LANSING — The Michigan State Police is rating the reactivation of its motorcycle unit as a success.
Col. James Grady, the MSP director, announced in February 2024 that the motorcycle unit, disbanded after the 2022 season, would again be patrolling Michigan freeways.
Aside from some involvement in motorcades and other assignments later that year, the unit didn’t really get rolling again until April 2025, MSP spokeswoman Shanon Banner said in a July 8 email.
Since then, the motorcycle unit has been “highly effective for traffic enforcement on metro Detroit freeways,” Banner said.
The unit, which Grady said he reactivated partly to improve MSP morale, community engagement, and recruitment, is comprised of one lieutenant, two sergeants and 10 troopers, using a mix of BMW 1200 RT-P and BMW 1250 RT-P motorcycles from April to October, she said.
The unit is based out of the MSP 2nd District headquarters in Detroit but can operate statewide, depending on the assignment.
“When not working special details such as motorcades and large community events that require traffic control, they augment the daily patrol services of the Metro North and Metro South posts on metro Detroit freeways,” Banner said.
In late April, during the three-day Operation Ghostrider initiative to combat distracted driving, the motorcycle unit stopped 261 vehicles and wrote 243 traffic citations, she said. Of those, 145 were for violations of a 2023 Michigan law that made it illegal to hold or physically interact with a mobile device while operating a vehicle.
So far this riding season, the unit has made 5,434 traffic stops, issuing 5,393 citations. They have policed 258 crashes and made 68 felony arrests and 358 misdemeanor arrests, Banner said.
Safety was one of the reasons cited for disbanding the motorcycle unit in 2022.
At that time, two MSP troopers on motorcycles had died in the line of duty since 2015.
Banner said there have been no crashes since the unit’s reactivation. The MSP instituted monthly training to improve safety, she said.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSP says the return of police motorcycle unit is a success
Reporting by Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
