Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting - July 29, 2025
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Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting - July 29, 2025
This meeting of the Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee covered several major items including a resolution to set a public hearing for drone-based parking data collection, updates on crime statistics and police department progress, a presentation on Community Informed Public Safety Training (CIT), and the fire department's new strategic plan. The committee voted unanimously to advance the drone use request, and discussions highlighted both progress and ongoing community trust concerns.
Action Item: Drone Use Resolution for Parking Data Collection
- Mobile GR Director Jessica Smith and staff presented a request under the city's surveillance policy (Administrative Policy 15-03) to set a public hearing for use of small unmanned aerial systems (drones) to collect on-street parking utilization data downtown. The drones would capture still images from 300-400 feet, identifying only vehicle color and position (no license plates or other identifiers). Raw imagery would be retained by consultants; the city would receive anonymized heat maps and data tables. The data collection period is approximately three weeks at a cost of $35,000 for this portion (total project: $180,000).
- Discussion included privacy concerns (camera direction, tree coverage, comparison to police drones), data retention (city manager suggested limiting consultant archiving), and community notification. The committee voted unanimously (all aye) to set a public hearing on the drone use request.
Crime Statistics and Police Department Update
- Police Chief Wickstrom reported crime statistics through June 2025: auto theft and robbery totals are down compared to prior three years; aggravated assault trends are favorable. Six homicides occurred year-to-date, all cleared by arrest and prosecution. 261 illegally possessed weapons were seized. The chief highlighted a timeline of reforms over the last three years, including body-worn cameras, co-response program expansion, civilian oversight language in collective bargaining, CALEA accreditation, and new training technologies. A video was shown of an officer saving an infant during a traffic stop.
Community Informed Public Safety Training (CIT) Program
- Brandon Davis (Office of Oversight and Public Accountability) and Gil Harvey presented the CIT program, which allows community members to propose and co-develop training for police and fire personnel. The process involves listening, developing, and training. To date, 220 individuals (community members and public safety staff) have participated. Example trainings include 'Flight, Fight or Freeze' for youth, 'How to Calm an Anxious Mind' with psychologists, and 'Big Is Your Heart' for senior citizens. The program aims to build trust and incorporate lived experiences.
- Committee members and the city manager discussed the need to increase public awareness of CIT, address community fatigue, and ensure that training requirements are tied to policy enforcement. Commissioner James requested a multi-pronged approach to improve police-community relations, and the city manager noted ongoing efforts like Cure Violence and youth employment programs. The committee agreed to continue the CIT discussion at the next meeting.
Fire Department Strategic Plan Update
- Fire Chief presented the department's fifth strategic plan, developed over 9-12 months with input from members, community groups, and labor. The vision was elevated to "become the safest mid-sized city in the country." Five pillars (response, training, prevention, wellness, support services) each have owners, desired outcomes, and three strategies. Key wins over the last three years include maintaining an ISO Class 1 rating (only in Michigan), completing EMT-Basic training for all street members, proactive cancer screenings that identified life-threatening cases, retooling second-grade fire safety presentations, and hiring a new emergency manager. The plan will be placed on the city website, and detailed operational plans are available to the committee.
Adjournment and Next Steps
- The committee adjourned but agreed to continue the discussion on CIT at the next meeting, along with a proposed narrow noise ordinance for health care facilities.
Meeting Transcript
Public safety to order, and the first thing I'm going to do is explain a technical oddity, and that is that uh three of us up here are elected, and uh so there's a there's sort of a bifurcated uh nature to this committee, and that means that uh we have a first item up, which is an action item, and you're all welcome to be part of the discussion about it. But at the end of the day, um it's gonna require a vote, and it's gonna be a vote of the three of us who got elected. Um first item if uh is it Asante gonna come up and discuss this? Yes, oh Jessica, uh thank you. So Ms. Smith, who's uh head of mobile GR is here, and she because and to give a little bit of background so she can skip past this maybe. Um just so uh to refresh everyone's recollection. We have a policy concerning use of drones, and in order to use any drones in the community, we have to uh there's a process to go through. And so uh mobile GR is here with a request for drone use. Mayor, do we need a motion first to for the resolution? Oh, we do. Okay, I'll make the motion. So moved or support one or the other thank you. Got a motion and support. Thank you very much for that introduction. I am Jessica Smith, the mobile GR director, and I have with me here the project manager for this specific project that we're looking for your resolution to set a public hearing on a type of data collection technology that we are looking into. I also have Brandon Davis from OPA OEE, all the things, and uh, we're gonna help walk you through the uh policy that the mayor just mentioned. So today we want to look over that OPA surveillance policy overview, just a little bit to give you all a uh reminder of what that is. Our purpose today, we are look seeking that resolution um from you all to set a public hearing on uh this particular technology use for data collection. And we're gonna give you a bit of a project overview where we're gonna use this data and then proposed um the operational management protocols. We're gonna walk through how we are um abiding by the surveillance policy, and then also give you a few examples of that data and what it looks like, and then finally again request that um that date to set a public hearing. Mr. Davis. Thank you. Good afternoon. Uh so I'm standing here today to give an overview of uh the city surveillance policy, which is administrative policy 15-03. Uh, that 15 means that the city first had a surveillance policy in 2015. Our policy at that point uh spoke to the fact that in order to acquire surveillance equipment, it had to be come before the city commission. But there was not a lot of regulation about what that looked like, and uh as we began to have conversations in community, there was a large push in community to say we want there to be uh some oversight of what acquiring surveillance equipment looks like to make sure that there's not an infringement on the uh fourth amendment rights of community members or other rights for that matter. So we worked in partnership with lots of different people in the community, uh, but the NAACP was at the forefront of those uh conversations. We also worked with the city's uh attorney office as well as the police department to navigate that space. As you see, it's mobile GR that's standing before you today requesting the use of uh that technology. So this is not limited to police, although in some of those conversations I think police was at the forefront of the minds of the individuals involved. So why are we here today? It's namely uh section six of administrative policy 15-03, and on the handout that we just gave you, it speaks to what section six is that's the governance and oversight portion of that policy. It made the city's public safety committee the overseeing body uh that decides whether or not there should be a public hearing that will be held before the city commission related to the purchase of or use of surveillance equipment. So let's go real quickly uh through what that looks like. So essentially the first step is for a department like mobile GR is doing uh today to come before the public safety committee and explain uh what the operational protocols would be for the use of surveillance equipment, why they're trying to use that, what type of uh infringement it could cause on the rights of others, or uh a lack of infringement, which I'll say after reviewing this is how I see this particular use of the surveillance equipment, and they lay out the full plan of what that would look like. Uh the request for before the public safety committee is to decide to allow there to be a public hearing. So just like other items that come before city commission, then goes on uh this body would would vote. Um the the elected members of this body would vote to decide whether or not that could happen after that happens, then it will be set for a public hearing. When it's set for a public hearing, that will come before the city commission. So the city commission will get to hear the feedback of community members after that public hearing happens. The next step. So there's lots of steps in this process. This is the city really making sure that we're getting community input. But the next step is then for it to go to the fiscal committee with the actual request to purchase or essentially spend the money needed to do that next step of the process. After that permission is granted, then the department is able to move forward with doing that. So that's an overview of how it works. Thank you.
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