at Washington Life they go back to the park, we are literally pushing kids around until it’s curfew time and then we can deal with them.”
“I thought it was important to say we’re spending 12 hours doing something and, in this case, I’d rather talk to the kids and wave at them instead of reacting to a call because their posturing to fight or the other small kinds of things that get our attention,” Baldwin added.
Big call volume days noted in the police report were Monday and Tuesday. Baldwin said one of the reasons for that is that people actually think the police department is closed over the weekend so they wait to report things.
“We’re always here, so I want to work on that,” Baldwin said. “I can’t tell you how many times they’ve waited to call the police and I can’t solve it if you wait to call me.”
Another section of the report was the listing of the follow-up calls and it’s an area that Baldwin said he really likes, being a longtime fan of the television show, Columbo. He noted that getting to show up day after day to ask questions following an incident and sort things out is one of the things he loves most about his job.
“I think we have time to do that here and that’s what excites me,” Baldwin added.
He concluded his report by stating that just being a visible presence in the city is what’s important.
“This really is a department of providing services and I’m finding most of the needs in Marine City, as it relates to law enforcement or police is just being there for them,” Baldwin said, noting he’s put handcuffs on people twice in six months, taken a few dogs back to owners and assisted at many medical incidents. “I think this is essential and makes the community feel like one and that we can be counted on.”
Heaslip concluded his report by stating 2026 will see his department seeking to be accredited and that could take up to two-years. The department is transitioning to a new policies and procedures system that will go into effect in February and that will be a lengthy process too, he said.
Training will also be on the agenda at the police department in 2026 and Heaslip said he’s promised his team that they will be going hard at that this year.
Heaslip said he and City Manager Michael Reaves sought funding for cameras from the Homeland Security Emergency Management Office for the park pavilion area and the marina. After meeting with those officials Heaslip said the city secured the funding and will be installing cameras shortly for those areas.
“After being here 25 years, I’m still thankful for being your chief, I’m honored that you still allow me to be your chief and if you guys ever have any questions or any issues my door is wide open, I don’t hide anything,” Heaslip said. “Communication, I think that’s the biggest thing that makes, so far, what we do as department heads, successful.”
Reaves took a couple moments to share his appreciation for the police department and their willingness, every day, to take on different problems and suggestions and evolve.
City Attorney Robert Davis also took a moment to comment on the professionalism of the department and said “it’s all top notch” from the warrant process to standing before a judge to get a result.
Commissioner Rita Roehrig was absent from the commission’s Jan. 15 meeting.
