In a month-and-a-half, another Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy will begin patrolling the roads and subdivisions of Oxford Township.

Last week, the township board voted 7-0 to add a deputy to the substation beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

“You have that increased need for that officer to be there,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Patterson, commander of the Oxford Township substation, as he addressed the board.

There’s been a significant rise in the calls for service.

Last year, the substation handled 8,108 calls. This year, it’s up to 13,429 and the year’s not over.

Originally, the plan was to add a deputy in 2019, but Patterson requested to move things up a year given the additional workload his officers are facing.

“I believe it’s needed,” said township Supervisor Bill Dunn.

The lieutenant is going to schedule the new deputy as part of the afternoon shift, which runs from 3 to 11 p.m.

“The greatest volume of calls for service is on afternoon shifts,” said Patterson, who noted that shift handles more calls than the midnight and day shifts “combined.”

Adding another deputy will cost the township an estimated $132,792 next year; $138,100 in 2019; and $142,250 in 2020.

Financially, this will be no problem for the township’s police budget. As it stands right now, the budget is on track to end the current fiscal year on Dec. 31 with an estimated fund balance (or reserves) of $939,994.

If the board had not voted to add the deputy next year, the police budget fund balance was on track to have a fund balance of $1.659 million as of Dec. 31, 2020.

“Due to being fiscally responsible with the budget, the money’s there,” Patterson said.

Treasurer Joe Ferrari said the additional deputy will help “serve our community better” and “that’s what the millage is for.”

“People give us a certain amount of money to get out in the community, not to be sitting on it in the bank,” he said. “That’s why I’m in favor of this.”

A voter-approved property tax of 3.857 mills funds the township’s contract with the sheriff’s office.

Once the deputy is added next year, the Oxford Township substation will be staffed by a total of 17 officers, which includes one lieutenant, one detective/sergeant, 13 deputies and two patrol investigators, one of whom serves as the school liaison officer.

This will put the substation back to the staffing level it had in 2005-06.

When the sheriff’s office began providing law enforcement services to the township in 2000, it was staffed by 11 officers – a sergeant, a patrol investigator and nine deputies.

Patterson noted the substation had the highest clearance rate of the sheriff’s 12 substations in 2016. A total of 63.69 percent of the criminal cases were cleared, or closed.

That means the cases either resulted in an arrest or were cleared by exceptional means, meaning there were reasons beyond law enforcement’s control that prevented an offender from being arrested and formally charged, such as a victim’s refusal to cooperate or the prosecutor denying a warrant.

This year, as of Oct. 26, the Oxford substation has a clearance rate of 69.15 percent, according to Patterson.

“That’s pretty good,” he said.

“It’s actually really good,” added Trustee Jack Curtis.