GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom is standing before city commissioners on the ninth floor at city hall Tuesday morning outlining his plans for GRPD and how his department will address the uptick in violence that has plagued the city.
Residents and visitors alike are on edge after a rash of shootings that took place downtown. On the weekend of July 17, four people were shot near the intersection of Cesar Chavez Avenue SW and Oakes Street.
The July 17 shooting was the latest of at least three shootings downtown since late May.
Data from the Grand Rapids Police metric dashboard shows that though it is seven months into 2022, Grand Rapids has seen a total of 13 homicides. There was a total of 18 in all of 2021.
There have been 623 incidents of aggravated assaults, more than 1,700 incidents of simple assaults and 66 rape incidents. In all of those categories, Grand Rapids is above the year-to-date average in the past three years.
At the meeting, Winstrom presented the following plan to bring changes to GRPD:
The commission will also hold its regular meeting complete with public comment. Residents frustrated with the police department and city leaders have flooded these meetings in recent months, which has caused the mayor to end several of them early over what she has called unruly behavior.
At the most recent meeting two weeks ago, the meeting ended early and three people were arrested.
Tuesday's city commission meeting will begin at 7 p.m. While both meetings are open to the public, only the city commission meeting will have a public comment session.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
