GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Officials have released new information about the Grand Rapids Police Department's "Operation DICE." It's all part of the plan by GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom to crack down on violent crime.
The operation looks at data where the crime rate is higher than other parts of the city. Operation DICE has already began in areas like Burton Heights, Heartside and Martin Luther King Jr and Eastern.
Operation DICE stands for Date Informed Community Engagement program and is driven by crime patterns.
The goal is to reduce gun crimes by addressing prostitution and drug activity around crime attractor locations like liquor and convenience stores, restaurants, bars and hotels. Chief Winstrom said this operation is a result of a police and community partnership to try and solve crimes in a specific area.
"Enforcing the law against people profiting from the illegal sale of drugs is appropriate and effective," said Winstrom during a presentation Tuesday morning. "We began the enforcement portion of this operation this morning at 10 a.m. As I speak, we are moving to arrest ten drug dealers who have been in this neighborhood, each of which we have already obtained warrants for I anticipate seeing an immediate drop in criminal activity."
A social media post describing Operation DICE over the weekend got a lot of attention and spurred questions.
Saturday's storms forced the Grand Rapids Police Department to cancel their plan.
Over the weekend, the Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association shared a Facebook post from their GRPD Area Captain, saying the following:
"Greetings, I want to let you know about an operation we will be doing on Saturday night from 8pm to 3am the following morning. Operation DICE. The goal of the operation is to reduce street-level gun crime by addressing prostitution and drug activity around crime attractor locations within the Garfield Park Neighborhood and Burton Heights Business District. Crime attractor locations include liquor/convenience stores, restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. The operation will include uniformed and plainclothes law enforcement personnel. Please fell free to forward this information to area residents and businesses in the area. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me."
Willie Patterson, Director of Community Engagement and Advocacy at Linc Up explained the day before Chief Winstrom's press conference that not everyone who might be going to these places are criminals, and that the same neighborhoods are continually in the spotlight.
"We do need policing in our area, but not over-policing," said Patterson, "where people who are just living their lives are targeted or profiled."
The city said part of Operation DICE also includes listening invents, neighborhood canvassing and working with community stakeholders for its limited area of engagement related to Saturday’s pilot operation. The city confirmed that GRPD reached out to the Burton Heights Business Association and the Garfield Park Neighborhood Association, and knocked on over 543 residences.
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