Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
On 2026-10-27, the Grand Rapids public safety committee received presentations on the Civilian Appeals Board, fire prevention efforts, monthly police crime statistics, and police training. No agenda or minutes were attached to the transcript. No formal votes were taken; the meeting was informational.
Call our public safety meeting to order. And our first presentation is from Mr. Davis on the Civilian Appeal Board All right, good afternoon. I have the privilege of presenting the Civilian Appeals Board's annual report. For the benefit of those of you who may not have heard the Civilian Appeals Board report before, this is a report of a committee. So this is presented by the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability because we serve as liaison to that board, but this is the board's annual report. This time this is a biannual report. We'll talk about some of the rationale behind that as we move forward. So today, um, the our agenda is pretty simple. We'll talk about the civilian appeals board, make sure we're on the same page and fully understand how it works. We'll explain the mission and the purpose of the board, talk a little bit about the structure, um, the appellate process, some complaint trends, and cab appeals more broadly. So the civilian appeals board was established in 1996 through City Commission Policy 800-02. Um now we were we are not the only uh review board in the state. There are also review boards in Detroit and in Arbor and Kalamazoo, and now they're starting to uh come up at several places across the state. But uh Grand Rapids has always been a leader in this space, and I think that's something we should pause and really celebrate is that before civilian appeals boards or review boards were popular in the state of Michigan, we were doing it uh because we were leaning into this space of justice. Now, our civilian appeals board and every civilian appeals board is structured differently. One of the things you'll hear about civilian oversight is there's not one model that just fits every area. Um, one of the things that's unique about our civilian appeals board is it does have authority that I think a lot of boards would ask for, and that authority is to, as when it reviews uh closed internal affairs cases that fall within its jurisdiction, it does have the power to review that and make a determination to overturn a decision of IA. That's a unique authority. Uh, when I've talked about that in national conferences, I have heard other leaders say we really wish we had that authority. So that's something when you're talking about the CAP board and community or being asked about it, that's something that we should know. Uh, it is a unique authority, and it's something that uh I think helps us move uh accountability forward in Grand Rapids. Uh I did want to uh refer to uh a quote from the then chair of the Civilian Appeals Board, who was Jason Osborne, uh, and he gave this quote. He said, the benefit of this model is profound. It ensures that Grand Rapids has true independent citizen-led police oversight. Residents who feel they have been wronged and are unsatisfied with the outcome of an internal affairs investigation, have a meaningful recourse, an appeal to the board of their peers. Uh and that's the way community sees this space. So uh I know there's often conversation about the board and kind of uh, but looking at this authority is an important thing for us to do, and I do think it's an important uh space for the city. So when we look at the authority of this board, this board can hear certain types of cases. Uh those cases involve complaints to have these allegations, use of excessive force, falsification and lying, civil rights violation, or hostility and discourtesy or other conduct unbecoming of an officer when it's committed in the context of racial animosity or prejudice. Uh so generally we talk about that in the context of the police department's impartial policing policy. The other thing uh to note here is this is based off of findings. So when a complaint is submitted to the Internal Affairs Division, they make findings in what we call the complaint disposition report. Uh, we make a determination on if a complaint is eligible based off of the findings that are made. So if internal affairs makes a finding regarding one of these things, then we determine that it's eligible. So we talk about the mission of the civilian appeals board. Uh, I'm gonna read the exact language because I think it's important. It's to encourage compliance with rules and regulations concerning the conduct of police officers during interactions with citizens to encourage individuals who believe they have been mistreated by police officers to use the internal complaint processes of the Grand Rapids Police Department to have those officers conduct review to create a process that fairly and even handedly evaluates and judges the conduct of everyone involved to determine whether or not a breach of departmental rules and regulations occur, and to afford the community a sense of confidence uh that the community itself is involved as necessary in reviewing the activity of its police officers. When we talk about this, it's important for us to note that uh the civilian appeals board is really leaning into a space that involves our employees. Uh and that so it therefore it involves employment law. And it's sometimes I think uh it's easy for people to think about it in the context of criminal law or traditional court, or maybe even some of those court shows we watch, right? Uh, but this is not that space. But this is not that space. This is not a criminal courtroom. This is not where those things are evaluated.