The village of Oakley is a tiny speck on a map of Michigan: It has one streetlight, one grain elevator, one church and a couple of bars. If one of its 300 residents gets as much as a DUI, it’s big news around town.

So it makes sense that Oakley relied on a single policeman for decades to protect and serve. He was more than capable of making the town’s half-dozen or so arrests for petty crimes every year all by himself. But in 2008, a new chief arrived in town (the old one had to step down after he was caught stalking a teenage girl), and he began staffing up.

The new chief, Robert Reznick, promptly added 12 full-time police officers, but he didn’t stop there. He also started hiring volunteer cops in droves, many of them friends of his. And it wasn’t just guys from the neighborhood, either. Among Oakley’s volunteer cops are lawyers and doctors—even a couple of NFL players—who don’t even live in town.

Robert J. Reznick, who runs the Oakley Police Department in Oakley, Michigan.

Village of Oakley

Here’s how the chief’s program works: The wanna-be officers pay about about $1,200 for a uniform, bullet-proof vest and gun, and some make additional donations to the police department. In return, they get a police badge and the right to carry their gun almost anywhere in the state, including places that people with normal gun permits can’t, like casinos, bars, stadiums and daycare centers. http://www.vocativ.com/usa/guns/oakley-michigan/?page=all&PageS...