Birmingham PD teams up with neighboring departments

According to the Daily Tribune, Birmingham is one of five communities that are joining together to form MCAT, the Major Care Assistance Team. Joining Birmingham will be Auburn Hills, Clawson, Troy, and Bloomfield Township.

MCAT will allow these five departments to share personnel and resources during investigations, which will help police investigate serious crimes in a quicker and more efficient manner. By having officers from these five departments working together, the goal is to have increased manpower, while lowering costs for the individual departments at the same time. Instead of one department having the burden of financing an investigation and paying the officers' overtime wages, the costs and hours can now be distributed among each of the five departments.

According to C&G News, the coalition was originally proposed by Troy Police Capt. Keith Frye after he heard of a similar alliance in Chicago. Frye said that he hoped that MCAT would not only reduce costs, but increase the effectiveness of investigations by having more experienced officers on the case during the critical first 72 hours as well.

MCAT will be made up of 10 investigators: three from Troy, two each from Birmingham, Auburn Hills, and Bloomfield Township, and one from Clawson. Birmingham's MCAT representatives are Cmdr. Mark Clemence and Detective Matt Baldwin.

Miguel Cabrera incident puts spotlight on Birmingham

Last week, details emerged about an incident that took place at the Birmingham home of Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Cabrera had been out partying in the early morning hours of Oct. 3 at Birmingham's Townsend Hotel. Reports indicate that Cabrera was with members of the Chicago White Sox, the Tigers' opponent that weekend.

Birmingham Police Chief Richard Patterson said that when Cabrera returned home, he and his wife began arguing. Cabrera's wife called police at 6:05 a.m. to report that they were fighting.

The officers who responded to the call observed that both Miguel Cabrera and his wife had sustained minor injuries. According to the police report obtained by the Detroit Free Press, the two had been fighting over a cell phone that Miguel had been using. Cabrera's wife insisted that he should leave the house, and Miguel agreed.

Police then took Cabrera to the Birmingham Police Department, where he was later picked up by the Tigers' general manager, Dave Dombrowski.

Commander Mark Clemence said that Cabrera registered a .26 blood-alcohol level when he was tested, which is more than three times the legal limit of .08.

Cabrera went 0-4 in Saturday night's game, which included a crucial double play groundout in the eighth inning. He then went 0-3 on Sunday to finish the series at 0-11.

Cabrera apologized to his teammates before the Tigers' one game playoff against Minnesota on Oct. 6. The Tigers lost that game 6-5 in 12 innings.