Macomb County sheriff's sergeant demonstrates public dashboard; commissioners seek more context and periodic reports

Sergeant Scott Jones of the Macomb County Sheriff's Office demonstrated the office's public-facing dashboard for Mount Clemens on the city commission's work-session agenda, showing real-time counts of calls for service, offense reports, citations, arrests and a geographic heat map.

Jones said the dashboard pulls data automatically from the sheriff's Tyler Technologies dispatch and records-management systems and "Nobody's picking and choosing what to put in," adding that the site refreshes roughly every 10 minutes. Using the Mount Clemens substation view, he reported deputies had written 4,553 reports and logged 14,767 calls for service so far in 2025.

The dashboard displays top call types and basic offense tallies. Jones highlighted that traffic stops, business checks and "disorderlies" were among the top call categories and noted sample offense counts in the year-to-date view: 159 domestic calls, 138 larceny calls, 112 assaults, 104 disorderlies and 90 narcotics incidents. He also said deputies had written 12,491 citations year-to-date, with many for minor speeding and distracted-driving violations.

Commissioners pressed on how incidents are classified and whether single events can appear in multiple categories. Jones said the system generally assigns a primary category but that arrests can carry multiple charges; he noted some reports reflect incidents reported long after the event occurred, which can affect totals. He also pointed out a discrepancy commissioners noticed in the arrest numbers and said some arrest records may reside elsewhere in the broader county system.

Several commissioners asked whether the dashboard can produce address-level counts to identify "habitual" callers. Jones said that level of detail is not readily available on the public dashboard for commission staff, but deputies and the sheriff's office can run specific-address queries on request. Commissioners recalled that earlier confidential reports, which listed addresses and times, helped with staffing and patrol-shift decisions and said losing that level of detail reduced utility for some policy uses.

Jones demonstrated a heat map layer that visually highlights higher-volume areas downtown and noted the tool can be zoomed to neighborhoods. Commissioners requested comparison graphs and trend summaries (for example, month-to-month traffic-stop trends) and asked whether the vendor, Tyler Technologies, can add export or reporting features. Staff and Jones said vendor changes can be slow because the software is used by many jurisdictions and global changes involve lengthy processes.

Multiple commissioners recommended regular briefings or summary reports that interpret dashboard trends (monthly or quarterly), rather than relying solely on raw counts, to guide decisions about staffing and targeted enforcement. Jones and staff agreed to continue providing information on request; one staff member said deputies had already been responsive when specific-address counts were requested.

The commission concluded the demo by thanking the presenters. The work session then moved on to other items and ended with a motion to adjourn that passed by voice vote.