GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Grand Rapids city manager has announced a series of recommendations to increase transparency in the Grand Rapids Police Department and improve relations between police and the community.

‘WE WANT TO GO FROM A GOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT TO A GREAT DEPARTMENT’

Monday, City Manager Greg Sundstrom told 24 Hour News 8 that there is a problem in the way some community members see GRPD.

“I think the problem is there is a perception that the police department provides disparate services. I think there is a perception by some in this community that the police officer is not there to help you, but might be there to cause you trouble,” he said. “I want to have a complete and comprehensive solution, because frankly I’m sick and tired of this problem. I want to fix it. I want that perception to be if you have a problem, you call your officer because they’re there to help.”

He said citizens have voiced concerns about the department that he says are the result of unfavorable perceptions rather than any wrongdoing by officers.

“I want to be transparent, I want to have the community come together and I want to address this,” he said. “We want to go from a good police department to a great department.”

Sundstrom said the recommendations were shaped after meeting with an organization that represents the people of Grand Rapids and multiple meetings with the police relations committee.

Sundstrom laid out his 12-point plan to the city commission on Tuesday morning.

>>PDF: Grand Rapids Community and Police Relations

1) REINVENT HIRING PRACTICES
Proposed deadline: Dec. 8

“Our objective here is to have different outcomes. It is not that we don’t do it well — I think our human resources department and other departments in the city do a pretty good job. But it’s undeniable that our results that we don’t have diverse classes of police officers and firefighters,” Sundstrom said.

Sundstrom said changing hiring practices would happen in two ways: forming a citizen committee to oversee the remodeling of hiring practices and hiring a consultant or expert with experience.

“We want to hire an expert, have them work with the citizens’ group and have that include groups like the Grand Rapids Urban League, the Greater Grand Rapids Branch of the NAACP, LINC, our police department, our human resource department, work with all of these folks to redefine and come up with a new model for hiring,” Sundstrom said.

He said part of the plan should be hiring officers from the community.

Grand Rapids Public Schools already has as a program for students as young as 5th grade who are interested in careers in law enforcement.

“We would like to connect with those same kids and have them feed into our programs,” Sundstrom said. “We have programs currently in the police department through internships and other ways where we can help engage young people who are interested in careers. So we want to establish a grow-your-own program, work with GRPS, and I think we will need to hire someone like the Grand Rapids Urban League, who has a specialty in recruiting and helping place young people.”

2) STRENGTHEN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY AND GRPD

Sundstrom said he wants to improve the community’s relationship with the police department by making the chief and other officers more available to the public.

“I’m doing a small bit of reorganizing in the department to free up the police chief so that we can spend more time in community meetings,” Sundstrom said. “Also helping to reorganize so that our service area captains can post regular office hours and they can also have regular meetings in their service areas.”

Sundstrom said he would like to “significantly expand” the community policing program by Sept. 8.

“Currently we have 13 community policing officers. I would like to look at the current community police service areas, reconfigure those because some are as small as say East Hills, some are as large as Creston, which might 10 times the size of East Hills. We have one officer assigned to each, Sundstrom said.

He said he would like to add more community police officers and expand their hours of service from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday to five days a week and into the evenings

And by March 10, Sundstrom would like the longstanding Community Relations Commission, which is appointed by the city commission, to work with GRPD to improve communications between the department and the community.

“I’d also like to have the police department continue to focus on their transparency and to continue to share open data wherever it is appropriate. Understand that there are cases in the law and in good police practice where we cannot share information,” he cautioned. “But wherever we can, I want to share that information widely so that everyone knows everything we do and can help us police this community.”

3) ENHANCE POLICE OFFICER TRAINING
Proposed deadline: Dec. 8

“I would like to require mandatory cultural competence training and mandatory implicit bias training for all police officers,” Sundstrom said.

That would be new training that the department could use to analyze any bias in the department and “help improve their service through departmental metrics.”

“We should have the trainers hired by July 14 and our training should be completed by Dec. 8,” Sundstrom said. “A plan should be developed for continuous training for all police officers.”

4) GRPD SHOULD COMPLETE ITS STRATEGIC PLAN FOR OPERATIONS
Proposed deadline: July 14

This plan is already nearly finished, Sundstrom said. He recommended that the department publish it for the community to view when it’s done.

“The police department should also develop a plan that creates a frame work for implementing the recommendation in this report,” he added.

5) PHASED-IN IMPLEMENTATION OF BODY CAMERAS FOR POLICE OFFICERS
Proposed deadline: March 10

“This is the one that started this all,” Sundstrom said.

He said the city will start phasing in the body cameras for all officers.

“We will start with a relatively small number and I think within six to eight months, we will have every police officer with body cameras,” he said.

He said there’s a couple of reasons the body cams won’t be on every officer immediately.

“One is we have found there are three different cameras on the market. We have to figure out which one works best here in Grand Rapids,” Sundstrom said.

He explained that the city needs to look into data storage, which is the “tough” and “very expensive” part.

“We need to make sure we do it right, and so one thing we are doing is researching and testing of the different cameras and when we start to feel like there is one that we think will work, then we will start to phase in that implementation.”

Sundstrom said he would like a report on the body cams by the chief by Dec. 8.

6) DEVELOP PROTOCOLS FOR THE USE OF BODY CAMERAS
Proposed deadline: March 10

In addition to phasing in the body cameras, Sundstrom said, the department will have to create policies on their use.

“For example, when an officer enters private property, should they shut the camera off? When a officer encounters minors, should they shut the camera off? If someone asks the officer, ‘Will you shut off your camera?’ should we do that? These are the kind of protocols that we’re asking the police chief and the police department to put together,” Sundstrom said.

He said policies may change as the cameras are phased in and officers learn more about the practicalities of using them.

“We have already looked at the protocols that have been established in other cities, but again we have to make sure these protocols work here in Grand Rapids,” Sundstrom said.

7) HIRE A CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT A STUDY OF RACIAL DISPARITY IN ARRESTS
Proposed deadline: Dec. 8

Sundstrom said the city should “hire a consultant to conduct an independent study of the disparity of arrest between Caucasian and people of color.”

“That should also focus on hindering and apposing arrest and resisting and obstructing arrest. The study should include a qualitative analysis of citizen and police officer interactions, so we can understand if there is any disparity of treatment,” Sundstrom continued.

He said he hoped the study would be done and reported to the city by the end of the year.

8) HIRE A CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT A STUDY ON RACIAL PROFILING IN TRAFFIC STOPS
Proposed deadline: July 14

“We last did a racial profiling study in 2004, and let me remind you that that study found that the city did not racially profile,” Sundstrom said. “But we would like to follow up with that study to ensure that for the community.”

He said he hoped the study would be completed and delivered to the city before the end of the year.

9) REVIEW THE CITY’S DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION POLICIES
Proposed deadline: July 14

“The city staff should work with the community relations commission to review all of the city’s diversity and inclusion policies and practices,” Sundstrom said. “This should be reported to the city commission mid-summer.”

10) DEVELOP A POLICY TO PROTECT CITIZEN PRIVAC
YProposed deadline: March 10

“With new types of technology, citizens are concerned and have expressed at the three meetings we have had so far that they will be under surveillance with these body cameras, and so the city attorney is currently developing a policy so that we can try and protect citizen privacy wherever possible,” Sundstrom said.

11) IMPLEMENT MANDATORY INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIONS FOR OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTINGS
Proposed deadline: July 14

Sundstrom said that when a Grand Rapids police officer is involved in a shooting, there should be an investigation by an outside agency like the Kent County Sheriff’s Department or Michigan State Police.

“They are relatively rare, we at most had a couple in a year, but currently whenever there is a officer-involved shooting, our Internal Affairs Unit does the investigation,” Sundstrom said. “We are suggesting really two investigations. One, our Internal Affairs investigation will make sure that our officers followed out internal policies, but we would also have an outside agency investigate to make sure there was nothing criminal in the officer’s behavior while they fired their weapon.”

12) IMPLEMENT A PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN ABOUT THE CITY’S CIVILIAN APPEAL BOARD
Proposed deadline: July 14

“There are very few appeals to the Civilian Appeal Board,” Sundstrom said. “We think one of the reasons may be that citizens are not aware of their right to appeal a complaint they make to the police department.”

He said a public education campaign could help combat that problem.

Some people have proposed that the Civilian Appeal Board should have subpoena powers, but Sundstrom said he thinks that would be “too messy.” He said several laws seem to make it illegal and impractical to give a citizen’s body the ability to issue subpoenas.

Watch the entire news conference hosted by city leaders and the Grand Rapids Police Department by clicking on the video player below.

Sundstrom has not yet firmed up how much it would cost to implement the recommendations, but he told 24 Hour News 8 he estimates it would cost “easily $1.5 million or more.” The money would come from the contingent fund and the transformation fund.

The proposals still have a long way to go before they become policy — they would all have to be approved by the city commission. Sundstrom also expects there will be multiple discussions with the public before the recommendations move forward.

Sundstrom hopes to have at least some of the recommendations approved by March.

CHIEF: THESE RECOMMENDATIONS TAKE US TO THE NEXT LEVEL

GRPD Chief David Rahinsky, who was involved in the discussions that led to the recommendations, told 24 Hour News 8’s he’s on board with the 12-point plan.

“I agree with the need to take a look at the job we do. I think ultimately when we bring consultants in, I think what they are going to do is confirm what we already believe, which is that we do a fine job,” Rahinsky said.

He said one of the main focuses of the plan — body cameras for officers — are “a game-changer.”

“They’ll change the nature of police and community relations. They’ll change the nature of how we provide police services to the community,” he said.

He did caution that “some recommendations will be easier to implement than others,” but continued that “they are all well thought out.” He also said Sundstrom’s proposed deadlines are “ambitious,” but “doable.”

“I’ve had the privilege to serve as a chief in three different states now and I’ve never been surrounded by men and women who are as dedicated and as professional as the Grand Rapids Police Department,” Rahinsky continued. “Having said that, we’re not content to rest on our laurels. … These recommendations take us to the next level.”

OFFICERS: A ‘KICK IN THE GUT’

But after the recommendations were released Tuesday morning, two sources within GRPD texted 24 Hour News 8, saying they felt the plan was an insult to the work they’ve done. That sentiment seems to be shared by the president of the police union and others in the department.

“I don’t think all of this is necessary. I don’t think we have a problem here in Grand Rapids,” Andy Bingel, the president of the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association, said. “It’s really reacting to a small voice right now.”

He said the plan was too expensive and that the $1.5 million could be better spent elsewhere. He wants the recommendations to go to a public vote.

“We are unhappy with the tone of the document. There is a lot of negativity,” GRPD Capt. Pete McWaters, the head of the department’s command officer union, told 24 Hour News 8.

He said the recommendations is based not on factual information, but rather on the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and Eric Garner in New York City.

The recommendations were a “kick in the gut to a lot of people here,” he said.

“I think the feeling from within the department is that it condemns the department and our work,” McWaters said. “We are already great.”

There was no mention of crime in Grand Rapids being at an all-time low. McWaters said there aren’t any current problems with diversity training or dash cameras.

“But all of a sudden we are reshaping the police department,” he said.

He called the plan extreme and said it was too expensive.

All that being said, McWaters said he will follow orders regardless of whether the plan makes him and other officers unhappy.

“Do I agree with how this was done and how this was implemented? No. But what comes down comes down and will be implemented,” he said.