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History of the Novi Police Department
 In 1954, the Township
of Novi, Michigan decided to establish their own police department.
While the Oakland County Sheriff had been patrolling the small
farming community of approximately 5000 people, the Board of
Trustees at that time had a vision for the future. Lee BeGole,
a member of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and a World War II
U.S. Army Veteran, was hired as Chief of Police. BeGole organized
the fledgling organization, serving alone initially, and adding
three or four officers later on. He was a dedicated law enforcement
officer who served the City for 32 years.
The Novi Police Department was originally housed in Novi Township
Hall, a yellow, two story, cinderblock building at 25850 Novi Road,
south of Grand River. At first, only the rear corner of the ground
floor was allocated for police service. The entire Township and
early
 City Government,
including the volunteer fire department, occupied the remainder of
the space. During the 1970’s, the police operations grew, until the
Department occupied the entire building, displacing City Hall to a
frame building situated east on Sixth Gate. Novi Police Headquarters
remained at this location, until moving to the present location in
April, 1980. The original station continued to function in a variety
of ways for another eighteen years. It was a firefighter training
facility, temporary meeting place for the Novi VFW and American
Legion, and even the Novi Jaycees "Haunted House" at Halloween. It
was finally demolished in 1997 to make way for new development.
 During its early years, the Novi Police
Department was "operating on a shoestring". With one or two police
cars and no police radios, the operation of the Novi Police
Department was very basic. The few full-time officers were
supplemented by reserves and part time officers at busier times. For
many years, Chief BeGole bore the brunt of the patrol duties by
himself, and in fact, he worked as both a police officer and a
firefighter at first. The fire department was completely volunteer,
so when a fire call came in, BeGole would drive the fire truck to
the scene, so the volunteer firefighters could go directly there.
This was in addition to his law enforcement duties.
 Police equipment was very basic,
too. Officers furnished their own firearms and paid for their
uniforms. The patrol cars did not have overhead emergency lights,
but rather were equipped with red or blue spotlights and a "coaster
siren" under the hood. Eventually, a single emergency light, red on
one side and blue on the other, was mounted in the center of the car
roof. The specific number of cars in the original fleet is not
known, but stories from retired officers spoke of leaving a 1968
Rambler running. One officer would drive it into the station
driveway at the end of his shift, so that the next shift could go on
duty and immediately drive out on patrol.
 Since there was no radio communication, the
citizens in need of police service would telephone, or would travel
to the station to find "Lee", as everyone called him in those days.
The second floor of Novi Township Hall was a living quarters. BeGole
lived there for a time, and later a married couple took the position
for low rent in exchange for answering the emergency line. If the
fire department was needed, the fire siren on the roof would be
sounded. If someone required police service, another switch on the
wall served to activate a light mounted on a pole above "The Four
Corners", the local name for the intersection of Grand River and
Novi Road. The officer on patrol would see it and go to the police
station to pick up the call.
 In 1969, the incorporation of
Novi as a city signaled the need for a full service, full time
police force. In the early 1970’s the Novi Police Department began
to grow. A few more full-time officers joined with Chief BeGole, but
reserve officers continued to be an integral part of the
organization. As the City developed, the need for Police Reserves
diminished and they finally disbanded and full time officers staffed
all operations in preparation for the boom period that was to be the
1970’s.
 The Novi Police Department has
occupied its present location at 45125 W. Ten Mile Rd. since April,
1980. The new building provided the space needed for the Department
to match the expected growth of the City. It was designed to see the
Department move into the 21st century, which it has done
admirably. It has also seen a changing of the guard. In 1991, with
Chief BeGole's retirement, Douglas F. Shaeffer became the second
Chief of Police in Novi’s history. Under Chief Shaeffer’s
administration, the Department added a new group of young Police
Officers, schooled in the philosophy of community policing and in
the use of new technologies now available to law enforcement. The
officers of the Novi Police Department are required to have earned a
four-year college degree before prior to being hired. As the
Department grew and met the needs of a growing community, the
officers were called upon to develop expertise in technical areas of
law enforcement, never before attempted by the Novi Police. There
were no well-established specialty units, such as evidence
technicians or special response teams. This type of dynamic
environment requires adaptable, intelligent individuals to be
successful in it. The Novi Police Department intends to continue to
provide the community with the highest caliber police officers,
equipped and trained for the Twenty-first Century.
The tools used by the Novi Police have been modernized as well.
The 1968 Rambler with the single red/blue roof light and coaster
siren has been replaced by a large fleet of the latest police
package Ford Crown Victoria’s, equipped with multifunction
electronic emergency lights and siren. The old faithful police
revolvers have been replaced by the newest in semiautomatic Glock
pistols.
A completely new information system, with laptop computers in
each patrol unit, and a new in-house data system at the station has
taken over most of the hand-written reports and forms in the course
of business. Automated fingerprints and photos have been installed
for prisoner booking. Investigators have access to the entire data
bank, and no longer have to comb files by hand. Instead they can
associate names, locations, and incidents to assist in solving
cases.
In order to accommodate these new forms of technology, an
architectural revision at the Novi  Police Department was completed in 2002. Construction
provided the Novi Police Department with new training facilities and
redesigned space for its operations.
On September 28, 2005, David E. Molloy was promoted to Novi
Police Chief following the sudden passing of Chief Shaeffer in
August, 2005. Chief Molloy is only the third police chief to serve
the Novi community.
Chief Molloy has distinguished himself as a leader since joining
the Novi Police Department in 1989. In 1995, he was promoted to rank
of Detective and, in 1997 to the rank of Sergeant. He achieved the
rank of Lieutenant in 2003 and was promoted to Deputy Chief in
February, 2005.
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