Copaganda: Deconstructing the GRPD TV series on HBO/MAX – Episode #8

Editors Note: Last week, the Grand Rapids City Commission unanimously approved the FY2026 budget, which not only provides $69.1 million to the GRPD as listed in the budget narrative, it provides millions more for new technology and other resources for the GRPD and entities that work directly with the GRPD. The total budget for what the system calls community safety – it would be more accurate to call it the Punishment Industry – comes to $247.3 million of public money. 

Episode eight begins with a Lieutenant in the GRPD talking about “all the different hats that cops have to wear.” The GRPD responds to an accident involving a motorcycle and a car. A young white woman is injured and a young white male is sitting with her, attempting to stop the bleeding. 

The cop asks the guy what happened and thinks he smells alcohol. The cop then grabs what he believes to be a suspect, and in response another white male become agitated and starts yelling at the cop to let the possible suspect go. Another cop steps in, puts his hands on another white male and then picks him up and slams him to the ground. The white male then asks the cop for his badge number and name, several times, but the cop never provides the information, and instead tells the guy he is under arrest as cuffs are put on him.

While taking the two white males to their squad cars, the GRPD informs one of the young men that they are being charged with obstruction and failure to obey a cop. The GRPD cop then tells him that if this young man does any damage to the police vehicle, they will be charged with a felony. 

The episode then cuts to the Deputy Chief of Police, who is talking about how he has always done patrol work and then begins to talk about how dangerous patrol work is. The Deputy Chief of Police – speaking directly to the camera – talks about how a fellow officer and patrol partner, was killed responding to a domestic violence call. A picture of the cop who was killed – Robert Kozminski – was shot by someone in July of 2007. 

The next scene takes viewers into the daily roll call room, which has a table with a plaque on it commemorating Kozminski. The Deputy Chief of Police says the plague is there “as a reminder of how dangerous this job is.” Interesting that they spent more time talking about a GRPD officer who was killed in 2007, but only mention in passing that Patrick Lyoya was killed by a GRPD cop in 2022.

The GRPD responds to another call about someone who has barricaded themselves into a home that they don’t live in. The Deputy Chief of Police says that while some cops are trying to reason with the suspect, other cops are entering the house through windows. The Mental Health Team becomes involved and tries to talked the suspect down. At the same time, SWAT cops show up all geared up to try to take the person with a mental health crisis into custody.

Then we see the GRPD responding to a call about a bank robbery, where the suspect is a white male. The GRPD sees a man who fit the description, stopped him and put him in a police cruiser until the bank employee tells the cops this was not the man who robbed the bank.

Another patrol cop, who is patrolling in the Burton Heights area, says that there is a lot of drug dealing happening in the parking lots along South Division. This cops sees a low-level dealer, who runs and the cops tries to catch him on foot. The episode then jumps back to the person who barricaded himself inside a home. 

The GRPD has more than a dozen cops there when the man finally comes downstairs and gives himself up. A GRPD cop, who is speaking to the camera, then says that normally someone like this would be taken to the Kent County Jail. However, with the new Mental Health Response Team, they work to provide other resources to address some short term needs. No sooner does the cop tell viewers this, he then admits that the man who was having a mental health crisis is going to the jail. The GRPD cop (Officer Howard) who is saying all of this, is the same cop that many activists have ID’d as a cop who often instigates harassment of people involved in social justice work, which I wrote about recently.

The episode cuts back to the bank robbery, where they now suspect a “homeless guy.” The cops find the guy, who was staying at a local hotel, and they arrested him immediately at gun point. 

Now we are back to the drug dealer suspect. The cops have now brought in police dogs and are using their recently purchased drones to find the suspect. Using live drone footage, they found the suspect who is a Black male. The cops talk with him briefly, tell him he is going to jail, then tells the camera that they try to convince these people that they need to, “change their lifestyles.” 

Back at GRPD headquarters, the Deputy Chief of Police informs the patrol squad that his son and daughter are going to do a ride-along with the patrol officers. For the next several minutes, the TV show producers try to humanize the cops, where the children of the Deputy Chief of Police are making light of their father also on patrol. 

The cops then chase a suspect with a drug warrant, someone who is in a car and trying to get away from the GRPD. The cops throw a tire spike tool on the road, which will deflate car tires, thus enabling them to capture the suspect.

The episode switches to another call, where a late night party is in progress in Grand Rapids. Someone was shot near the Agave bar and the cops show up on the scene. The episode cuts back to the high speed chase. The tire finally deflates and the driver pulls over and is apprehended. This scene comes to a close with both of the Deputy Chief of Police’s kids arriving on the scene and talking about how much they enjoyed the ride-along.

Back to the Agave bar shooting and the Deputy Chief of Police says that some communities feel marginalized by the cops, but that they try to build relationships with them. The crowd outside the bar grows and people begin taunting the cops, when Chief Winstrom shows up. Several GRPD cops then praise Winstrom, with one cop saying, “everybody loves him.” 

The episode ends with the daughter of the Deputy Chief of Police showing up in uniform as an intern, where Winstrom arrives to welcome the new recruit.

From a production perspective, this episode was all over the place, with no real story line coherence. However, it seems like they were attempting to get viewers to see cops as regular people and to show how “risky” it is to be a GRPD cop. However, in every instance in this episode, the GRPD was always heavily armed, with lots of cops showing up in each scene, and often using physical force when dealing with suspects.In each case the GRPD approached people at gun point, despite the fact that none of them had a weapon on them. 

Episode eight demonstrated how highly scripted this TV series  about the GRPD has been. This was the last episode in the series and the GRPD clearly wanted to craft a narrative that shows how much they care about the community and how dangerous their jobs are. 

Having watched and deconstructed all eight of the scripted episodes, the GRPD rarely prevents violence from happening, often escalates violent situations, doesn’t demonstrate any accountability and disproportionately targets Black and Brown residents in neighborhoods that have been disinvested. 

For all the hype that this show received from local news media, the All Access PD Grand Rapids show did nothing to improve their image or their standing in communities of color. The show also completely avoided addressing how the GRPD engages in a variety of repressive tactics when dealing with organizations and community groups that are demanding justice.