Private security patrols added to weekend nights in downtown Grand Rapids after homicide
GRAND RAPIDS, MI June 25 2022– Private security guards have been hired to walk the city center streets and act as additional eyes for police.
The initiative comes a little over two weeks after a man was killed and three others injured in a downtown shooting.
Bill Kirk, spokesperson for Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. (DGRI), told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press the organization earlier this month contracted with a private security firm to have guards patrol downtown every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening through July 16.
DGRI is a nonprofit agency that administers the special assessment funds collected by the Downtown Improvement District. Because the contract period was limited, Kirk said the new, $15,000 security contract didn’t need to go before the city’s Downtown Development Authority.
The four uniformed guards assigned to each night will not intervene in conflicts, Kirk said. Instead, they will act as an additional security presence, offer assistance and report any incidents to police. They will not be armed.
“They’ll just be out walking, looking at what’s going on most nights and coordinating with the city and GRPD on anything they see,” Kirk said. “But as far as what people can expect to see: security folks on the street – not a big presence – just, again, a supplemental piece of what the city’s doing citywide.”
Kirk said the security guards were hired in part as a response to the June 5 shooting on Pearl Street NW near Monroe Avenue that killed one man and injured three others. The security guard patrols began June 9.
In another recent incident, a man was shot Sunday, June 19, near Heartside Park in downtown, according to WOOD TV-8. Police officials told the news station he is expected to survive.
Despite these two recent shootings, Kirk said downtown remains safe.
“Downtown remains a safe place for anyone to visit or for residents to live or for businesses to operate,” Kirk said. “Certainly, there’s been some unfortunate incidents recently, but overall downtown is a very safe environment. We’re happy about that and will continue to work with partners to maintain that.”
The security guards are also part of a larger effort to bolster public safety throughout the city, Kirk said.
Some of those measures were outlined Tuesday, June 21, by Deputy City Manager Kate Berens. Specific to downtown, she mentioned mobile surveillance cameras deployed in the city center, roaming night security at downtown parks starting June 27 and the private security hired by DGRI.
“We now have private security supplementing some of the work downtown, particularly in the late night hours to help add to that feeling of security and able to get information to the police department as needed,” Berens told the city’s Public Safety Committee.
Police Chief Eric Winstrom on Tuesday said the city has seen nearly double the number of homicides compared year-to-date to 2021, with 11 so far this year and six this time last year.
Since Tuesday, this year’s homicide count has grown to 13 after two men were shot dead early Thursday morning on the city’s Southeast Side.
Three of the homicides this year, including the June 5 slaying, occurred downtown, according to city crime mapping data.
Even including the latest homicides, the city remains below the 17 homicides recorded year-to-date in 2020. At 38 killings by year-end, 2020 had the highest amount of fatal violence in the city’s history.
