Inkster police teaming up with the Michigan Humane Society

Partnership aims to make crime fighting easier

INKSTER, Mich. – Police in Inkster are partnering up with the Michigan Humane Society to help make crime fighting easier.

Most of the time when people call about pets in Inkster to report a problem the people responding are police officers.

"We are not that specialized in dealing with animals," Inkster police chief William Riley said.

Riley said the high volume of calls dealing with animals is placing a burden on the limited number of officers on the force. Nearly 40 percent of calls annually to 911 are about animals and it was the responsibility of Inkster police to follow up on those calls.

Now Inkster police is teaming up with the humane society to help alleviate some of those calls.

"They're going to help us out try to investigate some of these cases we just can't get to," he said.

In the declining economy the city of Inkster cut its animal control program. Now, the humane society will help get the city on track to train a new animal control officer for free.

"We're here for the long haul with the city of Inkster," Andy Seltz with the Michigan Humane Society said.

It goes beyond helping police, part of the job will be enlightening the community too.

"There are a lot of compassionate people out there. They see a dog chained up in a backyard in 20 degrees, or it's looking skinny. We want to get in and educate the community and get everyone with where they need to be," Seltz said.

The partnership is free to the city. The humane society will have one worker a day available to cover the city.


About the Authors:

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.