News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Conservation officer Alex Bourgeois talks with a local fisherman by the dam at Paradise Lodge Resort on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Michigan Senate Bill 59 officially became law on Tuesday after going through the legislative process for five months.

According to a state Senate Fiscal Agency analysis last month, the bill redefines what a peace officer is.

Under the new law, a peace officer is be defined as “an officer of the (Michigan State Police), or an officer of a law enforcement agency of a county, township, city, or village who is responsible for preventing and detecting crime and enforcing the criminal law of Michigan, or an officer of a law enforcement agency who is licensed under the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.”

The law gives more law enforcement officials, like Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers, a chance to intervene and help with problems such as mental health crises.

Alpena County Conservation Officer Alex Bourgeois said he’s happy a law is in place now, but hadn’t realized it wasn’t until he was notified via email.

“I didn’t realize it and thank God I never did it,” Bourgeois said. “But, you know, (when I was) a city cop, at least once a week you would go on to a welfare check. The city does it all the time, or, you know, someone’s making suicidal threats. And I didn’t know that. I didn’t know I couldn’t do that.”

With the new action permitted to conservation officers, Bourgeois said it could have helped for certain situations, even recent ones.

One instance happened when he and his partner were having issues with someone at a campground that seemed to be having a mental health struggle. People at the campground said the man wasn’t taking care of himself and even said his feet might have started rotting.

Bourgeois said he didn’t see that while talking with the man, but found it unfortunate that the bill passed just after the situation happened.

“We’ve got someone in our campground that might have been having a mental health issue, and we would have been able to take them in and (help them) if we thought it was fit at that moment,” Bourgeois said. “It is huge that we’re a part of (the bill), as well.”

The bill was sponsored by state Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, who wanted to make sure alternative law enforcement had a way to help people in critical emergencies.

“Unfortunately, people have gone to state parks or public lands to harm themselves, and, under current law, conservation officers have to call in another law enforcement agency to take a subject into protective custody,” Cherry said in an email. “This commonsense solution will allow our experienced conservation officers to intervene appropriately when they believe a person may be a harm to themselves or others.”