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Kopkau, in his monthly sheriff's office updates to the Milton and Elk Rapids township boards of trustees, told the boards the office will begin doing "core" training in the county rather than sending officers to training in Grayling or Alpena. When officers are sent out, the department is on minimal staff, especially when personal time and sick days are taken at the same time.

After Tuesday's regular meeting of the Elk Rapids Township board, Kopkau said in-house training is still being worked on, but some of it should be up and running by June.

He didn't give a dollar amount to the budgetary savings but said it would trim costs and manpower.

"It'll be a lot more costeffective for us," he said.

He said that every year, officers must go through 40 hours of core training that readdresses topics like basic tactics, firearms, driving, legal updates and first aid. Classes in the past have been offered Monday through Friday at Kirtland Community College. The problem the sheriff saw in this practice was that three officers at a time would be sent to classes then others would be off work through vacation or sick time, Kopkau said.

Officers will still go through 40 hours of training, but it will be at a convenience to the sheriff's office rather than the college.

The idea now is to have officers take two days off to do classes, some of which are half-day courses and others that take all day. Some of the training is state-mandated and other classes may be added depending on the sheriff office's needs.

"It'll actually tune training to more of what our needs are," he said.

For example, if the sheriff's office is having a problem with the way reports are done, it could focus some training on writing reports, he said.

Kopkau added that other law enforcement agencies in the county are looking forward to the training, which will be provided at no cost to those agencies.

If the program works well in the first couple years, it may be opened to other area counties, he said.

At the Elk Rapids Township board meeting, zoning administrator Len Harrett asked whether the sheriff's office could make money by providing training to other counties.

Kopkau said it's "not really in the profit business" but working with other counties could add the benefit of trading instructors for different courses.

Harrett told Kopkau that it's nice the sheriff's office is on the "cutting edge" of moving away from sending officers out to training.