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Hancock Police say the department has seen an uptick in crimes during the past month. Last night Chief of Police Tami Sleeman updated the city council on the department’s responses. Sleeman says that the department has responded to multiple violent crimes during the previous six months, and reached more than 150 calls for service in the last 30 days.
“That’s not who’s coming to the office all day long, the phone’s ringing. And we’re trying to manage and keep up, we’re working lots of hours, had some really big cases lately. And I also want you to know that in the one that happened on Hancock Street, the officers at the scene saved that girl’s life. She wouldn’t be here if not, in part, because of them. So, as of now all of us, we are working around the clock.” – Tami Sleeman, Chief of Police, City of Hancock
Sleeman’s report follows the Sheriff’s recent announcement to the county commission that he has imitated an emergency order for a full jailhouse.
“We have been, we’re running at over capacity in our jail. We’ve been over capacity now for about a month. Today we have 30 inmates and our capacity is 28. So I began the process of jail overcrowding declaration.” – Josh Saaranen, County Sheriff, Houghton County Sheriff’s Office
Houghton County Sheriff Josh Saaranen anticipates the jail population will continue to grow with local law enforcement continuing to arrest violent offenders and a full prosecutor office to pursue justice. Saaranen added, during last week’s meeting, that the Houghton County’s options are to send inmates to other counties or to reopen the work camp.
“You know, the challenge that we have is with our jail population right now, there’s a lot of higher classified crimes. So those individuals are not qualified to go to the work camp. So that remedy would only work if we have people in jail who are qualified to go up there. Essentially what that is, is communicating with the judges, the prosecutor, and the county. That kind of allows the court system should give us some aid in the fact that if there are nonviolent offenders and if they serve a certain portion of their sentence they could potentially be released. Nonviolent crimes, we’re trying to avoid having them placed in our jail.” – Josh Saaranen, County Sheriff, Houghton County Sheriff’s Office
A second response law enforcement is acting on includes mental health crises. In the past, the court system and sheriff’s office have addressed potential solutions for the area’s lack of beds. However, those solutions require months of preparation before implementation. Chief Sleeman told the council that the area’s lack of mental health resources accessible to the majority of residents compounds the challenges individuals and partnerships face. In 2023 to address Baraga County Sheriff’s high rate of mental health service calls, the sheriff’s office, Baraga County Memorial Hospital and Baraga County implemented the Avel eCare program with funding from the Copper Shores Community Health Foundation.
In 2021 the Houghton County purchased the First Apostolic Lutheran Church property on Sharon Avenue to build a larger jail facility. The potential project would also move the courthouse to the site. Recently Portage Township voted in favor of the city of Houghton annexing the location. The jail can be located outside of the county seat. However the county hopes to also move the court house to the location, adjoining the new jail. In years past the county has sought a millage to fund the construction of the facility.
