The Grand Rapids Office of Oversight and Public Accountability is receiving $750,000 from the Kellogg Foundation despite their ongoing complicity in the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya

The Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA) was created in August of 2019, to “serve as the liaison between public safety and our Grand Rapids community.” 

Since the OPA was created there have been numerous incidents of police abuse of residents, with a disproportionate amount of Black residents being the target of GRPD harassment, intimidation and arrest.

In May of 2020, there was a massive uprising in Grand Rapids, with thousands of people hitting streets after the police murder of George Floyd, with cops using tear gas and flashbang canisters, then arresting dozens of people for property destruction. Since the 2020 Uprising, there have been calls to defund the GRPD, with ongoing resistance to GRPD policies, including the more recent GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya.

During the past three years Office of Oversight and Public Accountability has had plenty of opportunities to hold the GRPD accountable, with numerous incidents of police abuse of Black residents, targeting protesters and the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya. During this time, the OPA has not once taken any significant action to hold the GRPD accountable, nor have they published reports that challenge GRPD practices and policies. The only mildly critical thing the OPA has done, was to release a statement complaining about the GRPD’s failure to comply with requests for documents in cases of possible GRPD abuse, in April of 2021.

Since the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya, the OPA has consistently agreed with the Grand Rapids Police Department and has not offered to do anything remotely close to what the community has been demanding since the GRPD shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. Therefore, it is difficult for this writer to comprehend how the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability actually benefits the community.

On Tuesday, May 24th, as part of the Fiscal Committee’s Agenda Packet, on pages 2 – 4, the City of Grand Rapids announced that the Kellogg Foundation has awarded a $750,000 grant to the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability to hire two more people to expand the capacity of the the OPA. The document states: 

This grant will fund two (2) Justice Analysts (Administrative Analyst I) to work in the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability to help embed long-term system changes in our public safety operations and provide additional engagement opportunities, and educational programs to community. These positions would provide much needed capacity to be engaged and lead efforts that, if done well and equitably, have the power to directly advance positive outcomes in community and change City protocol and practice for long-term change.

So, the City of Grand Rapids will pay 2 people at $125,000 a year each, over a three year period. Based on what we have seen from the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability since August of 2019, we should only expect them to continue to do what they have done so far, which has been to have no real enforcement powers, to be conciliatory towards the GRPD, to continue to be complicit with how the GRPD polices Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities, and to ignore the community demands of Justice for the family of Patrick Lyoya. 

Now, imagine how much good could be done to give $750,000 to the Black community. $750,000 could provide lots of relief for families who are renting, who are food insecure, and who have limited access to health care. In addition, what if $750,000 were given to the Black community as compensation for their calls to provide public safety for themselves, as we have been hearing over the past two years and increasingly since Patrick Lyoya was murdered by the GRPD. 

When will people realize that the Grand Rapids Office of Oversight and Public Accountability is an ineffectual entity that is designed to placate the public, while they work in partnership with the GRPD to maintain the status quo of policing in this city? Let’s not be fooled by yet another bureaucratic attempt to throw money at a department that more often than not operates as a lapdog for the City Manager and the Grand Rapids Police Department.