Members of the Grand Rapids City Commission on Tuesday addressed mounting community outrage regarding the city’s approach to two hot-button law enforcement topics.

Local unrest surrounding federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the use of Flock automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras has crescendoed into repeated appeals for action from city leaders. Demonstrators continue to demand the approval of six sanctuary policies while also petitioning for the removal of Flock cameras from the city.

Though many activists claim Flock cameras are used in immigration enforcement, both the Grand Rapids Police Department and Flock denied such claims while presenting to the Public Safety Commission last month. They each specified that Grand Rapids does not participate in federal immigration enforcement and that use of Flock cameras is audited for misuse.

Mayor David LaGrand has repeatedly said publicly that the city does not cooperate with federal ICE activity and that Flock is not used in immigration enforcement. Despite this, six community members who gave public comment during Tuesday’s City Commission meeting mentioned either Flock or ICE in their remarks.

Replace Flock?

Mayor David LaGrand said Tuesday the city would consider whether to replace Flock as its surveillance provider, a move which he said is part of internal discussions among city leaders.

“I want to point out that our vendor conversation is of course ongoing and the question of whether we have another vendor for license plate reading work in the future is something that we will have an ongoing conversation about,” he said. “I don’t think the courts have yet said that safe Flock technology is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, but that doesn’t mean that the city can’t decide that there are reasonable limits on the things the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect.”

Many major cities have already switched to Axon cameras in the wake of national anti-Flock protests, despite the fact that the two cameras perform similar functions, according to Newsweek. Axon already provides body cameras for the Grand Rapids Police Department along with tasers and virtual reality training tools.

LaGrand closed the Committee of the Whole meeting by reading a prepared statement which addressed Flock among other community concerns. He reiterated in that statement that Flock had been placed under the city’s surveillance policy, which incorporates Flock cameras under the same audit and reporting rules that apply to other city surveillance technologies.

“Any surveillance raises the risk of misuse, over surveillance or information being shared too broadly,” LaGrand said. “In the past two weeks, I and we have engaged in conversations with advocates and experts and I have argued that the first step in addressing concerns is to place license plate readers under the city surveillance policy.”

“In the coming months, I hope we’ll craft a clear policy limiting the sharing of license plate information and explore alternatives to the current vendor,” LaGrand added. “Grand Rapids is a city for everyone. Everyone deserves to feel loved, belonging and safety.”

The Grand Rapids Police Department released its Flock accountability portal Tuesday, showcasing “success stories” of Flock’s use in the community and data on how they are used. That page is run through Flock’s own website.

LaGrand Proclaims Immigrant Welcome Week

Tuesday’s meetings included several nods to local anti-ICE sentiment, including LaGrand’s proclamation acknowledging Welcoming Week during the Committee of the Whole meeting. That annual recognition “celebrates the work in communities to become welcoming places for all, including immigrants.” 

LaGrand said the proclamation applies to all city residents, regardless of their immigration status.

“How we know that people in Grand Rapids are entitled to that is if they are residents,” he said. “We don’t have passports in Grand Rapids and we don’t have citizenship requirements, we have residency. Everyone who is a resident of our city is part of our welcoming vision.”

The proclamation also included language speaking out against “all forms of othering that threaten our collective health, wellbeing and prosperity,” and acknowledged ways the city partnered with immigrant and refugee advocacy groups to “reduce barriers to integration.” The proclamation is issued in partnership with Welcoming America, a national nonprofit which generated $3 million in contributions in 2024 and paid just four employees a combined total of $566,239 that year.

City Manager Mark Washington later spoke on the proclamation in his closing comments during the City Commission meeting, saying that the announcement will help Grand Rapids continue to grow. 

“It’s not going to be easy, we’re going to go through growing pains, we’re going to go through the challenges of a growing community, whether its public safety, economic development, inclusion for everyone, but we have to be able to continue to rise to this challenge,” he said. “We’re not going to get through it just blaming each other all the time and politically scapegoating.”

Clerk Antsy Over Trump Order

City Clerk Joel Hondorp during the Committee of the Whole meeting also addressed a Trump administration executive order which seeks to hold election officials accountable for ballots that are given to non-citizens, even if those individuals self-report as U.S. citizens. He said the city would monitor ongoing legal proceedings around the measure to determine whether it will impact the coming November election.

Hondorp expressed concern with how the order could be applied to local elections by citing an example of an Ann Arbor student from China who claimed to be a U.S. citizen for the purposes of voting in 2024.

“It might not even be something that I did, but if I sent a ballot to someone who’s not supposed to get a ballot, because the state does automatic registration – I didn’t register that person,” Hondorp said. “How am I as the clerk supposed to know that, because you’re self-declaring that you’re over 18 and that you’re a U.S. citizen?”

“That’s got clerks a little antsy right now,” he added.

Flock and ICE Protests Continue

The commission’s actions come ahead of several planned rallies to push back against both Flock and ICE enforcement in the city.

Several local anti-ICE groups are joining to plan a “No Kings-style,” anti-ICE protest. Among the organizers is Kent County Indivisible, a group with ties to the Open Society and other Democrat-backed groups.

The local Democratic Socialists Association had also called for mass anti-Flock testimonies at Tuesday’s commission meeting, though turnout appeared thin. Organizers encouraged city residents to testify against Flock cameras as part of an effort to “deflock” the city.

Grand Rapids’ DSA had also previously called for an anti-Flock rally ahead of the previous City Commission meeting. That event involved singing and waving signs at passing traffic in Calder Plaza and hosted about 25 attendees.