Grand Rapids Office of Oversight and Public Accountability has a new portal to promote more accountability???

In a recent MLive article Bandon Davis, managing director of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA), stated, “As an office created in partnership with the community in 2019, OPA has always been committed to making public safety oversight transparent, accessible and responsive.”

Davis went on to say, “This new portal strengthens that commitment by bringing multiple pathways into one clear front door. Whether a resident wants to file a complaint, request a workshop, seek expungement assistance or offer a compliment, they can now do it in a way that is simple, consistent and easy to navigate.”

First of all it is important to note that the local media pretty much just used the Press Release from the OPA, without any new information or questions on how the new online portal benefits the community.

I also think it is important to point out that since the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability was created in 2019, they haven’t really done anything to hold the GRPD accountable, like the multiple times the GRPD has killed civilians in Grand Rapids in recent years, dozens of known assaults on civilians, or the numerous times that the GRPD has engaged in repressive tactics against activists and organizers in the city. After seven years one would think that they might actually hold the GRPD accountable in some fashion. Honestly though, it was never designed to do that kind of work.

As for the new portal, you can access it by going to this link. https://grandrapidsopa.siviltech.com/  There are six different categories:

• Compliment Form
• Complaint Form
• Expungement Fair
• Appeal Form
• CIT Request Form
• Know Your Rights Workshop Request Form

So, information on the Expungement Fair is someone useful, but most of these options are not going to lead to any real accountability of the GRPD.

The Compliment Form will most like be filled out by people are already police apologists. You can find these people on social media all the time, either as individuals or groups like iCI Nation or Voice for the Badge.

The CIT Request Form link states, “Community Informed Law Enforcement Training (CIT) is a joint initiative between Grand Rapids’ Office of Oversight and Public Accountability and the Grand Rapids’ public safety departments that allows the community to submit proposals for trainings it would like public safety to participate in.” Are we honestly supposed to believe that the GRPD is going to participate in any sort of training that the public wants them to take, especially trainings that would challenge the very nature of policing itself? Maybe we can do what Mayor LaGrand suggests and do a ride along with the GRPD so we can see the city through their eyes.

Then there is the Know Your Rights Workshop Request Form where people/orgs can submit requests for the OPA to tell them about their rights. People would be better off going to the ACLU for such trainings or another grassroots group that is not an extension of the GRPD, like the OPA is.

Then there is the Complaint Form, where people can submit complaints about the GRPD. Just to be clear these complaints are reviewed internally, meaning cops reviewing complaints about cops. Not to worry, there is an Appeal Form link, which allows you to appeal the outcome of a complaint. However, here you are once again sending your complaint to another part of the GRPD, the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU), thus we are to believe that police are going to police themselves.

Several decades ago I filed formal complaints on the GRPD, when there was no Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. I got no where and it all essentially came down to my word against the cop’s word. The only thing that seems to have changed is that the OPA facilitates complaints, but the GRPD still has the final say.

The anti-racism writer Paul Kivel calls groups like the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability buffer organizations, since they ultimately are protecting the GRPD and the City of Grand Rapids from a growing public that is angry at and disillusioned by the Grand Rapids Police Department. Not only does the OPA acts as a buffer for the GRPD, they function to re-direct people away from a structural critique of the GRPD, thus controlling the public that wants to change how we can actually have real public safety.