LANSING, MI -- On Oct 7th, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that Michigan students will soon benefit from the addition of 30 police officers recently trained in the Teaching, Educating, and Mentoring (TEAM) School Liaison Program.  
  
“From Oct 7th’s officer graduates from the TEAM School Liaison Program have received high-quality training from the MSP to protect and serve young Michiganders on and off campus,” said Governor Whitmer. “In the recent, record bipartisan budget I signed, we worked across the aisle to deliver dedicated, per-student school safety dollars to every school, and I am grateful to the MSP for facilitating the TEAM program and continuing to take action to keep kids safe by running initiatives like the OK2SAY program. Let’s keep working together to help kids be kids.” 
 
TEAM is a school-based, law-related curriculum that is taught to grades K-12 by TEAM-trained police officers with the goal of better equipping children to protect themselves from crime. In addition to traditional topics like personal safety, how to dial 911, the law and you, and dating violence, the TEAM curriculum has been updated to address the topic of school safety and security including facility assessments, bullying and harassment, cyber-crime, social media use, illicit drugs, and vaping. The Michigan State Police (MSP) hosted the four-day training, which concluded Thursday, October 6, 2022.
This class included 30 officers including two from MSP, 14 from sheriff’s offices, and 10 from township and city police departments:  
  
Allegan City Police Department 
Benzie County Sheriff’s Office 
Berrien County Sheriff’s Office 
Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office 
Constantine Police Department 
Dearborn Heights Police Department 
Emmet County Sheriff’s Office 
Farmington Hills Police Department 
Harbor Springs Police Department  
Isabella County Sheriff’s Office 
Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office 
Livingston County Sheriff’s Office 
MSP Cadillac Post  
MSP Headquarters 
Mackinac Island Police Department 
Manistee County Sheriff’s Office 
Mason County Sheriff’s Office 
Montmorency County Sheriff’s Office 
Osceola County Sheriff’s Office 
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office 
Owosso Department of Public Safety 
Richfield Township Police Department 
Saginaw Township Police Department 
St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office 
Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office 
Zeeland Police Department 
 
TEAM allows officers to teach at any of the three levels of education - elementary, middle, or high school - public or private - aligning with the Michigan Model for Health. The curriculum has been implemented in over 250 Michigan school districts.  
 
Dedicated school safety dollars for every student in every school. Funds to hire more on-campus school resources officers, create an intervention system for at-risk students that brings together law enforcement, schools, and mental health professionals, and establish a school safety commission. 
 
Student Safety Investments  
In July, Governor Whitmer signed a bipartisan education budget that will make the highest state per-student investment in Michigan history to improve every kid’s in-class experience, invest $250 million in school infrastructure, fund $10,000 scholarships for 2,500 future teachers every year, and send schools dedicated per-student funding to bolster school safety and expand on-campus mental health resources. 
 
The dedicated $210 million school safety dollars allocates $25 million for schools to hire more on-campus school resource officers. The school safety dollars will also create an intervention system for at-risk students that brings together law enforcement, schools, and mental health professionals, and establish a school safety commission. 
 
In June, Governor Whitmer signed legislation that fully funds risk assessments and critical incidence mapping at every school in the state to help protect students and create safety plans in the event of an emergency. The legislation will deliver necessary resources to Oxford Community Schools and every district across the state to support students, improve public safety and provide effective law enforcement solutions.