OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting – January 27, 2026: Hazmat Team, Know Your Rights, and Crime Update

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, January 27, 2026
BodyGrand Rapids, Michigan
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, January 27, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:00:27

Transcript — Verbatim
0:05

Thank you.

0:07

We have three items up.

0:08

The first is a presentation from our ever cheerful fire chief.

0:13

All right.

0:14

Good afternoon.

0:16

Thanks for being here in this crowded, uh crowded room today.

0:20

To arrange for overflow.

0:21

Yeah.

0:22

Yeah, I mean, the camera's not picking it up, but we are at capacity here today.

0:27

But just keep keep track of the egress paths, we'll be okay.

0:31

That's right.

0:32

We're gonna talk about our hazmat team today.

0:35

So this is something that is a low frequency, high risk event.

0:39

Uh Captain Stevie's gonna come up here.

0:41

He's the program manager for our hazardous materials team.

0:44

And we were just talking about not only the frequency within our city, but the risk within our city.

0:50

And the risk within Grand Rapids is pretty high when you look at the traffic network, the rail system, the chemical manufacturing, and everything taking place within within the city.

1:01

And I will tell you as a fire chief, these are the types of calls where I may or may not be in command, but I do not know as much as my hazmat team.

1:11

So we take that step back and we turn it over to our subject matter experts, and we we let them guide the response to make sure that we're doing this safely.

1:21

So Captain Stevie.

1:24

Chief.

1:26

Good afternoon, everybody.

1:27

As the chief said, I'm Justin Stevie, captain.

1:29

Um captain at Truck 2, right at MLK station.

1:32

It's our hazardous materials response station as well.

1:36

I'm the program manager for our hazmat team, been in that position for about a year.

1:41

Prior to that, about six, seven years as the assistant program manager as well as a team member throughout my entire tenure here.

1:48

I've been with the Grand Grand Rapids Fire Department for 16 years now.

1:52

So I'm gonna give you a brief overview of our team, kind of how we're comprised, some of the responses that we go on, and then offer up an opportunity to you all to ask questions.

2:03

Uh so our leadership team, uh battalion chief Kathy Thompson, she's our battalion chief of oversight, and myself, and then Captain Matt Dumond, he is my assistant program manager for the team.

2:14

That way we have some uh internal succession planning within the team.

2:18

Uh we have 36 hazmat technicians, and then we just added six more for a total of 42 team members.

2:26

And we have uh four hazmat apparatus, but two primary for hazmat, and then uh two that are cross-staffed.

2:34

So we have hazmat one, which is one of the big ones at uh MLK station, then hazmat two is a smaller Dodge 5500, and then we have engine two and platform two that respond with our hazmat technicians.

2:47

Uh response disciplines, and this is a brief overview of the training that we go through.

2:52

Uh so the basic hazmat technician is an 80-hour program that happens either at Lansing or out in Colorado.

2:58

And then public safety sampling, that's for our white powder calls.

3:02

That's a 24-hour class.

3:03

And then we train on rail, we train on highway incidents, those are each 40 hours.

3:09

And uh even though we're firefighters, we still get into the science of it to some degree with chemistry.

3:15

And there's a 48-hour program through Michigan State Police that a lot of us attend.

3:20

And then we like to have our officers on the hazmat team go through a hazmat officer safety officer program, and then there's some additional hazmat IQ.

3:30

It kind of makes hazmat response easier, and that's one that we're actually looking to bring to the city uh this summer.

3:36

And then an advanced air monitoring class, which is 24 hours.

3:39

So at the end of the day, we're we're looking at 200 plus hours of training that we're going through for hazmat technicians, and uh that's in addition to our hazmat operations that every single firefighter in the city gets.

3:50

So and I think that that's important to note that a lot of our hazmat calls.

3:56

Um, you're not gonna see the big glow glow worm suits come out.

4:00

You're not gonna see all of our fancy hand uh the monitoring equipment because a lot of these calls we we try to keep them as simple as they can be.

4:07

And a lot of our personal, our day-to-day personnel can handle those types of calls without calling out our hazmat team.

4:15

So there's our hazmat uh response apparatus, hazmat one and two.

4:19

Uh I want to note here hazmat one that was uh a purchase made early mid 2000s, and it wasn't a purchase that the city made, it was through uh the regional response team network after uh the events on 9-11.

4:32

They equipped uh a variety of teams throughout the state of Michigan with this apparatus, and we've been utilizing it ever since.

4:38

Um we're fortunate enough to keep maintaining it to have it be uh frontline or a secondary um response apparatus for hazmat.

4:48

So some statistics from 2024 and 2025.

4:53

Um I think this is important stuff because this is a merging trends that we're seeing throughout the US, just not locally within Grand Rapids.

5:01

Uh we implemented a lithium battery response SOG, so standard operating guideline.

5:07

Um, and we we actually sent some members out to the to New York City to do some tandem training and kind of some mentoring with their hazmat technicians out there because at the time New York was the epicenter of lithium ion battery fires and incidents.

5:23

So we learned from the best in the business of how should we be handling these types of calls.

5:29

Um, and then as far as specific hazmat team responses, and this could uh you know vary from uh a semi truck crashing on the highway and leaking diesel fuel to lithium ion battery fires to uh chemical plant incidents in 2024.

5:44

We had nine hazmat team responses, and 2025 we had 24, and that difference some of that's tied to our lithium ion battery responses within 2025.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Safety████████████████████████████████████████40%
Emergency Management█████████████████████████25%
Immigration█████████████13%
Immigration Enforcement██████████10%
Public Engagement█████████9%
Community Engagement███3%
Summary of Proceedings

Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting – January 27, 2026

This meeting covered three major topics: a presentation on the Grand Rapids Fire Department’s hazardous materials (Hazmat) team, an update on the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability’s (OPA) Know Your Rights program, and a crime statistics briefing from the city manager in place of the police chief, who was absent due to a triple homicide that morning. The meeting included detailed discussion of response capabilities, training, community engagement, and constitutional rights education.

Hazmat Team Presentation

  • Fire Chief and Captain Justin Stevie presented the Hazmat team’s structure, training, and response statistics. The team has 42 Hazmat technicians, 4 apparatus (2 primary), and requires over 200 hours of training per technician. In 2024, the team responded to 9 Hazmat incidents; in 2025, that number rose to 24, including 10 lithium-ion battery fires. The team is one of three MABIS-accredited teams in Michigan.
  • Captain Stevie noted that the primary Hazmat apparatus (Hazmat 1) was acquired through a post-9/11 regional response program, not through city purchase. The team is seeking re-accreditation.
  • Commissioner Fine asked about public awareness of Hazmat risks, especially regarding rail and chlorine gas. The chief responded that the department can issue IPAWS alerts for large-scale events and participates in regional rail exercises, including a planned CSX yard exercise in October 2026.
  • City Manager asked about statistical modeling of industrial risks. Captain Stevie explained that the state identifies “serotidal three sites” (dangerous chemical facilities) and the department receives floor plans and reports for annual training.
  • Commissioner asked about mutual aid billing. The chief confirmed that the city bills for specialized responses through automatic aid agreements, recovering costs for equipment and supplies.
  • The city manager highlighted a prior rail incident where the team prevented over 3,000 gallons of diesel from entering the environment, earning commendation from CSX.

Know Your Rights Program Update

  • Brandon Davis (Director of OPA) and Albert Gasaki (Justice Analyst) presented the Know Your Rights program, which offers free educational workshops on constitutional rights, interactions with law enforcement, and the criminal justice system. The program is unique in covering four parts: introduction to civilian oversight, what to do when stopped by police, immigrant/refugee-specific rights (including ICE interactions), and an overview of the criminal justice system.
  • Over the past six months, OPA conducted 12 workshops across all three city wards, serving participants in Spanish, Swahili, Pashto, Tigrinya, Amharic, and Haitian Creole. They distributed over 2,300 translated materials. Upcoming events include a Know Your Rights Symposium in mid-February 2026 and a workshop at Madison Square Church on January 30, 2026 (capacity 215).
  • Mayor expressed strong support, noting the importance of knowing constitutional rights, especially in the current national climate. He emphasized that the city’s police do not inquire about immigration status or detain for civil immigration matters, and that the city cannot legally bar ICE from owning property due to federal preemption.
  • Commissioner commended OPA for the Safe Encounters Community Summit on January 17, 2026, which drew over 220 attendees, and suggested using Know Your Rights events to gather community feedback on new public safety trust fund dollars.
  • Commissioner (pastor) asked about a youth program under age 16 and potential partnership with the Secretary of State’s office. Davis indicated there is a separate program for youth under 16.
  • Commissioner Fine asked about direct communication with local ICE officials. The mayor responded that the city attorney’s office may be the appropriate channel, and reiterated the city’s non-engagement policy.

Crime Statistics Update (City Manager for Police Chief)

  • City Manager presented the police chief’s monthly report, noting that auto thefts, robberies, and numbers of persons shot continue to trend downward in 2025. There were 14 homicides in 2025, and the clearance rate remains well above the national average. The last homicide before today had been nearly 30 days.
  • City Manager reported a tragic triple homicide that morning in southeast Grand Rapids, with two of the three victims being youth. The police chief was absent due to the incident. The mayor noted that the incident may have a domestic component and that the department has invested in the DAIL (Domestic Abuse Intervention Lethality) training to identify high-risk domestic situations.
  • City Manager also highlighted the police department’s support for the Special Olympics torch run, which will take place in Grand Rapids on November 5–7, 2026, with a rebranded cruiser.
  • Mayor shared his experience from a ride-along the previous day, emphasizing proactive policing and wellness checks during inclement weather. He urged the public to call if they see someone in need.

Key Outcomes

  • The committee voted unanimously to support OPA’s Know Your Rights program and to investigate ongoing needs to inform the public about their rights, including an amendment to research changing federal policies affecting local organizations. The motion passed with the amendment.
  • The committee requested that OPA present a Know Your Rights training at a future public safety committee meeting to increase visibility, and that the training be offered at Mayor’s Mondays events.
  • The committee acknowledged the police department’s continued positive trends in crime reduction and expressed condolences for the triple homicide victims. The police chief will provide a full update in February 2026.

Meeting Transcript

Thank you. We have three items up. The first is a presentation from our ever cheerful fire chief. All right. Good afternoon. Thanks for being here in this crowded, uh crowded room today. To arrange for overflow. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the camera's not picking it up, but we are at capacity here today. But just keep keep track of the egress paths, we'll be okay. That's right. We're gonna talk about our hazmat team today. So this is something that is a low frequency, high risk event. Uh Captain Stevie's gonna come up here. He's the program manager for our hazardous materials team. And we were just talking about not only the frequency within our city, but the risk within our city. And the risk within Grand Rapids is pretty high when you look at the traffic network, the rail system, the chemical manufacturing, and everything taking place within within the city. And I will tell you as a fire chief, these are the types of calls where I may or may not be in command, but I do not know as much as my hazmat team. So we take that step back and we turn it over to our subject matter experts, and we we let them guide the response to make sure that we're doing this safely. So Captain Stevie. Chief. Good afternoon, everybody. As the chief said, I'm Justin Stevie, captain. Um captain at Truck 2, right at MLK station. It's our hazardous materials response station as well. I'm the program manager for our hazmat team, been in that position for about a year. Prior to that, about six, seven years as the assistant program manager as well as a team member throughout my entire tenure here. I've been with the Grand Grand Rapids Fire Department for 16 years now. So I'm gonna give you a brief overview of our team, kind of how we're comprised, some of the responses that we go on, and then offer up an opportunity to you all to ask questions. Uh so our leadership team, uh battalion chief Kathy Thompson, she's our battalion chief of oversight, and myself, and then Captain Matt Dumond, he is my assistant program manager for the team. That way we have some uh internal succession planning within the team. Uh we have 36 hazmat technicians, and then we just added six more for a total of 42 team members. And we have uh four hazmat apparatus, but two primary for hazmat, and then uh two that are cross-staffed. So we have hazmat one, which is one of the big ones at uh MLK station, then hazmat two is a smaller Dodge 5500, and then we have engine two and platform two that respond with our hazmat technicians. Uh response disciplines, and this is a brief overview of the training that we go through. Uh so the basic hazmat technician is an 80-hour program that happens either at Lansing or out in Colorado. And then public safety sampling, that's for our white powder calls. That's a 24-hour class. And then we train on rail, we train on highway incidents, those are each 40 hours. And uh even though we're firefighters, we still get into the science of it to some degree with chemistry. And there's a 48-hour program through Michigan State Police that a lot of us attend. And then we like to have our officers on the hazmat team go through a hazmat officer safety officer program, and then there's some additional hazmat IQ. It kind of makes hazmat response easier, and that's one that we're actually looking to bring to the city uh this summer. And then an advanced air monitoring class, which is 24 hours. So at the end of the day, we're we're looking at 200 plus hours of training that we're going through for hazmat technicians, and uh that's in addition to our hazmat operations that every single firefighter in the city gets. So and I think that that's important to note that a lot of our hazmat calls. Um, you're not gonna see the big glow glow worm suits come out. You're not gonna see all of our fancy hand uh the monitoring equipment because a lot of these calls we we try to keep them as simple as they can be. And a lot of our personal, our day-to-day personnel can handle those types of calls without calling out our hazmat team. So there's our hazmat uh response apparatus, hazmat one and two.

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