OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting on High-Rise Firefighting and K-9 Program Review – July 21, 2026

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, July 21, 2026
BodyGrand Rapids, Michigan
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, July 21, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:40:14

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Okay, call this meeting of public safety to order, and our first item of business is a presentation from our firefighters on high-rise firefighting.

0:09

Take it away, Chief.

0:10

Good afternoon.

0:11

Thank you.

0:12

Um I just want to be uh clear that we're just doing a real quick educational briefing about kind of the differences between residential and high-rise firefighting and some of the things we do and the differences that we have to um send when we pre-plan them, and then at the end, the fire marshal is gonna kind of talk about some of those um fire codes that have to do with high rises, which really is kind of backwards.

0:35

We should have talked about that first, but uh, because that kind of what keeps us safe.

0:39

But we'll go ahead and do the uh the operational side of it first.

0:42

So, one thing I want you to understand about the differences is it's called reflex time.

0:47

On a on a standard structure fire, you know, crews roll up, picture your house, they roll up in front of your house, it's ground level, they jump off, they can pull the hoses, they walk right in the door, they find the fire, they do a search, and they can knock it out.

1:00

Um, when we're talking about a high rise, um, and for our SOG, it's anything 55 feet or higher or beyond the reach of one of our aerial devices.

1:10

Um, they have to now picture this building.

1:12

They get up front on Monroe, they have to walk up, they have to find the elevators, they have to take the elevator to two floors below the suspected fire floor.

1:21

All this time, if there is a fire, that fire's building, right?

1:25

So we have this reflex time, and it can be a significant delay before we can get water on the fire floor.

1:31

And that's in the end, that's what puts out fires is water.

1:34

So each additional floor multiplies that reflex time further, and um, when we do get a fire that's uh rapidly progressed, we also have other um equipment we have to bring up and stage below the fire to support those operations.

1:49

Um so I kind of talked about this uh just a second ago the the water supply differences.

1:54

Um you also have to think when you're on the ground, um getting that hose and that water um from uh uh horizontal plane is a lot easier than going up vertical, right?

2:05

So think we're on the ninth floor right now.

2:07

Every floor adds 10 PSI of pressure.

2:11

We have to pump because we have to push that water up.

2:13

Um the occupant load, typical house, two to four people.

2:17

Um, this building today, it can exceed a couple hundred people.

2:20

We have to be concerned about uh building size, you know, 15 to 2,000 for your normal residential.

2:26

Um, you know, we can have floor plans of over 10,000 that we have to search and make sure we we rescue people from.

2:32

Um, on non-fire calls, so for instance, on medical calls um at residentials or usually um taking care of at the ground floor.

2:41

Um, if we have a medical and we've had it here where the elevator's been out of service, now we have to have extra extra resources.

2:48

We have to bring our resources that we already have, and um, you know, get these people down.

2:53

So there's a lot more resource demand um on a regular house fire.

2:57

We have six to seven companies.

2:59

Think a company is a large red fire apparatus with three people on it.

3:04

Um, when we have a high-rise fire, we're sending 11 plus, and that's just to get started.

3:09

Um, so for containment, um, we do that aggressive attack through the front door.

3:14

Uh in a high rise, we send what we call a fast team in, and they're literally coming in with water cans and trying to get there before this fire progresses past a point where it needs you know a certain amount of GPM to put it out.

3:28

Uh, just real quick, here's the numbers on uh personnel requirements on a standard residential structure fire.

3:34

We're sending 19 firefighters there to put it out.

3:36

Um, on a high rise uh where it's not confirmed, we initially do 24, and then on a working fire, i.e., you call in and say there is a fire.

3:45

We're in initially sending 33 personnel, and then once it is confirmed, we we strike a second alarm to get more resources coming.

3:52

It's a very resource-rich operation uh of which we we have um and we plan for those resources.

3:59

And just a quick case study earlier this year at 144 Oak Street.

4:03

If you have that picture, it's a high rise residential.

4:06

Um, we did have a fire on the ninth floor.

4:08

Uh the response timeline, we were dispatched at 9 50 at um three minutes later.

4:15

Engine two was so three minutes.

4:17

Think about leaving your house.

4:18

How far working you get in three minutes, right?

4:20

They got from MLK to 144 oaks.

4:24

Um, three minutes later, they got to the ninth floors.

4:27

Now, mind you, we can take the elevator two floors before two floors below, and then we're hiking up those stairs, those last two floors with an extra hundred to 130 pounds of equipment on.

4:38

Okay.

4:39

Um, once they got there, they found the fire room, they had two water cans, they got in and they were able to keep it in check and keep it from growing any bigger.

4:47

So um, some of the key factors and you know, minor damage, zero casualties to both civilians and firefighters was our fast reflex time, um, our fully staffed fire department, and let's be honest, if we're accredited in ISO one, we're good at what we do in the city of Grand Rapids, thanks to the support we get from you.

5:05

Uh the sprinkler system did not activate without that rapid crew intervention, you know, it could have gone farther on that in that area.

5:14

So our high rise protocol worked.

5:16

Uh we're real happy about it.

5:17

And um, yeah, we just wanted to kind of give you guys an idea of what we do from the operation side.

5:23

And I'm gonna turn it over to my fire marshal and talk about fire prevention program on the high rise side.

5:28

Good afternoon.

5:29

Uh thank you for allowing us to come here and give you a little bit of education about our high-rise protocol and our fire prevention program.

5:35

Uh, this is uh something that we take very seriously here uh the city of Grand Rapids.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Police Accountability█████████████████████████████████████████████47%
Public Safety█████████████████████████████████34%
Animal Welfare█████████9%
Technology and Innovation████4%
Public Engagement████4%
Procedural██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee Meeting – July 21, 2026

The Public Safety Committee of the Grand Rapids City Commission met on July 21, 2026, to receive presentations from the Fire Department on high-rise firefighting operations and from the Police Department on the K-9 program and current crime statistics. The committee reviewed the Fire Department's operational challenges and prevention efforts for high-rise buildings, and the Police Department's detailed response to recommendations from the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) regarding the K-9 unit, along with an update on crime trends.

Fire Department Presentation on High-Rise Firefighting

  • Fire Chief and Fire Marshal delivered an educational briefing on the differences between residential and high-rise firefighting, emphasizing "reflex time" – the delay in getting water on a fire due to vertical travel. High-rises are defined as any structure 55 feet or higher.
  • Water supply challenges: each floor adds 10 PSI pressure requirement. Occupant loads can exceed 200 people, and floor plans over 10,000 square feet. Staffing: a standard house fire requires 19 firefighters; a high-rise working fire requires 33 personnel initially, with more on a second alarm.
  • Case study: at 144 Oak Street, a fire on the 9th floor was contained quickly due to fast reflex time, fully staffed department, and ISO 1 accreditation. Sprinkler system did not activate, but rapid crew intervention prevented escalation.
  • Fire Marshal described the fire prevention program: plan reviews, rough-in and final inspections, inspection/testing/maintenance (ITM) of fire protection systems, and emergency responder radio coverage (ERC) enhancements. High-rise inspections occur every two years; there are over 100 high-rises in Grand Rapids.
  • Committee members asked about water storage on top of buildings, drone technology for firefighting, and public reporting of code violations. The department noted that modern systems rely on fire pumps rather than gravity tanks; drones are not yet used for active fire suppression. Citizens can report concerns by calling 456-3900 or 911 for emergencies.

Police Department Presentation: K-9 Program Review and Crime Statistics

  • Deputy Chief PJ Baker presented an overview of the GRPD K-9 program, which currently has nine dual-purpose dogs (narcotics and explosives) with handlers. Dogs are imported from Europe, live with handlers, and undergo daily, weekly, monthly training and annual certification through the International Police Work Dog Association (IPWATA).
  • Statistics (2021-2025): 3,482 K-9 applications; 474 arrests attributed to K-9s; 84 physical apprehensions (bites). Of those 84 bites, 78 were treated and released after short hospital stays, 6 were admitted (5 for reasons other than the bite).
  • The department addressed seven OPA recommendations. Key points: (1) Canine apprehensions are already treated as uses of force and undergo the same reporting and review processes. (2) The policy uses a "totality of the circumstances" framework for deployment, including severity of crime, threat, and resistance. (3) Vulnerable population protections are already covered by other policies. (4) Transparency and reporting are consistent with other use-of-force reports. (5) Warning language is required in most situations; the department is evaluating multilingual warnings. (6) Supervisor approval is not required for all deployments due to the nature of the K-9 team (officers are patrol officers with added duty) but is used in special circumstances. (7) Bite reviews are automatically forwarded to Internal Affairs.
  • Committee members praised the transparency and expressed interest in further tightening deployment criteria, especially regarding "serious violent felonies" versus "totality of the circumstances." The Mayor suggested continued conversation on this topic.
  • OPA Director Davis thanked the department for improved collaboration and stood by the original recommendations.

Crime Statistics Update

  • Chief provided crime data for the year through June 2026: auto thefts trending down, robberies down, shootings (fatal and non-fatal) reduced compared to 2021. Homicides: 9 this year, all cleared (100% clearance rate). Fatal overdoses: 14. Illegal guns recovered: 193.
  • Chief shared two videos: one showing officers carrying a shooting victim to an ambulance due to crowd obstruction (the victim survived); another showing a positive interaction between an officer and a young man. The Chief emphasized the department's commitment to sharing positive stories and building community trust.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken; the meeting was informational.
  • The committee expressed support for continued transparency and refinement of K-9 policies, including potential public release of the K-9 training manual.
  • The department will consider community outreach events for K-9 and use-of-force training.
  • The crime statistics will be monitored, and the department will continue to work with OPA on policy improvements.

Meeting Transcript

Okay, call this meeting of public safety to order, and our first item of business is a presentation from our firefighters on high-rise firefighting. Take it away, Chief. Good afternoon. Thank you. Um I just want to be uh clear that we're just doing a real quick educational briefing about kind of the differences between residential and high-rise firefighting and some of the things we do and the differences that we have to um send when we pre-plan them, and then at the end, the fire marshal is gonna kind of talk about some of those um fire codes that have to do with high rises, which really is kind of backwards. We should have talked about that first, but uh, because that kind of what keeps us safe. But we'll go ahead and do the uh the operational side of it first. So, one thing I want you to understand about the differences is it's called reflex time. On a on a standard structure fire, you know, crews roll up, picture your house, they roll up in front of your house, it's ground level, they jump off, they can pull the hoses, they walk right in the door, they find the fire, they do a search, and they can knock it out. Um, when we're talking about a high rise, um, and for our SOG, it's anything 55 feet or higher or beyond the reach of one of our aerial devices. Um, they have to now picture this building. They get up front on Monroe, they have to walk up, they have to find the elevators, they have to take the elevator to two floors below the suspected fire floor. All this time, if there is a fire, that fire's building, right? So we have this reflex time, and it can be a significant delay before we can get water on the fire floor. And that's in the end, that's what puts out fires is water. So each additional floor multiplies that reflex time further, and um, when we do get a fire that's uh rapidly progressed, we also have other um equipment we have to bring up and stage below the fire to support those operations. Um so I kind of talked about this uh just a second ago the the water supply differences. Um you also have to think when you're on the ground, um getting that hose and that water um from uh uh horizontal plane is a lot easier than going up vertical, right? So think we're on the ninth floor right now. Every floor adds 10 PSI of pressure. We have to pump because we have to push that water up. Um the occupant load, typical house, two to four people. Um, this building today, it can exceed a couple hundred people. We have to be concerned about uh building size, you know, 15 to 2,000 for your normal residential. Um, you know, we can have floor plans of over 10,000 that we have to search and make sure we we rescue people from. Um, on non-fire calls, so for instance, on medical calls um at residentials or usually um taking care of at the ground floor. Um, if we have a medical and we've had it here where the elevator's been out of service, now we have to have extra extra resources. We have to bring our resources that we already have, and um, you know, get these people down. So there's a lot more resource demand um on a regular house fire. We have six to seven companies. Think a company is a large red fire apparatus with three people on it. Um, when we have a high-rise fire, we're sending 11 plus, and that's just to get started. Um, so for containment, um, we do that aggressive attack through the front door. Uh in a high rise, we send what we call a fast team in, and they're literally coming in with water cans and trying to get there before this fire progresses past a point where it needs you know a certain amount of GPM to put it out. Uh, just real quick, here's the numbers on uh personnel requirements on a standard residential structure fire. We're sending 19 firefighters there to put it out. Um, on a high rise uh where it's not confirmed, we initially do 24, and then on a working fire, i.e., you call in and say there is a fire. We're in initially sending 33 personnel, and then once it is confirmed, we we strike a second alarm to get more resources coming. It's a very resource-rich operation uh of which we we have um and we plan for those resources. And just a quick case study earlier this year at 144 Oak Street. If you have that picture, it's a high rise residential. Um, we did have a fire on the ninth floor. Uh the response timeline, we were dispatched at 9 50 at um three minutes later. Engine two was so three minutes. Think about leaving your house. How far working you get in three minutes, right? They got from MLK to 144 oaks. Um, three minutes later, they got to the ninth floors. Now, mind you, we can take the elevator two floors before two floors below, and then we're hiking up those stairs, those last two floors with an extra hundred to 130 pounds of equipment on. Okay.

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