Service Application Platform
The City of Grand Rapids is engaging community leaders and organizations to chart a transformative course that will carry our City forward to a financially sustainable future. This vision requires a redefinition of quality of life and an evolution of our roles as citizens and City government. While we need to retain essential public safety services, we also need to engage citizens in the platform of City government to help the City provide services needed to maintain a high quality of life. Some of these initiatives are listed below.
Community Based Code Compliance Program
In April, neighborhood associations began partnering with the City on a Community Based Code Compliance Program.
Partnering neighborhood associations will contact property owners when an exterior housing or nuisance code complaint has been reported to the City. The neighborhood association will then send a courtesy letter to the owner listing the violation and a follow-up date for compliance. If the violation is corrected as of the follow-up date, the case will be closed—no fees, no hassle. If not corrected, the case will go back to the City for enforcement, and fees will be assessed by the City if violations still exist.
Community-Based Policing
Community-Oriented Policing is a philosophy of personalized policing in which an officer is assigned to a specific area, working in partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems. Community Officers engage in a number of community activities with the intent to prevent crime. Some of these activities are listed below.
Presentations
Community officers make many gang prevention and/or awareness presentations at schools, churches, neighborhood associations, Grand Rapids Community College, and Grand Valley State University. They attend neighborhood and business association meetings, where they present general safety and crime prevention tips. In addition, the community officers also conduct numerous security surveys for targeted high crime business locations.
Hot Spots
The community officers spend considerable time in criminal “hot spots” while working on illicit drug trafficking, prostitution, gang graffiti, and other violent crime problems. During this focus on “hot spots,” community officers work in conjunction with the United States Federal Probation Office, State of Michigan Parole Office, 17th Circuit Court and 61st District Court Probation Offices, Kent County Juvenile Probation, the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Thanks to citizens or Grand Rapids the City restored nine Community Policing Officers and one Community Policing Sergeant.
Apps
The City of Grand Rapids is currently testing an app that will allow citizens to report any issues such as potholes, graffiti, etc. by using a phone or other mobile devices.