Police chief reports declines in some crimes in Grand Rapids, but shootings and overdoses persist

The Police Chief briefed the commission on the city’s public‑safety trends, highlighting positive movement in some metrics and ongoing challenges in others.

The chief said auto thefts and robberies are trending downward — robbery totals are the lowest year‑to‑date in four years — and commended detectives on recent arrests. He also said the city has recorded 10 people killed by gunfire so far this year and noted ongoing homicide investigations with some historical cases recently cleared. The chief cited 15 fatal overdoses year to date and said wide distribution of naloxone (Narcan) among city workers has likely reduced fatalities.

Police reported recovering 444 illegally possessed firearms. The chief outlined operational tools used in missing‑person and critical incidents: patrol briefings, canine units, a drone team and partnerships with violence‑interruption organizations. The chief said the department runs twice‑daily briefings that direct patrol attention when retaliation or threats are anticipated.

On community policing, the chief said the department has five trained community officers (one per service area) and hopes to expand that number toward a 10‑officer target; those officers combine community engagement with response duties and will report on performance outcomes in future briefings. The city also signed off on another academy class (eight or nine recruits) and discussed using grant funding for co‑response models in the legislative cycle.

Next steps: the chief suggested a future presentation on community‑officer metrics and the department will continue collaboration with Cure Violence and other partners to reduce retaliation and shootings.