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Police Close 'Voice' Case After 30 Years

Police Close 'Voice' Case After 30 Years image
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Day
10
Month
December
Year
1988
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Police close 'voice' case after 30 years

By WILLIAM B. TREML

The Ann Arbor Police Department speaks with a new voice.

Staff Sgt. Jan Suomala, a 30-year veteran, has retired and the department’s new public information officer is Staff Sgt. Sherry Vail.

“I just figured it was time to hang it up,” the 54-year-old Suomala says . “It’s been an interesting career, one that was supposed to last a couple of months but somehow stretched into 30 years.” ”

The “couple of months” began shortly after Suomala got off a Greyhound bus at the West Huron Street terminal in 1957.

“I had just been discharged from the military in New Jersey and the first person I ran into at the bus station was a policeman, Herb Nation. We had a cup of coffee together and he asked me where I was going to work. When I told him I didn't know, he suggested I try the police department.

“A lot of city policemen had quit earlier because of a pay dispute and all but one slot had been filled. The next week I applied to Chief (Casper) Enkemann and, after Walt Krasny did a background check on me, I was hired. I figured I’d stay six months or so and then look for something that paid better than $4,300 a year. But I’ve always been a ‘people’ person. And police work deals in people, almost exclusively with people. That’s what appealed to me in the job. That’s why I stayed. And I don't regret it.”

In his three decades, Suomala had a taste of virtually every type of duty. That included a stretch on the old, three-wheeled motorcycles in the Traffic Division and as a member of a detective squad which worked on the John Norman Collins murder case.

In 1984 he was transferred to the Administrative Services Division and became the media relations officer for the department. That job entailed a daily briefing of newspaper, radio and television stations on police investigations.

“That was a change of pace, a different type of duty for me,” Suomala says. “ And at first it was difficult because all police officers are cautioned about things coming out about a criminal investigation before an arrest or a trial and ruining a case. Media-police relations can be sensitive, antagonistic at times. You have to walk the tight rope of providing what the media wants and needs and at the same time protecting the integrity of an ongoing criminal investigation. I believe the Ann Arbor Police Department has been able to do just that.”

In addition to his media duties, Suomala has been in charge of departmental records, assistant coordinator for the area’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and a vice president of the Michigan Emergency Management team. He also has been the command officer for the police detail escorting the University of Michigan football team to the stadium from the Campus Inn for home games each fall.

While police work has been his life, the retired sergeant has spared time to serve as president of the St. Thomas School Board for five years and as a member of the board for a decade. He and his wife, Evelyn, are the parents of four children and one grandchild.

Suomala, who plans to take a part-time job with a local bank, is interested in politics and says he may run for City Council.

NEWS PHOTO ROdNey CURTIS

Sgt. Jan Suomala gets hug from well-wisher during retirement party