One department. Three jobs. Inside Farmington’s public safety model.

The foundation is simple: in Farmington, there is no separate police department and fire department. Every officer, from the director down, is certified as a police officer, certified as a firefighter, and licensed as a medical first responder — three jobs rolled into one person. Michigan calls them Public Safety Officers, and the state has a handful of these departments, from the Grosse Pointes to Kalamazoo, the largest.

Every officer from the chief on down is certified as a police officer, certified as a firefighter, and holds a medical first-responder license — all rolled up into one package.

Director Bob Houhanisin

Farmington’s school resource officer works across Farmington High School, Longacre Elementary, and coordinates with Our Lady of Sorrows, meeting monthly with Farmington Hills SROs to track trends before they spread between buildings. Much of the conversation turns to social media — and the officer’s blunt advice to students that anything posted online is permanent.

The standout program is Farmington Youth Assistance, a diversion path for non-violent offenses like truancy or retail fraud. Rather than pushing a first mistake into the court system, it asks what caused the behavior — and it also funds scholarships so kids can attend camps and enrichment programs regardless of family income.

My advice is: if you wouldn’t say it to your grandmother, or your parents sitting next to you, or your principal — then don’t say it online.

Director Bob Houhanisin

Domestic violence calls are the most dangerous the department runs — volatile, unpredictable, and inside a home the officers don’t know. The entire shift responds, supervisor included, a minimum of three officers. Because Michigan is a mandatory-arrest state, officers prosecute on behalf of the victim, so charges can’t simply be recanted the next morning.

The second half is candid about the toll. The department leans on a county critical-incident stress team, trained peer supporters, and access to certified mental-health professionals — and it makes debriefings after major events mandatory rather than optional, so no one has to be the one who admits they’re struggling. Recently, the city extended that same support to residents shaken by a violent crime in their neighborhood.

Critical-incident stress debriefings are not optional. If everyone goes together, it’s accepted — and you get a much better result than asking one person if they want to talk.

Director Bob Houhanisin

A public safety officer, in Farmington’s words, is “a unique animal” — you have to want to be both a cop and a firefighter, and most people want one or the other. After five or six tough recruiting years, the department still finds its people, sometimes by surprise: one recent hire discovered the role only after an instructor mentioned it at the fire academy.

Leadership is harder in this model, too. Responsibility doesn’t split as it rises — the top of the department must carry the full administrative training for both police and fire. And because Farmington hires everyone in as a public safety officer from day one, it avoids the culture clash that trips up cities trying to merge existing police and fire departments later.

We’ve coined the phrase ‘the Farmington Way.’ When you call 911 in the city of Farmington, you’re always going to get the same person.

Director Bob Houhanisin

The series closes on the model’s payoff. Farmington now contracts its advanced life support through neighboring Farmington Hills, while its own officers respond first — every patrol car is a licensed medical first-responder vehicle stocked with gear. Officers start care, take vitals, begin CPR, then hand off to arriving paramedics. The department calls the result some of the best EMS coverage in Southeast Michigan.

Just as important, the partnership builds camaraderie that cuts down on the old inter-agency rivalry — and it lets each department play to its strengths. The bottom line: Farmington is efficient, fiscally sound, and a model more municipalities should look at.

I have the best job in the world. We are efficient, we are fiscally sound — we are a model that a lot of other municipalities should look at.

Director Bob Houhanisin