GR apologizes for mistake to bar owner

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The numbers aren't exactly correct, but the problem is the same.

The Grand Rapids Police Department admitted Tuesday it made a mistake when the captain in charge of south side operations told city commissioners Azucar Night Club, 645 S. Division Ave., was visited more than 1,400 times by officers in the past three years.

Azucar owner Roosevelt Tillman thought the number sounded very high, and he was right. Police records list 340 calls for service connected to the bar or bar patrons since 2007.

"They had to sensationalize the story to get the commission to say 'we'll have a hearing,' " Tillman said. "They put my name in the mud. I'm a leader in this community and I take offense to that."

Tillman fired off a letter to city commissioners, who are set to recommend a decision on Azucar's liquor license renewal to the state March 9. Police suggest the commission recommend the state deny the renewal request.

"I requested the records they used to show how they arrived at the over 1430 police calls officers responded to in the course of three years," Tillman wrote to commissioners.

The numbers were indeed wrong, confirmed Eric Payne, the south service area captain. Someone at the city attorney's office helping compile the numbers put every officer who responded to the bar since 2007, not every call for service, Payne said.

"I've apologized to Mr. Tillman on how they were represented," he added. "I do believe the numbers still are a factor."

Even at 340, the number is among the highest for a bar in the city -- especially considering Azucar is only open two or three days a week, Payne said.

"These aren't barking dog complaints," he said. "I don't want to minimize those, but they're significant incidents. They're violent incidents."

Some of the "incidents" include shootings and assaults.

Police have met with Tillman to try and implement changes that could improve safety in and around the bar, Payne said. But those changes have not been put into place, he added.

"I'm not trying to say there's not problems," Tillman said. "(But it's) not what they said to the public and to the media. That was wrong. It was blatantly wrong."

The manpower needed to respond to events in three years is more than 1,400, Payne said. Consider, for example, a call involving a fight may involve four or five officers. Multiply that by the number of calls and you get to 1,400.

Payne has apologized to Tillman for the mistake, he said, but the problems remain.

Tillman is not satisfied with the apology. He said the accusation that 1,400 crimes were tied to his business have had an effect on his family, the night club and his reputation.

He hopes commissioners take the information into account when they meet March 9.

Tillman, who has helped develop blighted areas along South Division and elsewhere in Grand Rapids, said he is willing to work with police -- now, and despite the number controversy -- in the future.

"The wounds will heal. My wounds will heal, too," Tillman said. "And so will theirs. We'll get over it. We have to. But right now, I'm upset because my name's been dragged through the mud."