Retiring Novi police commander helped change department in many ways

NOVI — After more than 26 years as a Novi police officer, and with a tear in his eye, Novi Police Cmdr. Jason Meier left the precinct for the last time as an officer on Jan. 31. However, the imprint he left on the department, his colleagues and others remains.

“Over the years his unwavering dedication, expertise and professionalism left a lasting impact on the department and the community,” Novi Police Chief Erick Zinser said during Meier’s retirement ceremony.

Lt. Kevin Gilmore said Meier taught him to be patient when learning new things, that mistakes happen, but the key is to not repeat them.

“He was a great boss, a great supervisor,” Gilmore said. “He provided very good guidance. He provided freedom to learn, but when you needed help, he was always there to guide you. He was not just a boss, but a friend. Any type of assignment he gave, he gave clear direction and was always open to new ideas.”

Meier, 50, began his career in November 1998 as a patrol officer partnered with Zinser.

Zinser said that Meier predicted early on that Zinser would be chief one day, and that he was honored to have been the one to promote Meier to commander.

“From his early years in uniform operations, he quickly set himself apart as an officer of exceptional skill and integrity,” Zinser said.

Meier worked his way up the ranks and served as a patrol officer, an undercover detective, with the crisis intervention team, as a hostage negotiator with the Special Response Team, and as a field training officer. He continued to train officers through Jan. 30. The chief said he was surprised to find Meier training so close to his retirement. However, Meier said he was bound to uphold his commitment.

One of the things Meier said he is most proud of in his career is that he was able to work alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Operation Falling Star approximately 20 years ago. This was the first time Novi was a part of a DEA task force, after Novi police officers had found a large sum of cash in a hotel room.

“It ended up that we took down the largest marijuana-trafficking operation in the history of Michigan,” Meier said.

The case took more than three years to solve but resulted in more than 40 indictments and the seizure of almost $20 million and 400,000 pounds of marijuana with ties to a cartel in Mexico.

“We won the DEA Administrator’s Award, which is the highest award the DEA can administer to people,” said Meier.

“It was a big case, probably the best thing I did in my career,” he said, “at least on the law enforcement side.”

His tenure on the task force underscored his ability to think decisively under pressure, according to Zinser.

Meier is also credited with establishing a transparent working relationship with the media. The Novi Police Department does not have a public information officer and Zinser said Meier just stepped into that role. Zinser said that Meier gave him a few tips on dealing with the media when he promoted Meier to commander, and that he just ran with it from there.

“He did an excellent job and handled just about every case after that.” Zinser said. “That may sound simple, but it is not simple, because when the media starts calling on a big case, it’s not one phone call, it’s not two phone calls, it’s two days of phone calls and on top of that the big three, (Channel) 2, 4 and 7, they all want somebody on camera and it’s never at the same time, because it’s never at a press conference. Jason’s out there and he’s chasing his tail with the media. He did a fantastic job. If you ever see some of his news clips, he’s very professional, keeping the public informed and asking the public for help and all those kind of things. So, he did a phenomenal job with that.”

Meier said it was important to him to work to change the historically bad relationship the department had with the media for the benefit of all. He said wanted to make it more transparent and accommodating, because he believes that it goes a long way.

“It’s important to get your message out and you can’t do that if you have an adversarial relationship with the media,” Meier said.

Zinser said Meier’s personality made him such a good police officer and person.

“His legacy is defined by professional leadership and unwavering commitment to the values of law enforcement,” Zinser said. “Cmdr. Meier’s impact on the Novi Police Department is immeasurable.”

Meier tracked the department’s crime stats and told the officers when and where they were happening so that officers could be in the area to protect the safety of the community.

“From the police standpoint, I really liked doing detective work, building cases, doing investigations. I feel like you can make a huge impact doing work like that, but then I’ve also loved my time as a commander here, so I really enjoyed working with my staff to develop and put together great teams. Plus, being part of the administrative team, being a commander, gives me a seat at the table to really make positive change in the organization. I’ve really enjoyed being able to develop that at an organizational level and really put my stamp on the organization as a whole.”

Meier said that the biggest change he has brought forth is the implementation of a lot of new technologies. He said they used to have a lot of file cabinets in the records department and now they have digitized the records.

“I’m always looking out for new investigative technologies that we can use. I was big in implementing our Flock license plate reader camera systems here in Novi. That’s played a huge part in increasing our case closure rate by almost 10%,” Meier said. “I try to keep on top of new technologies and ways to make the staff’s lives easier.”

He also said that he would describe himself as an officer as someone who always tried to see each call from the caller’s point of view and to treat every call, even if it seemed mundane, as important.

“There’s no doubt that I’ve made a difference in people’s lives,” Meier said.

He said he has done everything he wanted to do as an officer and now it’s time for other people to have an opportunity to move up as he takes on a new challenge.

Meier’s academic credentials include a law degree from Wayne State University. Meier said he looks forward to being able to utilize that law degree in his next career as a member of the Washtenaw County Public Defender’s investigations unit. Now, instead of trying to find evidence that incriminates people, he will be an investigator trying to find reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case against the defendant.

“What I’m really looking forward to is the current public defender wants to really grow the department into a strong investigative team that becomes like a model for the state. So I’m excited about that challenge. One of my favorite things to do in the last couple years here was really turning over teams here and building successful teams. So I’m looking forward to that challenge over there, just building that department from the ground up and really making it a strong team and a successful team.”

He said he is also looking forward to having a short drive to work and being able to spend more time with his family, including his wife, Rachel, whom he met on the force, five children and one grandson.