LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – If you thought your tax dollars were just paying for patrol cars and pensions, think again. The Michigan State Police (MSP) are rolling out a competitive grant program to fund training that helps officers communicate with “limited English-speaking communities” and those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The money comes from the 2025-26 Michigan state budget bill and MSP touts awards up to $450,000 per applicant from a $500,000 total pool according to budget records.
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“Effective communication is an essential component of policing,” said Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP in a recent press release about the competitive grant. “This training is another valuable tool we can equip our officers with to best serve the public and help prevent potentially dangerous misunderstandings that can occur when someone finds it difficult to understand what the other is trying to communicate.”
Operational funding offered, certification required.
According to the official 2026 grant application, agencies can apply for funding to support “programmatic and operational expenses” tied to limited English-speaking and deaf/hard-of-hearing training programs The program runs through 2029, and applicants must meet specific certification requirements – including holding oral transliteration credentials and continuing education accreditation. An MSP spokesperson told Michigan News Source that this is the first time this type of grant has been offered.
Why is the language training needed?
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, reports that about 11.1% of households in Michigan speak a language other than English at home. The Spanish language is included in the non-English language list, along with Arabic and a range of Asian, European, and other languages across the state. In Detroit, Axios reports that the metro area has the largest concentration of Arabic speakers in the country, with well over 190,000 residents who speak Arabic.
Public safety or expanding mission?
Those numbers help explain why language access has increasingly become part of the conversation around law enforcement training and public policy. Supporters argue that clear communication during traffic stops, emergencies, or investigations is essential to public safety because misunderstandings in tense situations can escalate fast.
No language mandate, but cultural training required.
According to the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), there doesn’t appear to be a statewide requirement that recruits have to learn a foreign language as part of their mandatory police academy training. What they do have to take are classes focused on communication and cultural awareness. Basic training includes lessons on interpersonal communication, civil rights, human relations, and cross-cultural understanding. Recruits talk through real-world scenarios and take part in exercises designed to help them handle interactions with people from different backgrounds.
That context brings the conversation full circle to the focus of this debate – not whether communication matters, but who should pay for expanding it. Critics argue that the language barriers driving the need for such programs stem from immigration policies that have brought significant numbers of non-English speakers, many of them undocumented, into the state and country. For them, the debate isn’t just about communication tools for officers, but about whether taxpayers should continually absorb new costs tied to larger policy decisions made far beyond their local communities.
