Springfield officials now have two plans to replace the city's police department. City Manager Frank Peterson said proposals from the City of Battle Creek and the Calhoun County Sheriff Department were sent by email Thursday as the city tries to determine if it will close its department and contract for police services.
Battle Creek's police chief is demanding an apology after the county prosecutor said a city commissioner has no evidence of corruption. "I think his behavior insinuating that the Battle Creek Police Department is corrupt has been reckless and embarrassing and he owes the Battle Creek Police Department and the people of Battle Creek a public apology," Chief Jackie Hampton said.
Interstate 94 in Kalamazoo County is just a step away from being renamed in honor of a public safety officer killed in the line of duty. State lawmakers have approved a bill to call the 25-mile stretch of freeway the "Officer Eric Zapata Memorial Highway".
Zapata was a Kalamazoo Public Safety officer who was killed while investigating reports of shots fired in the Edison neighborhood in April 2011.
