Each year, Big Brothers
Big Sisters of the Great Lakes Bay Region has an online auction to support local programming with lots of really great items for bidding. During their last auction, I bid on several experiences, and I won a police ride-along with the City of Midland Police Department. This sounded like a fun and unique opportunity that I could share with others by writing about it.
It was a Thursday night, and I showed up at the Law Enforcement Center for my scheduled ride-along. I was kindly let in by a member of the dispatch team and then waited to meet the officer who would be driving me around the mean streets of Midland for a few hours. Shortly after my arrival, I was greeted by Patrol Officer Lance Beyerle, given a quick tour of dispatch, and a protective vest to wear for the duration of our ride. This, of course, was after I signed the provided waiver.
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Carly LillardLeo joined the department in September 2020 and is trained in search and recovery and article trackingOn our way out, I got to give a few head scratches to the most handsome officer on the team: K-9 Leo. Leo joined the department in September 2020 and is trained in search and recovery and article tracking. He also works with his partner, Officer Josh Thielen, to connect with the community and educate on K-9 police work.
We were now ready to hit the road. Being that we started this ride as strangers, we made small talk to get to know a bit about each other before I started asking the heavy-hitting questions. It didn’t take long to see that Officer Beyerle loved his job and this community.
When asked what the most rewarding part of his job was, Beyerle says, “Giving back to the community and helping people who are truly in need. Sometimes we meet people when their life has just been taken to ruins, and you can be that comforting person to help them through a traumatic time. You can reassure them and tell them that things will be okay and that they are going to get through this.”
He has provided this support for many years as his career has taken him through departments in Roscommon, Saginaw, and Midland. Before coming to the City Police, Beyerle worked for the Midland County Sheriff’s Office.
Between questions, we made a few stops, pulling people over for not having the equipment on their vehicles working properly. Brake lights, headlights, and no lights seemed to be the biggest problems of the night. We were also called to a well-check at a home and provided a second officer for a stop with a driver who had a warrant.
A call came in from a concerned citizen who believed they saw a lighted flare on railroad tracks, but after checking it out, there was just some debris from a prior accident. This may not seem like an action-packed night of police activity, but Officer Beyerle kept me on my toes by quizzing me on why we were pulling people over. I realized that I needed to pay better attention after I got the first five questions wrong. It’s a good thing that he was doing the policing, and I was doing the observing.
On the nights that Beyerle is faced with high-pressure situations, he needs to stay calm and focused. He says that this “comes with time and experience. If there is a situation that is very stressful or that could be dangerous and you get all worked up, people can’t hear you. If you cannot communicate, it takes that much more time. By staying calm, you can articulate what’s going on in a better fashion and give responding units more time to prepare how they are going to respond when they arrive.”
Communication is key in almost every profession, but Beyerle believes this is especially important for law enforcement officers. “You can control most situations by just talking to people. Obviously, there will be times when talking is not going to work. Those are few and far between, so I would say the strongest skill that someone needs to have to be an officer is communication."
"Next would be physical fitness. Stay active. You never know if you have to run after someone or into a burning building. That would be something you would see more in a rural county because City Fire has a great response time. You just never know what you might face, and you need to be prepared.”
When considering becoming a police officer, Beyrele says people need to know it’s never the same. “There’s no normal day with this job. With the climate of policing right now, people will say they would never want to do this job. You have people in this job who want to get out. That just means that they have forgotten how fun it can be, how rewarding it can be.”
“You can be the person that gives somebody else who is having the worst moment of their life a glimpse of hope,” Beyerle continues. He wants new recruits to know that this is “truly one of the best jobs in the world.”
Working in law enforcement takes a toll on your mental health and can take a toll on your family. I asked Officer Beyerle what he wished people knew about being a police officer and how he manages to not take his work home with him.
“The thing I wish people understood about being a police officer is that we see a lot of trauma. There’s so much that can affect our mental health too, so we need to repress things sometimes. People get mad at us just because we are doing a job, just because we are cops. I want people to look at the situation and remember that we are human too. We are there to try to help,” Beyerle shares, and acknowledges that there is so much more to that.
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Midland Police DeptOfficers volunteer for many events across the area, including the Polar Plunge and Miracle FieldAfter nearly fifteen years of working as an officer, he has learned to leave work at work and decompress on his ride home. When he walks in the door at home, he doesn’t think about work until he comes back to work. This gives him the opportunity to be fully present for his wife and three children.
Taking this ride has given me a new perspective on what our first responders see and do. This work is extremely challenging, and we have some great people working for us in Midland.
I asked Chief Nicole Ford what makes her most proud of her team, and she beamed with pride while saying, “I don’t know if I can pick one thing. I think about my team all the time, and they make me immensely proud every single day."
"From how they respond to each incident to the fact that they come out on their weekends to support the community. They take time out from their own families to spend time at places like the Miracle Field, volunteering. I think we have a department full of amazing humans, and we are super lucky to have them all.”
She is also proud that they are involved with the
Special Olympics Torch Run and
Polar Plunge, and organizations like
Home to Stay. She encourages organizations to reach out to the department if they think they have a project in which the officers would be a good fit. If they can help and participate, they will.
If you are interested in doing a ride-along with the City Police Department, please contact Lt. Dan Keeler at 989.631.5716 to schedule.
Special thanks to Officer Lance Beyerle for spending time with me and driving me around town while answering my many questions. This was truly a great experience, and I would do it all over again if I could. Thank you to our first responders - city, county, and state - for keeping our communities safe and sound.