GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The proposal by Kent County leaders to spend $500,000 in federal coronavirus aid dollars on gunfire detection technology in Grand Rapids might not be allowed under federal regulations.
The county’s legal team is currently weighing if the use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act dollars on the proposed ShotSpotter program in the city can be legally done under the act, county officials told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press on Monday, Oct. 26.
City officials have discussed the ShotSpotter technology as a way to reduce the response time for incidents of violence.
Part of the hang-up is whether CARES Act funds can be used to benefit only one police department in the county and not the entire community, said Kent County spokesperson Lori Latham.
“They’re still doing some investigation into whether (ShotSpotter) would even fit into the criteria for CARES Act money,” Latham said.
Latham said an opinion from the legal team is expected in the next week or so.
County officials have previously said the uptick in violence in the city this year can be attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, efforts toward violence prevention and reduction is another facet of pandemic recovery allowable under the CARES Act, Latham said.
A recent allocation by the county of $500,000 in CARES Act dollars toward violence prevention and reduction grants cleared the county’s legal team.
The county is one of only four in Michigan that were eligible for CARES Act dollars because of their population sizes. Kent County received $114.6 million.
The move to allocate $500,000 so the city could develop a ShotSpotter program evolved out of those discussions on coronavirus dollars and violence in the city.
County Commissioner Robert Womack, who represents a portion of the city’s Southeast Side, spearheaded the ShotSpotter proposal.
The Kent County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved allocating funding for it at their Thursday, Oct. 22, meeting.
Related: Kent County puts $500K in federal coronavirus funds toward proposed ShotSpotter in Grand Rapids
County officials previously called the allocation a placeholder, saying that if Grand Rapids decided against the project the funds would revert to other violence prevention measures. The question of whether it was allowed under the act was not previously brought up, but Latham said the county’s legal team has been working on the question since it was proposed.
Latham said the county board’s allocation should be seen as setting aside the funds for use should the legal team clear it and Grand Rapids leaders decide to move forward on the project. No funds, she said, were directly allocated to Grand Rapids.
The earlier approval allows the funds to be freed up after the legal go-ahead, as opposed to waiting for commission approval later on, she said. The deadline to use CARES Act dollars is tight, with the funds expiring Dec. 30.
Grand Rapids city leaders have not signed off yet on moving forward with the ShotSpotter program.
If implemented, ShotSpotter would allow Grand Rapids police to detect, locate and respond to gunfire detected by an array of acoustic sensors, police officials previously said. The system can send data to police including a precise location on a map, number of rounds fired and type of gunfire.
The technology would allow faster response times to incidents of violence. The sensors would likely be deployed throughout a 3-square-mile area of the city where gunfire tends to occur.
If city leaders move forward, the county’s allocation would fund the project’s first two years, and then Grand Rapids would pay an estimated $140,000 for the third year of the project.
Grand Rapids police officials are slated to brief the city’s Public Safety Committee on the proposed ShotSpotter system at the committee’s 3 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Grand Rapids leaders put off moving forward on the project in 2015. At the time, some expressed the money would be better spent on more officers.
Police and city officials began considering it again in late 2019. Recently, the Grand Rapids Police Department vowed to re-evaluate its use as part of their three-year strategic plan released in September.
As someone who has been shot, ShotSpotter is personal to Womack.
Womack said when he was shot in the arm years ago, he remembers hearing the conversations of bystanders punting back and forth the responsibility of who should call police to alert them of the shooting.
He remembers pleading for someone to call.
Every delay, be it seconds or minutes, in getting someone help after they are shot can be the difference between life and death, he said.
With a ShotSpotter, people wouldn’t need to hope a “Good Samaritan” is nearby to call emergency officials…
Read More: Kent County getting legal opinion on using coronavirus funds to pay for