Oversight & Public Accountability
Our Mission
Through targeted change, accountability, restorative justice, empowerment, and engagement, OPA helps create and improve just outcomes and respectful relationships between public safety and the community.
Our Vision
Grand Rapids will be nationally recognized as a place where public safety and justice systems deliver fair outcomes and maintain healed relationships with the community.
About Us
The Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA) was established in 2019 by City Manager, Mark Washington, to serve as an independent liaison between the community and the City of Grand Rapids’ public safety departments. Our mission is simple yet powerful: to create and improve just outcomes and respectful relationships between public safety and the community through transparency, accountability, restorative justice, empowerment, and engagement.
OPA was born out of a community-driven call for greater accountability and transparency in policing and fire services. OPA is more than an oversight office; it is a commitment to justice, equity, and trust. Guided by our core values—Transparency, Responsibility, Unity, Equity, and Justice (T.R.U.E. Justice)—we work every day to ensure that all people in Grand Rapids feel safe and are safe at all times.
We strive to:
- Increase transparency and accountability in public safety operations.
- Embed equity into policies and practices to eliminate systemic disparities.
- Foster trust and healing through restorative justice initiatives.
- Empower and engage residents by elevating community voice in public safety decisions.
Through innovative programs like Operation Fresh Start, Civil Rights Youth Academy, Know Your Rights, and Community Informed Training, we partner with residents, public safety professionals, and stakeholders to reimagine policing and build bridges to trust.
Our vision is bold: Grand Rapids will be nationally recognized as a place where public safety and justice systems deliver fair outcomes and maintain healed relationships with the community.
Our Initiatives
Clean Slate Expungement Program
Project Clean Slate is a City initiative designed to help residents get their criminal records expunged in order to gain access to employment, housing, and educational opportunities.
Community Informed Training
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.
Cure Violence
Cure Violence is an evidence-based violence reduction and intervention program that approaches violence with the understanding that violence is an epidemic process that can be stopped using the same health strategies employed to fight epidemics.
Know Your Rights Program Campaign
Knowing your rights can help you to protect yourself and your community. OPA offers "Know Your Rights" workshops to equip Grand Rapidians with the knowledge they need to react safely when those rights are violated by the City's public safety Departments.
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