‘They don’t make officers like that anymore’

GROSSE POINTE PARK — Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Sgt. Mike Miller was known for his solid instincts on the job, but he was also the kind of person who’d spend hours sculpting handmade pens for friends.

It’s no wonder, then, that he was as well liked as he was well respected. It’s also no wonder that friends and colleagues like Detective Ryan Willmer said Miller — who retired on his 50th birthday Feb. 28 — “will be missed.”

“Mike is a fantastic human being, a great officer,” Public Safety Director James Bostock said. “He gave 27 years to the city of Grosse Pointe Park. He’s going to be missed.”

Miller was the last of the department’s hires from the 1990s, having started working in the Park on July 1, 1998. His path to public safety wasn’t always clear, though.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I went back to visit one of my old high school teachers,” said Miller, who grew up in Harrison Township — which, he said, was more of a small town back then.

“He said, ‘Miller, you’d make an excellent cop — go for a ride-along,’” Miller recalled his former teacher telling him. “I thought he was crazy.”

But Miller took that advice to heart, going on a ride-along with a family friend who was a Detroit police officer.

“I fell in love with it,” Miller said. “I applied (for a police position) in Detroit the next day.”

However, at that time, it could take a year or two to get hired by the Detroit Police Department, so Miller followed a suggestion that he apply with some of the suburban departments. One of them was the Park.

“They were hiring one person out of 75 (candidates) taking the test at St. Ambrose (Catholic Church),” Miller said. “I’d never even heard of public safety.”

To his surprise, Miller landed the job. He had already gone through the Macomb Police Academy, so the Park sent him to the Schoolcraft Fire Academy in 1999.

The Park used to operate its own ambulance, and in 2002, Miller said, the department offered anyone who was interested a chance to train as an emergency medical technician, or EMT. He was one of the officers who volunteered for this, enabling him to go on ambulance runs.

Miller served on the department’s since-disbanded ACTION task force — Arrest Car Thieves in our Neighborhoods — circa 2015, but his youngest child was only a few months old and he wasn’t able to spend much time with his wife, so he stayed with it for less than a year. Despite his brief ACTION tenure, Miller said it was “a great learning experience.”

“I’ve had incredible life mentors,” Miller said of his years with the department. “They’ve shaped me into who I am today. It seems like God has always placed me around good people to work with.”

Bostock said Miller wore multiple hats in the department, including serving as a field training officer, field training officer supervisor and youth officer. He was also “always willing to help others,” Bostock said.

“They don’t make officers like that anymore,” Bostock said. “Mike was a go-getter. He’s a family man, he’s a man of faith and he was really committed to his craft here in Grosse Pointe Park.”

Miller was promoted to sergeant in 2016 and has also won numerous awards with the department, including three for lifesaving.

One night, he said, he stopped at a Subway in Detroit — just outside of the Park — and a woman flagged him down, saying her boyfriend had fallen into the water at Angel Park, close to Jefferson Avenue and Alter Road. Although the incident happened in Detroit, Miller and fellow Park officers followed the woman to the scene, where they used a rescue tool with a loop to pull the man out of the water.

“The guy was barely holding on,” Miller recalled.

Because of the victim’s size — Miller estimated the man weighed about 270 pounds — it took three officers to pull him up and out of the water, followed by trying to warm him up with blankets and rushing him to a nearby hospital.

“I still remember him saying, ‘I love you guys. I love you Grosse Pointe guys,’” Miller said. “I don’t even know his name.”

Those who’ve gotten to know Miller say he was more than just a good cop. Willmer said Miller was a “great mentor” and “just a great guy.” They were on the same shift when Willmer was hired in 2001.

“He was a good officer to learn from for patrol,” Willmer said. “He had a great street sense about him. He’d see a broken taillight a block and a half away and it would turn out to be (a) stolen (vehicle). … A lot of younger guys looked up to him and a lot of older guys looked up to him. He was very well respected.”

Detective Sgt. Paul Pionk said Miller was “an established veteran” when he started in 2003. Pionk started on the same shift as Miller.

“It was a great experience for me, as a newer officer, to have a veteran to work with,” Pionk said. “He had an incredible work ethic that emanated from him, and it was very easy to absorb that proactive attitude towards policing. He was a good mentor. Every day was fun. It was like a competition every day to go out and protect the residents.”

Pionk said he “always trusted” Miller and his decision-making.

Outside of work, he said Miller was one to help his friends and colleagues with things like moving or projects at home.

“He was always willing to help you out in his personal time,” Pionk said.

Miller could have stayed on, but said he’d like to pursue other interests and opportunities.

“It’s time,” he said of retiring. “I love law enforcement, but I can do other things.”

His wife, Rebecca, is a former 911 dispatcher for Grosse Pointe Shores. Although she’s still working — as an office manager — Miller said the couple hope to travel more. He and Rebecca, who live in Chesterfield Township, have three children: William, 15, Jack, 22, and Isabella, 24, a teacher.

He’ll tackle more projects at home — “I can fix anything,” Miller said — and continue to work side jobs. For the formerly hyperactive child — whose mom took him to a gym when he was 13 so that he’d have somewhere to channel that excess energy — Miller remains active. Spending more time with family is a priority, too.

“Working here for this long, I’ve missed a lot of holidays, birthdays,” Miller said. “I’m looking forward to not coming to work anymore.”

Still, leaving isn’t easy. From potlucks on holidays to Sunday dinners — prepared by different officers each time — every two weeks with members of the whole department, Miller said the Park Public Safety Department has been a second family.

“It’s all about the camaraderie. … I’m going to miss this place,” Miller said.