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Grand Rapids police cite mixed crime trends, highlight co‑response mental‑health partnership
Summary
Police reported an overall downward trend in auto thefts, ongoing work on homicides and overdoses, and described the city’s co‑response program with Network 180, which averages 5.8 calls per day and has three MSW clinicians embedded with officers.
Police leaders told the Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee on Jan. 31 that overall auto thefts are down to below pre‑pandemic levels while the city continues to investigate its first recorded homicide of 2025 and to track fatal overdoses.
The committee heard an update on the Grand Rapids Police Department’s co‑response program, a partnership with Network 180 that pairs clinicians with officers to respond to behavioral‑health calls. Police officials said the co‑response clinicians average 5.8 calls per day and that the team handled 92 drop‑offs to the new behavioral health crisis center in 2024 after the center opened in June.
Why it matters: Committee members and staff framed co‑response as part of a broader shift in how police respond to behavioral health and substance‑use crises, with officials saying the approach reduces emergency‑room visits, EMS responses and arrests for people in need of treatment rather than criminal prosecution.
Police Chief (Grand…
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