Commissioners press sheriff's office for more analysis of Mount Clemens real-time policing dashboard

Mount Clemens — City commissioners spent much of a work session reviewing a new public dashboard from the sheriff's office that streams in incident, report and citation data and updates every 10 minutes.

A sheriff's office representative told commissioners the tool is "part of the sheriff's office, ongoing effort to promote transparency, accountability, and community trust," and that the dashboard pulls automatically from the department's Tyler Technologies dispatch and records-management systems so "nobody's picking and choosing what to put in" the public view.

Why it matters: The dashboard centralizes call-for-service, crime-reporting and citation counts and can show month-by-month trends. Commissioners said that access to this data could help them target patrols and staffing but that, as configured now, the dashboard lacks the analytic context they need — for example, address-level historical listings and comparison graphs — to turn raw counts into policy decisions.

What was presented: The presenter said Mount Clemens deputies have written 4,553 reports and that the dashboard shows about 14,767 calls for service so far in 2025. The tool lists the top call types as traffic stops, business checks and disorderlies; it also shows 3,220 traffic stops and 12,491 citations year-to-date, many of which the presenter described as minor speed citations. The dashboard's year-to-date view showed 361 arrests in the jurisdiction. The presenter cautioned that some entries reflect charges added later or incidents that occurred elsewhere but were processed locally.

Commissioners' requests and concerns: Several commissioners asked for features they said made the old paper or PDF reports more useful for operations, including address-by-date listings, the ability to filter the heat map by call or citation type, and comparison graphs showing trends over months or years. One commissioner said, "It's great data. But it's not great data if you can't do anything," arguing that numbers without explanatory context make it hard to decide whether an increase is a traffic-safety issue, a rise in violent incidents or an influx of outside activity.

Staff access and confidentiality: The presenter said some detailed historic reports were removed from public view for confidentiality reasons; however, staff can request address-level counts directly via internal staff contacts (the presenter noted that staffer "Brian" has been contacted to provide specific-address counts on request). The presenter also noted that because some vendor software (Tyler Technologies) is a broadly deployed product, adding or changing default features can be slow or require a global product change.

Comparisons with neighbors and operational implications: Commissioners compared Mount Clemens' totals with neighboring jurisdictions — for example, Harrison Township and Macomb Township — and observed that higher call counts in larger townships often reflect different mixes of calls (court-related traffic, accident volume) and do not map one-for-one to report-writing effort. Commissioners said returning some of the old report formats or receiving periodic briefings that translate dashboard numbers into staffing and patrol recommendations would help the commission make more informed budget and deployment decisions.

Next steps and outcome: Commissioners agreed to request periodic updates and trend briefings on dashboard data; the presenter said staff can provide updates and that a deputy assigned to Tyler works on available changes. The remainder of the meeting moved on to routine city business and the work session was adjourned after a voice vote approving a motion to adjourn.

The presentation did not include a formal vote on policy changes to the dashboard; commissioners requested follow-up briefing materials and clarified that some address-level information remains confidential and must be provided on request rather than posted publicly.