The GRPD will get $75.4 million in the proposed FY2027 budget, but there is a public hearing if you want to proposed community care over cops

Yesterday’s post was about the rally and demands that students in Grand Rapids will be making during the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting. They will be demanding that the city adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha has been demanding since January of 2025, along with demanding justice for Da’Quain Johnson who was shot and killed by the GRPD in February.

Besides the student demands the City of Grand Rapids will be holding a public hearing during the commission meeting on Tuesday night (May 12th) to discuss the FY2027 City Budget. According to a late April announcement from City Manager Mark Washington, the FY2027 budget proposal is for $785.4 million.

People will have an opportunity to weigh in on the budget during this meeting, even though holding one public hearing on this matter is a pitiful display of public engagement and what people should be demanding is a full blown participatory budgeting process that would essentially allow for a full year of discussion, debate and development of a budget that would truly meet the public’s needs.

However, since nothing like this will happen any time soon and since people will already be attending the meeting to demand sanctuary policies and justice for Da’Quain Johnson we can be focusing in on the following budget items:

• $75.4 million for Police, including $1.3 million allocated for 10 police officers that were added in FY26 in anticipation of increased state revenue for public safety.
• $2.9 million for Oversight and Public Accountability – $1.7 million of this is for Axon contract including body cameras; $400,000 will need to be programmed for crime prevention efforts based on enhanced state revenue for public safety.
• $13.5 million for 61st District Court.
• $56.6 million for Economic Prosperity and Affordability of which $36.8 million is for corridor improvement districts and special authorities.

Now, in recent years there have been attempts to Defund the GRPD, especially since

2020 when there was a national call by the Movement for Black Lives to Defund the Police and a local campaign called Defund the GRPD. On June 26, 2020, Defund the GRPD held its first Press Conference, where they announced clear demands for defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department. After generating thousands of letters in support of reducing the GRPD budget there was some support at the City Commission level to move in that direction. July 8, 2020 – After weeks of pressure from community groups to Defund the GRPD, 3 City Commissioners were set to propose defunding the GRPD to the 32% City Charter mandated minimum. However, the City Manager and the City Attorney stepped in and prevent such a vote, making the claim that the City Commission did not have the legal authority to do so. City Manager Mark Washington did say that they would revisit possible reduction in GRPD funding later that year.

Defund the GRPD did a lot of organizing around the FY2022 City Budget proposal in April/May of 2021, which involved education on the budget, mobilizing people to come to the public hearing on the budget, sending electronic messages to Grand Rapids City Officials, organizing a demonstration with Justice for Black Lives to draw attention to continued police repression in Grand Rapids, and putting out their own list of demands for the 2022 Grand Rapids City Budget. Those demands were completely ignored by Grand Rapids City officials.

Why we need to reduce funding for cops and the prison industrial complex in Grand Rapids

For me and for many people I organize with, abolishing the police and the Prison Industrial Complex is the goal. However, I recognize that there isn’t sufficient support for that to happen right now, but we can focus on reducing the amount of taxpayer dollars going to the GRPD and the court system in Grand Rapids. Here are some talking points that people can use at the City Commission’s public hearing on the city budget.

• The GRPD does not prevent most crimes and they do not promote public safety. From my own news monitoring work from 2024 and 2025 the majority of news stories involving public safety showed that the GRPD showed up after a crime has been committed. In my 12 months local news study in 2024, out of 673 stories that centered around crime, there were only 11 stories about the GRPD actually preventing crime. In my 6 months local news study from 2025, I found that out of 433 stories that were about the GRPD, the courts or public safety matters, only once was there a story where the GRPD prevented a crime or violence.
• We know that the communities that invest in meeting the needs of the people who live there, that the need for cops is significantly reduced. For example, if the GRPD Budget was reduced by $5 million, which would still give them $70.4 million, that would mean $5 million could be redirected on housing needs. For example, $5 million could provide enough money to cover the cost of rent for 277 people for a year (for those who pay $1500 a month in rent). In addition, $5 million could provide 100 families the opportunity to put a deposit of $50,000 towards a new home.
• The $2.9 million for the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability is a joke. There has been no evidence that this department in the City of Grand Rapids has done anything to hold the GRPD accountable. $2.9 million could cover rent ($1500 a month) for an entire year for 161 households.
• The $13.5 million for 61st District Court is also problematic, since most of the court rulings negatively impact BIPOC people. Also, most of the people in the Kent County Jail are in for non-Violent offenses, which is not only unnecessary, but only increases the chances of those who remain incarcerated to fall further into poverty. For more data on the Prison Industrial Complex in Grand Rapids/Kent County go here.

Now if, we added the proposed amount for the GRPD, the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability, the 61st District Court and the Economic Prosperity and Affordability of which $36.8 million is for corridor improvement districts and special authorities, which is essentially for businesses and not for the most economically vulnerable communities, that would amount to $128.6 million. Imagine if this amount of money was re-directed to meet real community needs like housing, transportation, child care, education and health care. We need to stop funding carceral violence and the cops and we need to stop funding developers and business interests and start supporting BIPOC and working class families.