It would appear that the City of Grand Rapids is going to provide nearly $100,000 to the GRPD for purchasing drones, despite grassroots opposition

Since late March, when local commercial news sources began reporting on the GRPD’s presentation to the Grand Rapids Public Safety Committee about their plans to purchase drones, the dominant narrative has been that these drones would only be used to improve public safety.

Our response (GRIID) to that same meeting in late March was fundamentally different. One critical point that GRIID raised at that meeting was:

The one listed that is worth reflecting on is City Manager Extenuating Circumstances. This means that the City Manager of Grand Rapids has the power to determine if there are other reasons to use drones, for surveillance and information gathering. Chief Winstrom said that Extenuating Circumstances, as an example, might be the 2020 uprising that took place in downtown Grand Rapids. In fact, Winstrom had stated at the previous Public Safety Committee meeting, that when there are protests that are not permitted or where traffic is being blocked or government and business operations are disrupted, those would qualify for Extenuating Circumstances. Extenuating Circumstances are included in the policy that the Grand Rapids NAACP had a hand in writing, which you can find here. Ultimately, when the City Manager decides there are Extenuating Circumstances, the City’s policy on surveillance, which the NAACP helped craft, goes out the window.

It was also recommended in late March that a Public Hearing be held on the matter of the GRPD wanting to purchase drones. True to form, just days before the Public Hearing was held, the City of Grand Rapids crafted a survey, which was specifically designed to elicit certain public responses to information and questions that the City controlled, while conveniently omitting critical information.

Just days after the City’s survey was sent out to the community, there was a Public Hearing held on the GRPD’s desire to purchase and use drones, which GRIID also reported on. However, before the Public Hearing even began, City officials provide Chief Winstrom yet another opportunity to present the Police Department’s take on what drones would be used for.

However, despite the attempts to once again control the narrative, those who spoke at the Public Hearing were overwhelmingly opposed to the GRPD’s use of drones. There were also several people who brought up the issue of Extenuating Circumstances which was discussed in an April 11 article on MLive, where City Manager Mark Washington said that drones could be used to monitor protests that aren’t permitted and are potentially interfering with roadways. In that same MLive article from April 11, it also stated that drones may be used by the GRPD “in the case of civil unrest and large gatherings where an aerial view is necessary to ensure safety and minimize the number of officers involved on the street,” Chief Winstrom wrote to commissioners in an April 11 memo.” Again, Extenuating Circumstances is the rational that can and will be used in these circumstances.

Since the Public Hearing was held, the GRPD hosted their own meetings in the community, where they made sure to control the narrative, which meant that the issue of extenuating circumstances would not be discussed. For several months the issue of the GRPD’s desire to use drones hasn’t received any attention, but now it appears that it will be voted on at the August 22nd City Commission meeting this Tuesday.

In the Agenda Packet of the Fiscal Committee, which was made public late Friday, we can see that the information presented on the matter of drones is again a controlled narrative. From page 2 -15, of the Fiscal Committee’s Agenda Packet we see this narrative, along with the fact that the same committee, “recommends adoption of the following resolution approving an Agreement with Unmanned Vehicle Technologies for the purchase of small Unmanned Aerial System technology.”

We then read that what most of the Committee of the Whole will be doing Tuesday morning, is listening to a representative of the GRPD (once again) on how drones would  be used by the GRPD, with an emphasis on seeking their endorsement. See pages 5 – 17 of the Agenda Packet of the Committee of the Whole. 

The Committee of the Whole will likely adopt the recommendation of the Fiscal Committee, which essentially means it’s a done deal. Sure, the formal vote won’t happen until the Tuesday evening City Commission meeting, but it all but a done deal, no matter how many people speak during public comment.

Is this what representative democracy has come to or has it always been like this, where those with economic power and those with electoral power, get to decide on critical matters in this community? Do we once again try to mobilize the grassroots community to oppose the City’s decision to use nearly $100,000 of public money to purchase drones for the GRPD? And do we once again show up and use our voices to oppose the GRPD’s use of drones? As the old labor song goes, which side are you on my people, which side are you on? I’m on the Freedom side!