As the Grand Rapids Police Department continues its work to improve city and community relations, hiring more sworn police officers isn’t the answer. The Department needs to make better use of the resources it already has. That was the main theme as independent consulting firm Hillard Heintz presented its findings Tuesday morning to the Grand Rapids City Commission after doing an overall analysis of the police department’s day to day operations.
The study comes after law enforcement has argued for years that the GRPD needs more cops on the streets, a stance Interim Chief David Kiddle echoed Tuesday morning to the City Commission.
“In regards to our budget requests in over the past four years each of those four years we have requested 10 additional officers in the evening hours and that has been a direct request to us from the community and the neighborhood associations.”
The study found however, it’s not the number of officers that’s the problem, it’s how the officers and detectives spend their time while on the clock. As Hillard Heintz Debra Kirby explained to city commissioners, many detectives are buried in paperwork that should be delegated to administrative staff, freeing up crucial hours needed for investigators to solve crimes.
“Your investigators are spending a lot of time doing what in most organizations a civilian records unit would do. And so again, it goes to the some of the issues and resource utilization: how do I want to use my resources?”
City Manager Mark Washington, who is in the process of preparing next year’s budget, said that Tuesday morning was a time to gather information, and not the time to make a decision on the matter.
