GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Gun violence in the city spiked over the summer and GRPD's crime map shows how prevalent it was in certain parts of the city.
Sgt. John Wittkowski said the pin map details exactly where and what time a shooting occurred, dating as far back as several months. It’s a tool the police use to be transparent with the community.
“The more the community knows about what is going on in their neighborhood the better they are at dealing with those issues and those problems,” said Sgt. Wittkowski during an interview on Thursday. “Now granted much of this information is reactionary. But, if you notice for example a larceny from an automobile pattern going on in your neighborhood, you can band together with other neighbors, communicate with the police department to understand OK when exactly is this happening [and] what time."
He said the same steps can be taken with gun violence. He hopes the community will use the tool to communicate with them and come up with a plan to take preventive measures to combat and reduce the shootings.
“This falls directly in line with our strategic plan,” Sgt. Wittkowski said. “But it goes into community engagement, transparency, developing relationships, building bridges, things like that that will again help us to not only better serve the community, but certainly provide additional and more information to the community.”
