Amid police shootings that have attracted headlines nationally, the new head of the Michigan Fraternal Order of Police plans to bring attention to the community minded efforts of officers that may go unnoticed.
That’s one goal for Mike Sauger, a Warren police officer and union president who was elected last weekend to the top post in the organization.
“Whether it’s buying Christmas presents for a family whose home was broken into and their presents were stolen, or buying a (child) car seat for someone who can’t afford a car seat,” Sauger said as examples. “The mainstream media picks up on the bad things officers do.”
Sauger, 39, started as a dispatcher in the Warren Police Department at age 19. He became an officer four years later, and has been working full-time since 2011 as president of the Warren Police Officers Association. In that role, he represents 177 members with the rank of officer or corporal, plus 20 dispatchers.
He has served as vice president to the state FOP for the last three years, and previously was sergeant at arms.
Sauger said he was very humbled to be elevated to the top post -- overseeing 52 local FOP lodges around Michigan -- during the election of the executive board as the state organization held its annual conference last weekend in Sterling Heights.
“To be selected by your peers is the ultimate reward and thanks for your hard work and dedication,” he said Monday.
Delegates to the conference elected Sauger to a 2-year term, and he already plans to seek re-election.
“I plan on serving for quite a while,” he said.
While continuing to handle labor matters for one of Warren’s two police groups –- the other is the Warren Command Officers Association –- he said he’ll tackle other issues for the FOP including:
• Protecting police wages and benefits.
• Lobbying for increased funding especially for municipalities that have cut important crime-fighting programs.
• Recruiting people to a career in law enforcement.
Sauger hopes those issues receive more public attention.
“Not just what the few bad apples” have done, he said.
Sauger was among the public employees –- and the only active police officer –- appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to the Responsible Retirement Reform task force.
His election as state FOP president has made his uncle, Macomb County Commissioner Marv Sauger, proud.
“That’s the biggest achievement a cop can make who wants be in public office, who wants be an administrator,” said the county commissioner, who spent 26 years in law enforcement with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.
During the FOP state conference last weekend, nearly 300 people including law enforcers from across Michigan and some from New York, Ohio and South Carolina, were on hand as the Christopher M. Wouters Lodge 124 in Warren unveiled a new statue at the FOP hall on 14 Mile Road to honor the two officers in the city’s history who died while on duty. Wouters was fatally shot Oct. 11, 2000 by a suspect who snuck a handgun into the Warren Police Department jail. Officer Edward A. Rea died March 3, 1969 after he was hit by a vehicle during a police pursuit.